On the release of Physique Pictorial, Winter 2018/2019, we asked Art Director Frederick Woodruff a few questions about the issue.

Dennis Bell’s “State of the Archives” editorials are one of my favorite parts of each issue. I read with surprise that this month is the 50th anniversary of being able to legally publish “undraped” photos in PP. The history of the magazine and the studio seem to be one long battle with censorship. Tell me about the current problems The Foundation faces, as well as any you face with your personal work.

Yeah, an alternate reality is materializing online, but it’s colored by old 1950s values. It’s really fucked up. Tumblr’s fun free-spiritedness has been destroyed, and by its biggest enemy, which turned out to have been Tumblr.

And Patreon has recently started censoring its adult content creator’s pledge pages. My site Lurid Digs was contacted last week and told that all images that featured naked male buttocks or any intimation of pubic hair were to be removed immediately.

Facebook and Instagram have become doubly draconian during the past year, censoring images recklessly and randomly. I could be prejudiced but I feel a lot of the censoring falls heavily into the queer art and photo category.

Naturally this has nothing to do with saving the children or “community standards” and everything to do with money. There is a push for corporations to infiltrate deeper into China. And the Chinese don’t like dick.

We found this out the hard way, as our first attempts to print the new Physique Pictorial were nixed as the Chinese could not tolerate a penis in print. Female nudity didn't seem to be a problem, but nude men are verboten (or whatever the Chinese word is for puritanical suppression ) And yes, Bob Mizer fought against censorship continually. He was a key player in freeing up our freedom as adults to view whatever we wanted to view.

But worryingly the battle continues. Two months ago YouTube shut down The Bob Mizer Foundation’s video channel because a three-second shot of a guy's bare ass was featured in one of Bob’s vintage film clips. What few people realize is that big tech farms outsource their enforcement process to places like the Philippines, where conservative Christian employees trawl the net like Carry Nation on a bender. Situations like that are dangerous for a democracy and for homos.