I noticed in my referrer logs some serious heightened interest in people looking for, um, information on Michelle Manhart, the Air Force sergeant who posed for Playboy and that I mentioned in a post over a month ago.
A quick search of Google News reveals that she is in the news again, as the Air Force has ruled on her case (via the AP): Air Force grounds drill sergeant who posed in Playboy:
An Air Force drill sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she said today.Whether that amounts to an honorable discharge, as Michelle Manhart also says, is unclear.
Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy’s February issue, said she got word Friday that she was removed from “extended active duty” and also was told that she was demoted in rank from staff sergeant to senior airman.
[...]
Manhart said that being removed from duty meant that she reverted to her Air National Guard status and that she submitted a “resignation” to the Guard, which she said is pending. Manhart was a member of the Iowa Air National Guard before going on extended active duty.
This is hardly surprising, although one wonders if the brouhaha is really worth it. On the one hand, Manhart had to know what she was getting into, and certainly the likelihood is that she took this move knowing that it would mean the end of her Air Force career (and that may have been one of her goals). On the other, I have to wonder if, given the needs we have in terms of persons serving in the military if some nude pictures really harmed Manhart’s ability to serve. I also wonder if it was worth the time and effort on the part of the Air Force.
In many ways the real irony is that all the attention paid to the issue because of the Air Force investigation made the story far more well known than it otherwise would have been. I initially noticed the story because of the Air Force investigation and am blogging it now because of the results of that investigation. If the Air Force had ignored Manhart’s actions, the story would have had far less exposure (no pun intended).
As such, the thing I find most interesting about this story is that if the main issue about Manhart’s actions is that she is bringing shame on the Air Force, the irony is that the Air Force itself has helped promote her actions. Many of us would never have heard of this story were not for the actions of the Air Force itself.
One thing is for certain, the situation underscores the significance of makeup, lighting and airbrushing in these magazines and hence the utter fantasyland of the whole enterprise (how long before all of this stuff is wholly computer generated?):
The photo on the left is from the widely circulated publicity pics of Manhart posing with her copy of the magazine. The photo on the right is from the spread courtesy The National Ledger (and fret not, the site is safe–sorry to disappoint).
Update: James Joyner comments on the story here.
Sphere: Related Content
February 15th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Gee, I guess anybody can look like a model if enough technology goes into the process.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
On the whole publicity angle, I would never have heard of the whole thing had it not been for PB. (That’s PoliBlog, not peanut butter.)
February 15th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Adolescent fantasies everywhere have been destroyed
February 15th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
What was Michelle Manhart thinking when she posed for those pictures? Of course the Air Force is not going to put up with that type of shenanagin.
Now she’s being removed from active duty?
First of all the Michelle Manhart playboy pictures are not what I would call obscene, in fact they look very nice. But everyone knows how anal the U.S. armed forces are. It was not a smart move. Hopefully she received some decent money from the pictures.
Now of course it is too late to do anything about it. The pictures are all over the Internet. Major image and video dump sites like metacafe and dailymotion have, or did have, the pictures. It was reported that the large adult site http://www.freepornvideos69.com (NSFW) has them too.
Now she’s probably going to get a dishonorable discharge and thrown completely out of the service. Like I said before, I hope that money was worth it.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
[...] Update: The story is updated here including work safe comparison photos. Filed under: US Politics | |Send TrackBack PoliSciFi: A PoliBlog Sideblog » Playboy Seeks the Geek Sector linked with [...] Ok, so first we have the whole Air Force Sergeant bit, and then I open up my Sci Fi Weekly Newsletter e-mail from Sci Fi Channel and I see this on the right-hand column: [...]Michelle Manhart Playboy PHOTOS ! » Right Celebrity linked with [...] And for more of Michelle, check these guys out here and here. [...] [...]
February 15th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Hey, that’s a pretty good looking woman in the photo on the left too. Picky, picky, picky.
But seriously … the ironic thing to me is, at the same time this woman is getting the boot, news reports say that they are granting a greatly increased number of waivers to people with criminal records who are trying to enlist. In 2006, they even granted waivers to 901 felons. So who would you rather serve with, Miss Manhart or some drug dealer who just got out of prison?
February 15th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
[...] See also Say Anything, Gone Hollywood, Pirate’s Cove, and Polyblog. [...]
February 15th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Nick,
My point with the comparison is not to disparage Ms. Manhart, but rather to point our the radical transformation.
There is no way one would see those two pictures and think that they were the same person.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:23 am
Boot her. It’s always worth the trouble. She holds a position of respect and authority over many young men (and women). The last thing they need to be thinking about when they’re being trained not to get shot down/at is “man, those are some nice boobs”. The common problem with this type of thing is that (IMO of course) women don’t put the same weight to their naked body as young men do. We always hear “oh, it’s no big deal…” To an 18 year old young man, it’s a big deal. End of story. Turn the page. My wife renews a subscription every “sweetest day”. I saw the pictures and I’m glad she was demoted.
February 16th, 2007 at 8:33 am
[...] More from Hot Air, Say Anything, OTB Hollywood, Poliblog, Leaning Straight Up, and the already TB'd Right Pundits below. [...]
February 16th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
This to me is an overreaction by the air force, she posed naked for a magazine, wow what a tradegy this is a major embrassment to the us armed forces. Get real she didn’t kill an innocent civilion, wreck a multi million dollar piece of equipment, kill an allied soldier with friendly fire ect..
As from what i read she is not stationed in iraq so she has no direct influence over the soldiers their. As for thinking about a what a pair of nice boobs why do you think the are multiple levels of command so if a private is screwing up the sergeant chews him an new one. You should have more faith in the militarys training methods they train untill the training is burnt into the soldiers brain. Finally she is a very attractive woman that probably just wanted to fell sexy. That aside i find your comment i am glad she got demoted to be annoying. Considering i doubt you ever served under here you probably like i have no clue as to how good a sergeant she actually is. And anyone with the name bigdaddy or any other ego pumping name used by a guy usually drops whatever they post, espically about a subject like this imo.
February 16th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
She is a beautiful woman. What she does in her off hours is her business as long as it is legal. Aren’t we past getting worked up over a naked body? Apparently not.