The article, which Playboy said was part of an April Fool's Day prank and was meant to be satirical, gave step-by-step instructions for wife beating. It was accompanied by photos of a uniformed man beating a woman with a nightstick and grabbing her by the hair. "In the last picture, she appears to be offering the nightstick back to her aggressor for more punishment," according to The New York Times.
"You have decided to beat her up, then do it," the article reads. It then urges the husband to "hit hard and steady" and says that afterward, "you will notice that the wife sometimes wants to be beaten again."
Last week, 14 Romanian women's organizations issued a protest and released a statement of condemnation. The Associated Press reported that the protest has since been supported by 51 international organizations, which have urged the Romanian Parliament to speed up the adoption of legislation against domestic and sexual violence.
Playboy Enterprises apologized for the article, saying in a statement that it "flies in the face of Playboy's 46-year history of strongly opposing any visual or editorial depiction of violence toward women."
