The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was distributed this week. I have been a subscriber to SI for years, starting as a teenager when my brother gave me a gift subscription. I have seen the swimsuit issue grow from a few pages as a feature to get us through the winter doldrums; now it is a separate issue, 228 pages worth, with 19 models and special features with players' wives, Danica Patrick, and Will Ferrell (Will Ferrell?).
I don't think of myself as particularly prudish, though I may be by today's standards. I enjoy looking at an attractive woman, but I don't think 12-year-olds should show off their cleavage. I have read Playboy without being shocked, but I do wonder what parents think of their children's attire at the mall.
So I'm not offended by the SI swimsuit issue, I'm not going to write in to cancel my subscription. But I do wonder about the priorities of this once-great magazine.
I know the issue is financially successful, which will ensure its release in perpetuity. But this is a publication that has lost two great columnists, Steve Rushin and Rick Reilly, in the past year. Perhaps because it is assumed that everyone watches all the big events, game coverage has declined. The profiles seem a bit blander than before, though some are still well-written and insightful. About half the magazine is now the short features in the front, which are cute, but often don't have much to do with sports.
Yet they can spend untold amounts of time and promotion around an issue which has nothing, photo of La La Vazquez (fiancee of Carmelo Anthony) besides, sports-related to it. I would like to see SI remember what it is supposed to be about, the in-depth coverage of sports. It is still a solid effort each week, but it could be better, and all the pictures of Anne V or Irina Shayk aren't going to do anything to fix that.
I don't think of myself as particularly prudish, though I may be by today's standards. I enjoy looking at an attractive woman, but I don't think 12-year-olds should show off their cleavage. I have read Playboy without being shocked, but I do wonder what parents think of their children's attire at the mall.
So I'm not offended by the SI swimsuit issue, I'm not going to write in to cancel my subscription. But I do wonder about the priorities of this once-great magazine.
I know the issue is financially successful, which will ensure its release in perpetuity. But this is a publication that has lost two great columnists, Steve Rushin and Rick Reilly, in the past year. Perhaps because it is assumed that everyone watches all the big events, game coverage has declined. The profiles seem a bit blander than before, though some are still well-written and insightful. About half the magazine is now the short features in the front, which are cute, but often don't have much to do with sports.
Yet they can spend untold amounts of time and promotion around an issue which has nothing, photo of La La Vazquez (fiancee of Carmelo Anthony) besides, sports-related to it. I would like to see SI remember what it is supposed to be about, the in-depth coverage of sports. It is still a solid effort each week, but it could be better, and all the pictures of Anne V or Irina Shayk aren't going to do anything to fix that.
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