No Other Problems To Worry About?

One of the tie-wearers recruited me off the sports section to comment on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition - presumably because of my familiarity with sports publications and not my expertise on the effects of sea spray on stretched Lycra.

Well, there’s no Kathy Ireland, Stephanie Seymour or Elle Macpherson. This makes me wonder if there’s been another labor dispute I haven’t heard of. “Super Models Fail to Reach Terms, Walk Off Beach.” So, some veterans were absent. Still, I thought Ashley showed athletic flexibility in her cotton-Lycra miniskirt suit (by Keiko, $132).

I’ll admit that, philosophically, it’s largely indefensible that a respected sporting publication turns over 42 pages to the display of women’s swimsuits. Fact is, I have studied this edition for 20 years and have never purchased a women’s swimsuit.

But if this tame topic serves as even a minor social flashpoint, then the world must be short on serious controversy. Sadly, it simply seems another example of our indefatigable quest for something by which we can be offended; another example of how we’ve grown into groups that are united and defined by our common aggravations.

Would you want your daughter to read this magazine? Well, it contains five stories on women athletes. Would you want your daughter to be one of those models? I want her to be fit and healthy and capable of making her own decisions. And if she chooses to be “exploited” by making giant gobs of money for standing on beautiful beaches, well, I guess that would be her prerogative.

Surely, any mild titillation triggered by the magazine has to be less offensive than that parade of irredeemably tawdry exhibitionists who dissect their dysfunctional lives on TV talk shows each afternoon, and less vulgar than the acts of misogyny that occur on MTV every 12.4 seconds.

So, to those who complain about the issue, I ask: Does someone have a gun at your temple? Put it down. Move on. Don’t buy it, and teach those youths in your sphere of influence to be capable of making responsible decisions about their leisure reading material.

It just seems to me - as far as February harbingers of spring go - the swimsuit edition is a more aesthetically acceptable tradition than waiting beside a Pennsylvania pothole for the appearance of some rodent (fur ensemble by Pete’s of Punxsutawney, $1.49).

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Pro-swimsuit issue Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. For opposing view; See headline: SI should strip itself of swimsuit issue

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From Both Sides