SEX FACTOR
Skinny dipping is a generally accepted exception. A justifiable risk. But from a practical point of view, sex and nudity in the great outdoors tends to flirt with natural lust-busters such as ticks, horseflies, poison ivy and stinging nettles. Being unprotected in the outdoors is serious business, and that isn’t merely a reference to condoms. However, as women continue to find the freedom of the hills and develop skills that put them on par in former male bastions of adventure, the outdoors market seems to be wrestling with the genuine interests of its market and the time-proven profit of exploiting bare flesh. Does sex and nudity have a place in the outdoor markets, where anglers have tended to be satisfied by the movements of chironomid nymphs and skiers have found their ecstasy in virgin powder? Apparently it does. Outside magazine’s cover has featured the “Sex & Sin Issue” in October and then took another bold step with a nude female climber on the latest issue. When asked what she thought of the naked woman featured on Outside’s April cover, Spokane climber Stacy Rutledge initially registered little concern. Rutledge, who works at Wild Walls climbing gym, said in the first of two interviews that she hadn’t seen the photos, but she said the art of a nude climber combined with the physical beauty of climbers pursuing their sport sounded appealing. Rutledge noted a calendar called “Stone Nudes,” which features photos of men and women rock climbing with nothing on, except maybe their climbing shoes. “I bought that calendar for my boyfriend,” she said. “I thought it was cool. I don’t like the whole Sports Illustrated swimsuit thing. It’s just a guys-staring-at-it kind of thing. But climbers are a different breed.” Nude women climbers aren’t an issue that riles Rutledge’s sense of virtue. “I get worked up over other things, like safety,” she said. “If I see something wrong I’m likely to go up to somebody and say ‘Excuse me, I don’t know you, but my name is Stacy and I don’t like your anchors.’ ”
Outdoor Life magazine’s March issue takes a different path in featuring a woman on the cover — apparently a first for a magazine that’s been a staple in the reading diet of hunters and anglers for more than a century.
But the woman is not in a camouflage bikini or looking seductive on a bear skin rug in a hunting lodge.
Alisha Rosenbruch-Decker is a real Alaska hunting guide and she’s dressed to kill — using a rifle, that is, for brown bears, mountain goats and bighorn sheep in North America’s most rugged hunting terrain.
“We have certainly honored many different women over the years in the pages of Outdoor Life,” said Todd Smith, Outdoor Life editor-in-chief, listing examples such as sharp-shooter Annie Oakley, fly casting champion Joan Wulff and aviator Amelia Earhart. “But to my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve featured a woman on the cover.
“A lot has changed in the outdoor world in the last 20 years or so. Women are more active as participants and we’re certainly seeing more women as professional guides.”
The stories inside the issue feature five women who conjure up images of competence, not ecstasy. The stories “celebrate these women for who they are,” Smith said.
“Women have proven at every step that they can keep up or, in the case of these women, walk most of us guys into the ground, and I think readers will be fascinated by their stories.”
When the work of 67 field photographers worked its way back to Smith’s New York office, he said he was captivated by the images of women in the elements.
Even when their body curves are obscured by work clothes such as chest waders, flotation vests and camouflage fleece jackets, they are unmistakably female, but nothing near token women.
“Their strength, beauty, wisdom and passion for the outdoors comes through in their faces,” Smith said. “This is who they are. We looked at the photos and said, ‘Whoa!’ We had to share one of these on the cover. It was a no-brainer.”
Bicycling magazine’s January-February issue was labeled “The Sex Issue” with teasers for stories on “Your Hot Body Plan,” “15 Ways Cycling Makes You a Better Lover” and “The Most Erotic Bike Part.”
“We won’t get the final newsstand sales figures for a while, but there’s a genesis for this issue,” said Chris Brienza, the magazine’s publicity director.
“Five or six years ago, a study reported in Bicycling magazine linked male impotence to cycling. In recent years that has pretty much been debunked by various studies, and that got some of our editors talking about how we’ve got to clear the air here.”
The wake of that controversy spawned a new generation of great bicycle saddles, he said, but Bicycling editors wanted to tackle the subject in a more creative way now that the link has generally been exposed as a myth.
“We wanted to do it in a way keeping with our company’s policy of being tasteful and intelligent and in this case, using a little humor, too,” he said. “The editors really tried to have some fun with it. Never once — you be the judge — did they set out to be gratuitous. The ages of the people in the pictures range from 25 to 60 and they’re fairly equally male and female.”
The issue reported the results of the magazine’s online sex quiz for cyclists. “That survey got 3,000 responses in a week,” Brienza said. “Clearly it seemed a topic our readers responded to.”
When called in early February and asked what his customers thought about Bicycling’s Sex Issue, Steve Loveland of Two Wheel Transit in downtown Spokane went to his counter to take a look at the magazine. When he came back to the phone he said, “I guess it’s pretty good. We’re sold out.”
“Ultimately if it makes cycling more fun and gets more people on bikes, that’s the goal,” Brienza said. “Our readership is mature and overwhelmingly college-educated and I think they got what we were trying to do.”
Bicycling’s Sex Issue cover featured a photo of a well-covered triathlete, Lokelani McMichael, who ranks highly on the outdoor sports model of fitness list. In the past year, the Hawaii beauty has been on the cover of Outside, Bicycling and Runners World.
“She walks the walk,” Brienza said. “She’s done the Ironman-Honolulu seven times.”
But sex isn’t likely to be a regular feature of Bicycling’s cover, he said.
“We don’t know whether we’ll do it again. The last time we did a similar issue was 10 years ago.”
Outside magazine, however, is leaving less to the imagination and taking provocative material to the cover more regularly.
Some of the editors who debated the choice for the April cover felt the nude shots went too far, said Hannah McCaughey, Outside’s creative director.
“It’s not nearly as revealing as most of the men’s or women’s magazines out there,” she said. “It’s not lewd or raunchy, but the fact of her being naked was a bit of a controversy here because it’s not something we’ve done before on a cover.”
McCaughey described Outside as an inspirational type of outdoor magazine. “The people we cover are all very real,” she said, noting recent coverage ranging from virtually unknown Iraqi Boy Scouts to cycling master Lance Armstrong.
“As of late, we’ve been trying to show them in their most beautiful light,” elevating real-world outdoor achievers with the same sophisticated photography that pumps up the image of Hollywood types, she said.
Asked if using a nude shot on the cover of an outdoors magazine was risky, she said, “We’re all about risk. We inspire people to take chances and push their limits. Surprise is a big part of our reputation.”
Outside tried to distinguish the Wyoming woman on April’s cover as thing of beauty not a thing of desire, she said.
“Being naked and being outdoors go pretty well together,” McCaughey said. “It’s all part of getting back to nature.
“I think of climbing as a very basic instinct activity. This portrait is simple, pared down and clean. It’s just a person and rock. It’s an ode to climbing, not a distraction from climbing at all.”
Back in Spokane, however, Stacy Rutledge had second thoughts about her initial reaction to Outside featuring a nude female climber on the cover.
“When you first asked me about it, I was imagining that she was climbing naked, and, I mean, I’ve seen that before,” Rutledge said after calling the newspaper back.
“Then I saw the cover and I thought, ‘Oh my god!’ I mean it’s just a naked woman standing by a rock. Why didn’t they use the picture that’s inside, the one of the girl with the beat up hands. Then I’d have said, ‘Right on!’
“But this is just a naked woman by a rock. It’s ridiculous. What does that say about our sport?”