Sports Illustrated did something new and outrage-inducing this year to get attention for the dying publication’s swimsuit issue. This time around, one of the three covers will feature Leyna Bloom, a biologically male, 27-year-old transgender woman.
This moment heals a lot of pain in the world. We deserve this moment; we have waited millions of years to show up as survivors and be seen as full humans filled with wonder. @SI_Swimsuit #SI2021 pic.twitter.com/ArvYsG1IS2
— Leyna Bloom (@leynabloom) July 19, 2021
I’m sorry to tell Sports Illustrated: This doesn’t entice me to buy its product. However, this is just one of many problems with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The annual issue is awful in many ways and deserves to die.
People can point to the swimsuit issue going woke, and they have valid concerns. Putting the overweight Ashley Graham on the cover promoted an unhealthy body image. Sexualizing a woman in a burkini in the 2019 issue was strange, but at least the Muslim woman was wearing more clothing than the typical models in the publication.
The real problem is that the issue is sexist and degenerate — whether you’re looking at it from a left-wing or a right-wing perspective.
The problem isn’t, as some on the Right such as Newsmax host Greg Kelly argue, that the magazine is going “woke.” The problem isn’t a lack of attractive women. Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman and models such as Kate Upton and Emily Ratajkowski have been on covers in recent years. Sports Illustrated is a sports publication, and this has nothing to do with sports. It’s closer to pornography.
The key to selling a sports magazine should be good sports content. If it wants to promote women, it should highlight the athletic achievements of female athletes — not market them as red meat to men. Neither women nor men are sex objects: They’re human beings.
The publication could do an entire issue each year dedicated to the athletic achievements of female athletes, and the pictures that accompany the articles could have them with their clothes on. Promoting women’s athletics is a good thing for society because playing sports is beneficial for both sexes. Athletes can exercise, learn about teamwork, and learn time management skills in men’s and women’s sports alike.
Sports Illustrated doesn’t care about making society a better place, though. It wants the relevance it once had and is trying to get it by sexualizing different kinds of women — not by respecting women. It’s a weird strategy that probably won’t work. Perhaps if the publication disappears one day, something better will fill the vacuum.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
