The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas / Flickr
Sports Illustrated Can't Turn Us into Swimsuit Models
This year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue contains a new feature, a six-page style guide "to help women recreate the looks they see in the issue."
When I told my husband about it, a confused look came over his face. "You mean they are trying to say that ordinary people can look like the models in the Swimsuit Issue?" And then he laughed incredulously. "But no one looks like them!" Not even the models themselves look like that, if we believe what we've seen and heard about retouching.
A reported 18 million women already read the swimsuit issue, and a good number of them read it prescriptively, learning how they need to look to be attractive. As Laura Portwood-Stacer, a visiting assistant professor of media at NYU, told theNew York Times:
Women learn on a daily basis, unconsciously but also consciously, how to carry themselves, how to present themselves in a way that will be deemed acceptable and attractive by others… As such a major cultural institution, it makes sense that the swimsuit edition would be a sort of bible for that kind of learning.
I'd like to think that most grown women would find this guide, called "Secrets of Swimsuit," as patently ridiculous as my husband did. Don't we all know that the "secrets" of Photoshop probably play as big a role in the Swimsuit Issue as extreme exercise and liquid starvation diets do in the Victoria's Secret fashion shows? Don't we know that the images are—in more senses than one—not real?
In her memoir Bossypants, Tina Fey claims that everyone knows Photoshopped images aren't real, but she also acknowledges that the culture of beauty has changed significantly since she was a girl. Back then, "you were either blessed with a beautiful body or not. And if you were not, you could just chill out and learn a trade."
Today, however, "if you're not 'hot' you are expected to work on it until you are… If you don't have a good body, you'd better starve the body you have down to a neutral shape, then bolt on some breast implants, replace your teeth, dye your skin orange, inject your lips, sew on some hair, and call yourself Playmate of the year."
I understand this implicit cultural expectation so well; for years, I struggled to remake what I was in the image of all I thought I should be. As I've written in my new book, Eat With Joy: Redeeming God's Gift of Food, for years,
Auditing America's Political Integrity
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Comments
Grady Walton
There are two competing giants at war with each other in our culture: businesses that pander to our desire for the perfect body and good looks versus the food industry. I think the food industry is winning. (All I need do is look at my not-so-glorious body for proof.) We are indeed an overfed nation. What ever happened to balance and not doing everything to the extreme?
JANET W
Marcy, I was sorely tempted to do just that (turn the magazine over), especially since my 11 year old daughter was standing in line with me -- can I tell you, I just wasn't up to the task that particular day to try to explain to my daughter why it was so wrong (while the man behind me stood listening)? Partly it was because I didn't want to embarrass him and partly because I honestly don't think my innocent daughter would understand -- I didn't know how to tell her why it was wrong & why men would be so transfixed over a woman's body. I kept thinking that I just didn't want to steal her innocence. I want her to believe that the world will judge her, not by the size of her chest or her physical appearance, but by who she is as a human being. It was one of the saddest lessons I learned -- that my sexuality was more important than my morals, wit, intelligence, love, or godliness to half the people I interact with (maybe more).
GARY ROSEBOOM
And might we suggest that it is blasphemy ("the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God ") every time a Christian man knowingly picks up an SI swimsuit issue . . .
Marcy Wollard
I just finished reading a book called Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture http://www.teresatomeo.com/Books-And-Media/ that dealt with this very topic. The author, Teresa Tomeo talked about how women are sold a bill of goods today and think that only the super thin and primped woman is what is beautiful. It is not. It is all an illusion. Even those models don't look like that. Women need to realize that they are daughters of the King and that is what brings real beauty and happiness.
Steph M
Janet - A friend of mine flips them over on the news stand while she's waiting in line. :)
Hannah N.
It's just so pathetic that this was SI's attempt to "appeal" to their female readership. How incredibly unappealing. Meanwhile, if I want to look like the women in the SI Swimsuit issue, I think I'll use Photoshop!
Tim Fall
Your last paragraph had me laughing, Rachel, and I love your statement on blasphemy. Your reference to perfect teeth remind me too of something a dentist friend told me. He sees a major uptick in cosmetic work in a particular demographic of his patients: divorced men in their 40s. He says he also notices that they are losing weight. Apparently this type of physical vanity is not limited to a particular age or sex (but we knew that already!). Cheers, Tim (timfall.wordpress.com)
JANET W
Thank you for NOT posting the cover shot of the recent swimsuit issue -- it borders on pornographic and I was embarrassed to have to stand in the checkout line for 10 minutes with it right next to me with a 50ish man behind me who was riveted. I think the whole thing is so incredibly sad. Sad that men are taught and supported in fixating on women's bodies as commodities to be used. Sad that women buy into this and actualy strive to become such a commodity.
Cheryl Okimoto
Very interesting post, Rachel. I'm firmly in midlife now, and I'm glad that I don't have those issues anymore. Aging isn't what made the biggest difference. My husbands were inadvertently a big player in that. My late husband was the first person whom I remember telling me I was beautiful and it didn't sound like a pickup line. My current husband also says I'm beautiful, but I don't need to hear it as much anymore. (I still don't call myself beautiful, but I know I'm not unattractive. My husband's eyesight is failing so ...) The love and laughter we share almost daily is more enriching than being beautiful. That's not to say that we don't encourage each other to be healthier, but it's about health, not looks. We both think that being as healthy as you can is the right way to treat the bodies that God gave us. Thanks for your thoughtful post.
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