SI Cover Controversy
Two things about this cover…
… One, she might just be, apparently, she is the latest victim of the “Sports Illustrated Curse” — that rule that states that bad luck follows appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated cover. Or maybe she isn’t. Her event is delayed in time for her injuries to heal up, so who knows?
… Secondly, the recent controversy over this cover puzzles me.
She continued, “Picture this as a way to frame what I’m trying to get at: Picture a male ski racer in a similar pose on the cover of SI, smiling at the camera. Would we see that? How would you react to that picture, verses the picture of Vonn?”
LaVoi takes an academic approach to backing her argument, claiming researchers have shown, over the last 60 years only about four per cent of all SI covers have portrayed women.
But others have answered her claims that women are overtly sexualized on SI compared to men with evidence to the contrary. One writer, Jordan Yerman of NowPublic, points out, of three SI covers featuring Michael Phelps, only one was an action shot. A commented on LaVoi’s blog notes that the cover shot from the 1992 Winter Olympics was an identical snap, only of male skier A.J. Kitt.
My guage is that this issue is there only because of the “over the last 60 years only about four per cent of all SI covers have portrayed women” (that high, huh?) and the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue” factor — and the “sport” of bikini wearing seems to be getting harder.  I suppose there’s a stronger possibility a male skiier on the cover of the magazine would be — … grimacing and gritting their teeth when posed in that position… and your gender roles slide into the picture there of acceptable behavior for a “Bad Boy”…  and note she herself posed for the swimsuit issue — but the issue is this cover itself and only this cover and thinking about these auxilary sports nobody much pays attention to except every four years (except the lack of buzz and ratings seems to suggest we don’t) — Michael Phelps — maybe not.