Swimsuit Addition

It's the second week of February and the sports world has entered a lull. The Super Bowl has come and gone. It's still too soon to start talking about spring training. The NBA is preparing to wind down, and March Madness isn't quite here yet.

In the meantime, we're going to find another venue to keep ourselves entertained and learn that man cannot live on sports alone. In the dead of winter, we need something to remind us that warmer times are on the way.

That was the thought that some brilliant Sports Illustrated editor came up with the swimsuit issue in 1964. Since the vast majority of SI's readers are male, they figured, why not cater to that crowd more specifically. The idea is simple: men who like sports probably like women in bikinis. The next logical step would be to have an all sports-car related issue in that blank spot during the MLB All-Star break.

Despite that logic, there has been a small outcry that the magazine is objectifying women. In response to the objections, SI now gives subscribers the option of not receiving the issue. Nevertheless, SI retains a great deal of respect for their professionalism and good taste in how they handle the subject. Anyway, if these people think that the models give an unrealistic image for women to live up to, don't the other 52 issues establish an impossible standard for men to aspire to? Just as Heidi Klum is not the average woman, neither is Lance Armstrong the average man. The magazine simply gives examples of extraordinary human accomplishment, not an expectation of people in general.

Since the first 5-page installment, the swimsuit edition has become more extensive while the swimsuits themselves have grown smaller to the point of almost non-existence. A popular segment of the issue has models with their suits literally painted on.

As always, the photo shoots take place in locations almost as beautiful as the models themselves. More recently, the magazine has also begun to connect more closely with their sports roots by incorporating cheerleaders, female sports-stars, such as tennis players Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova, as well as the wives of some famous male athletes. Some of these male athletes are only famous because they have attractive wives.

I just wonder if the SI cover jinx applies to the swimsuit cover models.