So I was chatting with my friend T.R. Slyder (go visit his awesome blog, Where Awesome Happens) and somehow the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue came up. Oh wait. Brooke Burke came up in conversation as a hot chick and I said I thought she is a little too cutesy for my taste. And he said she was like one of the only models in SI to ever drop his jaw or whatever. Anyway.So I was looking at pictures of other SI swimsuit issue models to try and find an example of one *I* thought was hot in response to his contention about Burke, but suddenly I turned into a total blubbering mess of female hormones and I felt like crying. I wasn't sure why.
I told T.R., very honestly and openly that my feelings were bruised: "I hate that fuckin' magazine."
T.R., being the inquisitive fella he is, took the bait and prodded me, asking how I felt about it in relation to Playboy or Maxim. After some debate, it became apparent that my feelings of insecurity weren't about the objectification of women. I then naturally internalized the negativity and proceeded with the assumption that my negative feelings were about how I feel that I can never live up to the standard of 'beauty' the magazine promotes, but then...THEN....T.R. said, "sexy models don't affect people's perceptions about you any more than any other woman."
Without thinking, I retorted, "They do when I feel like I'm competing with them for someone's attention....I always had a hard time with that with my ex. I felt unloved when he'd look at that stuff. Like I wasn't good enough."
The thunder crashed, the lightning struck, and the lightbulb lit up over my head.
After some more discussing it became glaringly obvious to me that I have absolutely no reason to harbor any kind of resentment toward the sexy model magazines, that this was just one more thing I was mad at JH about. T.R. pointed out that if JH hadn't been neglectful I probably wouldn't have felt that way about him looking at the Swimsuit Issue.
Today when I was looking for the picture for this post I felt no kind of resentment at all.
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PS - T.R., I DEFY you to tell me that the cover picture posted here is not every bit as raunchy and blatantly provocative as the stuff in Maxim. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, just saying it's so.
2 comments:
I accept your defiant challenge (also it was Elsa Benitez that was the SI Model, but we talked about Brooke Burke before that).
I think the diff. between SI's Swimsuit Issue and Maxim is that the protectiveness in the SI pics seems to hint/imply the model asking the viewer, "Wouldn't you like to see more?", or "Don't you wish I'd just pull this all the way down so you could see?" Whereas I think Maxim and the "lad mags" seem to have the models asking the viewer, "Here I am in this sexy pose, wouldn't you like to do X, Y and Z to me?", or "Does this pose make you think of me doing X,Y,Z to you?". Big difference. One says, "I'm physically attractive" the other says, "I'll do whatever you want".
Exhibit A: http://www.hilary.com/images/aguilera.jpg
Exhibit B: http://s3.amazonaws.com/images.nachofoto.com/b-Aggiolina-Karkampoun-412d954b3814.jpeg
Exhibity C: http://i2.iofferphoto.com/img/item/775/015/0/o_Brittany_Murphy_Maxim.jpg
Exhibit D: http://media.photobucket.com/image/maxim%20magazine/jmq1tnk/maxim.jpg
Exhibit E and F are from FHM Magazine, and they show RACHEL RAY licking things: http://images.dailyradar.com/media/uploads/showhype/story_preview/2009/03/02/rachael_ray_s_sexy_photo_spread_for_fhm_magazine.jpg
and F: http://kilburnhall.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/2009-03-02-013_rachael_ray1.jpg
I agree with you about the apparent messages (although Brittany Murphy in the t-shirt was pretty harmless), but I really feel like there's an honesty to the raunchiness that lends more integrity to the so-called lad mags. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that point.
On a totally different note... Rachel Ray? Really? You never cease to amaze me.
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