New Sports Illustrated Cover Causes Controversy. Of course it is! The cover of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition more often than not might as well be an advertisement for dental floss and tooth picks with the size of the bathing suits the models usually wear. My anger is not about the girls itty bitty, barely there bikini and the fact that she's practically naked. Could I sport that swimsuit had I a body like hers? Probably not but that's just out of modesty. After having traveled around the world and spent a good deal of time in French Polynesia where no bathing suit is more acceptable than one, I still never conquered my fears of just letting go and embracing my body. I've swam amongst many women who were completely naked and it was perfectly normal because it was part of their culture. So I'm able to be around it, embrace it, just never was actually able to "go free" myself. The women who grace the covers of magazines, and models in general, tend to have that quality I never quite nailed down. Then again with a body like that can you blame her!?
That being said, below is the current issue of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover and beside it a cartoon equivalent that appeared in the LA Times.
Many of you may wonder where the heck I'm going with this. Well along with the photo in the LA Times there was an article Sports Illustrated Bikini Model Kate Upton Sparks A Debate, both article and cartoon by David Horsey, in which he compares the recent uproar over Kate Upton to today's political compaign. I have no interest in getting into politics here on AR, out to dinner with my friends, or even with my husband. What I do want to sound off on, however, is the fact that the uproar over Upton is more about her so called "weight" than anything else. Sophia Neophitou, fashion editor and brains behind the Victoria Secret's fashion show, told the New York Times that they would "never, ever" use Upton as a runway model and that was she was like a "Page 3 Girl," referring to the busty, barely there clothed women featured in The Sun, a London tabloid. Going on to say she was "too obvious" with her "too-blond hair and kind of face that any one with money could go out and buy."
The article goes on to talk about other people who have criticized her, with one going so far as to say that her legs look like they belong to a WNBA player. Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. And yet, we wonder why people, mostly young women, struggle with their weight.
According to ANAD (Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders), the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females, 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures, and 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. So if people like Neophitou are publicly saying that someone like Upton is not suitable for the likes of Victoria Secret, what in the heck are girls, or boys, going to think is good enough!? And please note that this is all in perspective people. One's idea of good enough is different than another's but relatively speaking here...
I was furious when I read this. The article is almost a week old and I'm still furious. It's because of this exact thing that our society, and I hate to do this because I'm definitely not part of it, but our society as a whole, has allowed the above to be known as "fat" and the gal to our right is "good enough."
It's twisted, it's sick, and it's only dangerously attainable. So here's to ya, Sophia Neophitou, and all those with opinions like her. You'll continue to make millions but it certainly won't come from my pocket or anybody else's that I can spread this word to. My "fat" ass won't be wearing anything from Victoria Secret's cause you most certainly just lost a customer.
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