[Repealthe17thAmendment]

I've always thought it to be poor form to publicly comment on anyone's physical appearance.

In the case of Sports Illustrated, they take a break from actual sports coverage for their annual swimsuit issue. They were commonly criticized by people who were probably never frequent readers because the swimsuit issue featured supermodels, and supposedly created an unrealistic expectation of beauty.

But I haven't read Sports Illustrated in a long, long time though I was once a subscriber. It seems as though even their sports coverage is dominated by political and cultural subtext. No surprise that this special issue has taken on a feminist slant.

Sports Illustrated is just one more institution that has been dragged down by people who find excellence to be threatening.

[untenured]

I see it about the same way you do. I used to subscribe, and cancelled more for money reasons than anything else. But my feeling is exactly the same as yours. It’s really shabby, the mark of low character, to make fun of someone’s appearance, even and maybe especially anonymously on the Internet. If you don’t want it said about someone you love, don’t say it about someone somebody else loves. (Not that it matters, but no one in our family has weight issues,)

Having said that, if SI wants to continue the swimsuit issue, they should just produce what the subscribers want, and not appease the most strident voices, who are unlikely to be subscribers in any event.