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Sports Illustrated Tries To Sell America On The 'Burkini' As Female Empowerment
Townhall.com ^ | April 30, 2019 | Kira Davis

Posted on 04/30/2019 4:23:49 AM PDT by Kaslin

Sports Illustrated has released its annual swimsuit issue and declared itself “proud” to present the first Muslim model to wear a hijab and “burkini” within its pages.

The Somali-American model [Halima Aden] was born in Kenya at the Kakuma Refugee Camp, where she lived until the age of seven before moving to the United States. For her SI Swimsuit rookie spread, we couldn’t think of a more perfect place travel than her birth country, where she shot at Watamu Beach with photographer Yu Tsai.

“I keep thinking [back] to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Halima said during her shoot. “So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya–I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.”

Aden is right about one thing - there was a time not too long ago when no one could imagine such a story. This is a nation that birthed the modern feminist movement, burned bras, sexually “liberated” the American woman and mainstreamed birth control in pursuit of that very idea and successfully shamed and marginalized Judeo-Christian culture for their standards of sexual/relational modesty. In a mere twenty years we have gone from disparaging religious restrictions on female sexuality to celebrating it from a culture that it is openly hostile to the progressive values the producers of this magazine claim to be celebrating.

Were Aden to be wearing a nun’s habit and cross on the beach and celebrating it as “progressively feminist” there would be no end to the outrage and insult. She would be called a prude and accused of sending the wrong message to women about how they should be allowed to celebrate their bodies.

That we so readily accept this message from a Muslim woman is bizarrely puzzling. 

It wasn’t that long ago that SI was regularly protested for their objectification of women with their swimsuit issue. Since that time the culture has taken a dramatic shift thanks in part to a steady, calculated marketing campaign from the entertainment industry. Sexy = powerful. Promiscuity = empowerment. The less women wore the more they were “celebrating” their bodies. 

I still believe the SI swimsuit issue is an act of objectification. Let’s be honest - speaking strictly in terms of consumerism these issues aren’t produced for women and men aren’t buying them for the in-depth exploration of the mind of a 23-year-old model. Objectification sells. 

I used to think my biggest problem with the progressive culture of sexuality was the flagrant display of the female form and the abandonment of the idea that imagination is the most influential part of sexuality. It was a gross mislabeling of “empowerment” and it has led to all kinds of confusion when it comes to our modern notions of romance and relationships.

I could not have imagined that an even bigger problem would one day present itself under the misleading flag of “religious tolerance,” a tolerance not in any way extended to the traditional Judeo-Christian communities that have long suffered ridicule at the hands of secular culture but instead aimed at one of the most sexually oppressive religious cultures on the planet.

In the same way the model in a string bikini on the cover of SI is an objectification, so is the model in a full-on “burkini.” It is a symbol of an idea that a woman’s body is unsuitable to be publicly seen, that she is an object to be covered rather that a human to be admired. In a country like America it is a huge step backwards. 

SI can put anyone they want in their magazine, wearing anything they deem marketable. Any woman can wear a burkini or a bikini or a paper sack to the beach if that’s what they want to do. More power to them.

But this objectification of a Muslim model in the pages of the one of America’s most celebrated magazines and calling it “empowerment” is a bridge too far. It’s every bit as trashy as stripping a model down to her barely-there thong and telling us that this is the new “girl power.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bikini; burkini; burqa; liberalmedia; media; muslimwomen; muslimworld; religion; si; sportsillustrated; yeahright
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To: C210N

Hmm, I have never heard of a magazine called Scientific American. I used to subscribe many years ago to National Geographic.


61 posted on 04/30/2019 5:57:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: C210N

“...pushing the liberal agenda, sneaking it into every nook and cranny of each and every article.”

I have often been amazed at the Left’s fighting ability, as opposed to the vacuums Conservatives prefer. The Leftist agenda is pushed into every nook and cranny of our entire existence. Nothing is left untarnished. Nothing.

Jesus: “...for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”


62 posted on 04/30/2019 5:58:35 AM PDT by odawg
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To: a fool in paradise

Unfortunately, the ‘phobes at SI forgot about those people. We should protest as such erasure is literally violence. So exhausting.


63 posted on 04/30/2019 6:00:41 AM PDT by Stravinsky
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To: PTBAA

Oh, Gillette has a model that’s just perfect for this issue.


64 posted on 04/30/2019 6:01:41 AM PDT by Stravinsky
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To: ConservativeDude
"no trans woman? gosh these lefties arent walking the walk!"

Next years issue? Is that Ballsy-Ford?

65 posted on 04/30/2019 6:08:02 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: Kaslin

As a woman who has briefly been under sharia law, threatened with being sex trafficked if my blonde hair was seen from under my hijab and who has been body slammed to a cobblestone street for not covering my hair in London, I say screw SI.

This is the same publication that featured little girls in the swimsuit issue until Dean Smith’s wife brought to their attention that men look at SI swimsuit issue in a sexual way.

“In 1992, Linnea Smith began a letter-writing campaign to Sports Illustrated advertisers asking them to boycott the magazine’s annual swimsuit edition.

As Smith wrote to advertisers:

“SI’s swimsuit issue sexualizes children by juxtaposing them with female models featured only for their sexual desirability and ‘easy access’ to all consumers.”

She did not take issue with the models themselves, but the use of children in the photo spreads. For example, she pointed to a 1989 photograph of a topless Christie Brinkley posing next to her daughter, Alexa, who was nude with her back to the camera.

Alexa Joel, born in 1985, would have been four years old at the time of the photo spread. As Smith told the Associated Press:

“The Christie Brinkley one is the worst. It makes absolutely no sense at all. I was unable to ignore it after that.””

https://heavy.com/sports/2015/02/linnea-weblemoe-wife-dean-smith-barack-obama-michael-jordan/

I hope they burn in hell.


66 posted on 04/30/2019 6:08:04 AM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: Kaslin

Like creating a powerful company with longevity and burning it to the ground, these people are truly mental


67 posted on 04/30/2019 6:10:30 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (nicdip.com)
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To: Stravinsky

“Christian women have been mocked”

40 years ago there was a Billy Joel song about Catholic girls. Imagine the outrage if someone wrote a song like that about Muslim girls.


68 posted on 04/30/2019 6:14:56 AM PDT by beef (Caution: Potential Sarcasm - Process Accordingly)
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To: outofsalt
I owe this thread some eye bleach.


69 posted on 04/30/2019 6:18:37 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: TMA62

How special. SI celebrates the way muslims mark their breeding stock.


70 posted on 04/30/2019 6:19:36 AM PDT by SanchoP (Why does DC hate Americans so much ?)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Not true!!! we lived in the ME during the 90’s, and the barber shop begged the Marines to bring them pornography.
They will look at the other pics. Just hypocrites.
Just like their women were head to toe dressed in black at the pool, and Achmed was in a speedo.
and eye balling the women in regular swimsuits.


71 posted on 04/30/2019 6:20:12 AM PDT by ronniesgal (so I wonder what his FR handle is????)
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To: Kaslin

If I had not already cancelled my subscription years ago - SI became way too political - I would now.


72 posted on 04/30/2019 6:20:35 AM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: Kaslin
Several years ago , I worked at a large retailer and was called to run a register. My customers were two East African women, probably Somali, maybe Ethiopian. There are a lot of them in this area.

They were both buying LINGERIE! One had lacy black ones and the other had leopard print ones.

It was kinda uncomfortable, a strange man handling their underwear. But they were cool and nice, the transaction went fine.

Ever since then, when I see a woman in a hijab, I can't help but think, 'Yeah, I know what you're wearing UNDER that!'

I guess that's 'empowerment'.

73 posted on 04/30/2019 6:20:42 AM PDT by real saxophonist (One side has guns and training. Other side's primary concern is 'gender identity'. Who's gonna win?)
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To: FreedomPoster
It’s a jump the shark moment for SI.

The year the foisted the fat swimsuit model on us should have been it. This definitely is.

74 posted on 04/30/2019 6:24:15 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (If it weren't for fake hate crimes, there would be no hate crimes at all.)
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To: Kaslin
From this:

To this:


75 posted on 04/30/2019 6:26:22 AM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: Kaslin

SI all went bad when they put Upton on the cover.
As one writer put it....”One twinkie away from being 200 lbs”


76 posted on 04/30/2019 6:27:27 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: wardamneagle
When I was a kid (60’s) it was a good magazine that covered nothing but sports with great photography.

SI's heyday.... Great writers and great photography.

The rise of the 24 hour broadcast news and sports networks killed the weekly sports magazines (although I note that ESPN also puts out a magazine).

77 posted on 04/30/2019 6:30:52 AM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: Kaslin

MJ Day the woman who runs this issue is a super feminist SJW

big on the plus sized model thing

She’s like the folks who cover Nashville

They hate what it means but like the money


78 posted on 04/30/2019 6:35:01 AM PDT by wardaddy (When only the best Santa will do...call Joe Biden)
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To: Kaslin

The sports/entertainment industry has gone full left.


79 posted on 04/30/2019 6:35:02 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Lying Media: willing and eager allies of the hate-America left.)
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To: Alberta's Child; wardamneagle
Personally, I think the whole idea of a swimsuit issue completely destroyed SI’s credibility as a SPORTS magazine.

First swimsuit issue was in 1964, 55 years ago.

80 posted on 04/30/2019 6:37:37 AM PDT by Roccus (Obama & Holder LLP, Procurers of fine arms to the most discerning drug lords (202) 456-1414)
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