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Sex sells
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:34Hi, everybody. I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics' Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame,
00:39a series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely for
00:43their mistakes, controversial moments, or questionable decisions. The month of February
00:48conjures up certain images and traditions. Groundhog Day, Valentine's cards, cold weather
00:53for much of the country. Since 1964, Sports Illustrated has provided its readers with an
00:58antidote to winter with its annual swimsuit issue. It all began with a mere four pages,
01:03but over the past decade, the insert has blossomed into its own issue, a DVD, an internet page.
01:09Every February, there are the pertinent questions. What do swimsuits, and admittedly very small
01:14swimsuits, have to do with sports journalism? What role does the mainstream magazine have
01:19in objectifying and degrading women? Before we count down the top five reasons you can't blame
01:24Sports Illustrated for publishing its swimsuit issue, let's examine how it's become a divisive
01:28part of Americana. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
01:36I've always looked at Sports Illustrated as being the Bible of sports. It was the first
01:40real sports magazine that I truly respected. I had great stories, great illustrations,
01:47great pictures. A little country boy coming from Alabama, and here you are on Sports Illustrated.
01:58It made me feel like I had finally arrived. Sports Illustrated was always the cutting edge of what was
02:05important in our world. They have done consistently, in my mind, for 50 years, the best sports telling
02:12in the business. Like the series on exploitation of the black athlete, the series on women in sport,
02:20which ran at a time when it was by and large felt that women shouldn't sweat, saying nothing
02:25would compete. Sports Illustrated was the one outlet that would stand tall and always do the right thing.
02:32Founded by Time Inc. in 1954, the Sports Weekly struggled for a decade before turning a profit.
02:38Then in 1964, SI unveiled its first swimsuit issue. Suddenly, sports wasn't the only coverage some
02:46readers looked forward to.
02:51Oh man, it was like Christmas. I think that was the one issue that we always looked forward to getting.
03:01I used to cut out pictures when I was a kid. I used to put them on the wall. I
03:04used to piss off my parents,
03:05and then all of a sudden I was like, goodbye, Dick Butkus. Hello, Cheryl Teagues. It was great.
03:10We're on. Oh, pardon interruption. I'm Mike Wilbon. Tony, the articles in the swimsuit issue,
03:16just spectacular. I'm Tony Kornheiser. And remember, Mike, if that feeling lasts more than
03:21four hours, seek medical help immediately. When I'm traveling around, what do you do for a living?
03:27I write for Sports Illustrated. The first word out of people's mouths is swimsuit. That's the power of the brand.
03:39It's one of the things that makes America great is that we can have an issue like this.
03:44It's part of American pop culture. It's been around forever.
03:48It's fun. It's whimsical. It's an American tradition.
03:52The swimsuit edition is Americana. It's nice. It's self-contained. And you can look at the wife
03:57and go, they put it in the mailbox. What do I want to do? Not read it? It's journalism.
04:04But to some, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was not only inappropriate, it was downright sinful.
04:11It has nothing to do with the reason that I get Sports Illustrated, which is to read about sports.
04:16I don't think swimsuit modeling has anything to do with athletics except maybe if they ask her to run
04:22from point A to point B and then flick her head at the same time. It's a crass ploy by
04:27the magazine
04:28to basically pin Sports Illustrated. They would never be allowed to get away with it when it had to do
04:34with
04:34other types of discriminatory practices. But when it comes to women and sexualizing them,
04:39it's not a problem. And the common defense is it's because sex sells.
04:47The numbers are revealing. Of the more than 500 issues published by SI in the 1990s,
04:54women were featured on just 35 covers, 10 of which showed swimsuit models.
05:21They can do a better job covering women's sports. I think that's a big issue.
05:25Even up until now, you still don't see a lot of women on the cover, actually, do you?
05:30It's very sad because our women deserve a place in the most popular magazine in the country.
05:41It is hard to cover women's sports on one hand and say, yes, we believe in you as athletes.
05:48And then they go, yeah? Well, how come you're objectifying women with painted on swimsuits?
05:54That's not what I signed up for when I wanted a sports magazine. I didn't say, you know, I want
05:5851 sports
06:00magazines and one issue of Swank. That's not the deal I cut. 52 weeks a year, it rails against sexism
06:09in
06:09sports. And yet they have that one special issue where it's softcore porn.
06:17Each year, it does get a little bit racier. And, you know, I think at some point,
06:24they're just going to have to have just naked women in that magazine because how much farther
06:28can they really go? Well, I think for little girls, it says that when you grow up,
06:32you'll be valued more for taking your clothes off than for excelling on the playing field.
06:41You've just seen why Sports Illustrated is blamed for its controversial swimsuit issue.
06:45Before we give you the top five reasons why you can't blame SI,
06:48here are some reasons which just missed the cut. We call them the best of the rest.
06:53Just say no. If a reader takes offense at SI's swimsuit issue, there's a simple remedy. Avert your
07:00eyes when passing the newsstand or request that edition not be delivered to your home.
07:05You can have a swimsuit-free subscription to Sports Illustrated. So people who didn't want
07:11to get it didn't get it. I can't imagine people opting out of getting the swimsuit issue to tell
07:15you the truth. In 2005, less than one percent of the magazine's 3.2 million subscribers made such a
07:23request. You have a choice to either get it or not. If you get it, don't criticize it.
07:29Our other best of the rest. It's relatively tame by today's standards. In an age where the boundaries
07:36of taste have been pushed, SI's swimsuit issue seems within accepted limits.
07:40Today, it's no longer shocking compared to what's out there.
07:45Now we have this proliferation of whatever you want to call it, soft porn or whatever,
07:49and I actually believe that it has enhanced the stature of Sports Illustrated.
07:56Considering what's on the internet nowadays and DVDs, there's more stuff to complain about
08:01than the swimsuit issue. At the end of the day, too, we're talking about beautiful girls
08:05in pretty places and cute suits. I mean, it's not that bad.
08:13Reason number five, the letters. In the weeks following its swimsuit issue,
08:18SI is flooded with readers' commentary expressing every view, from gratitude to disgust.
08:24Oh, we got angry letters from mothers of teenage boys. I don't want my son looking at that.
08:33From nuns who were saying, we should not be doing this. It's porno.
08:37Your son will be looking at it. And his son will be looking at it.
08:45Sports Illustrated. Nudity is more destructive to our youth than an atom bomb.
08:50Okay. I'm not sure why people write letters. I'm not even good about writing my politician.
08:56My copy was burned immediately and the subscription will cease. Wow.
09:02I've been a subscriber to Sports Illustrated for 30 years. I'm canceling.
09:05Did you not get the addition the previous 30 years?
09:10Despite the occasional street protest outside SI's editor...
09:13I've never seen Colin Cowherd Young.
09:16...torial offices in New York, most responses are favorable.
09:22Dear Sports Illustrated, is there an 800 number I can call to receive some of the unwanted copies?
09:28The latest swimsuit edition was perfect. Thank you.
09:33Kids at Annapolis and West Point loved it. Got lots of those letters.
09:38I get a lot of letters from prison with my swimsuit photos. I swear.
09:43It means that people are paying attention to it and we're putting something out there that
09:50has enough interest so that people write these letters.
09:54They could do a magazine of all the letters and it would sell.
10:00One down, four to go. Here is reason number four.
10:07Athletes. Besides models, athletes, both male and female, have been integrated into the swimsuit
10:13issue in recent years. We now have athletes and their wives, male athletes and, you know,
10:21buff guys without their shirts on, giving the ladies equal time.
10:26Now it's not just scantily clad models. It sort of legitimizes it a little bit.
10:32I'm not going to blame SI for anything. It's like the most obvious
10:36marriage I've ever seen. It's like a beer commercial at a football game.
10:43The idea of using a male in a bathing suit was put into motion in 1991.
10:49I felt that it's probably time for men to make an appearance.
10:55And the person we decided to choose was Magic Johnson, who was at the height of his popularity.
11:00So we made all the arrangements. But one day, I came back to my office and learned that
11:14Magic Johnson had called a press conference.
11:17Because of the HIV virus that I have attained, I will have to retire from the Lakers.
11:28So those plans were scuttled, and it was another four years before men appeared in the swimsuit issue.
11:36After three decades of exclusion, males were in the swimsuit issue.
11:41Now athletes of both sexes appear in the annual issue.
11:46Athletes have great bodies, and we're a great way to explore it in the swimsuit edition.
11:51That was great. That was great. And you know, I wonder why they didn't choose me again.
11:57So few athletes get to be in it, and it's such a great opportunity.
12:00To have an opportunity to model for a SI swimsuit, to me, is an honor.
12:04And it's something I've always wanted to do my whole career.
12:07These female athletes are trying to say, you know, look, we're athletes, but we're still feminine.
12:14For me especially, it's, I'm wearing a big jersey and shorts and shin guards,
12:18and I'm practically covered up from head to tail. It's an opportunity to be seen in a different light.
12:26To see athletes displaying their talents is a beautiful thing, man. You can't be mad at the swimsuit edition.
12:34It does bring in the athletic and the sports aspect of it. So it was a wonderful experience, and I
12:41love the idea.
12:47Here's reason number three. It's the Super Bowl of modeling.
12:51Appearing in the SI swimsuit issue often results in fame and fortune.
12:57This is the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards. This is it all for those models.
13:02There's only a few that get picked, and I think it's, for them, it's a huge competition.
13:06For being on the cover to, you know, how many pictures you have in a magazine. It's very competitive.
13:13The names of models who I would never have known, I know because I read the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
13:19It can help a girl toward becoming a supermodel.
13:23Over the years, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue has helped launch some of the biggest names in modeling.
13:29Among them, Christy Brinkley, Elle McPherson, Kathy Ireland, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks.
13:36In 1978, Cheryl Teagues did wonders to create the era of the supermodel.
13:41What kind of name is happening?
13:42Cheryl Teagues in the waterfall with the mesh suit that showed more than my devoutly Catholic mother could quite bear.
13:53I mean, obviously you could see her chest through it. I mean, which was at that point, you know, like
14:00X-rated.
14:01We didn't shoot a lot of film because no one thought anything about this picture.
14:05It just was kind of a throwaway almost. And today, if I go out to a restaurant, there are guys
14:11hanging around with that fishnet picture for me to sign.
14:15Cheryl became a gigantic star after that.
14:17When you say Cheryl, you know bloody well who they're talking about.
14:25Becoming a Sports Illustrated cover girl is a dream that has become one of the great traditions in American pop
14:31culture.
14:32The competition for the cover may have replaced Miss America.
14:36If we'd start to complain, Julie would say to us, this could be the cover. You need to be quiet.
14:42You could never know. This could be the cover.
14:44So we'd all be like, just shut our mouths because we'd be like, we want to be in the cover.
14:49Reporters from all around the world were trying to get into the information. Oh, are you on the cover? Are
14:55you on the cover?
14:55They all get attention, but as the cover girl, you know, they become the superstar of the moment.
15:00All of us benefited from Sports Illustrated. I think it helped us become more of a household name.
15:07I got booked for Sports Illustrated and before the issue even came out, Tori's secret book to me.
15:13Once you've reached that level, your career explodes.
15:17And all the great supermodels, they feel that Sports Illustrated is a must.
15:20So if they feel that it's that important to their career, then so do I.
15:27Three reasons down, two to go. Here is reason number two.
15:33It was a perfect fit. When the swimsuit issue first hit newsstands in 1964, the sports world was in a
15:41holding pattern.
15:41The swimsuit issue started as a diversion. The idea was it was one of the very few dead weeks in
15:49the sports calendar.
15:50Baseball was over. Football was over. Basketball in those days was a niche sport.
15:56The Super Bowl had not yet been created.
15:59It was an excellent gimmick when it started and it still is. And it was to sell more magazines as
16:04well as to draw more attention to Sports Illustrated.
16:09It got started as a way to celebrate, you know, the sun.
16:13You'll never think about what sports like sales people do when there aren't really any sports going on.
16:24You could always talk about boxing, but then they only do that sporadically.
16:32The sun was coming. Hang in there. And here's a few pretty girls in swimsuits. And you can dream about
16:37that while the snow falls.
16:43The brainchild of SI managing editor Andre Laguerre, the swimsuit issue was intended to rouse the sports fan from his
16:50midwinter blues.
16:53Andre Laguerre then would go to January and February. What do I put in my magazine?
16:57This is when you have to get highly creative. And all of a sudden, he struck on the idea of
17:02why not do a swimsuit issue?
17:03So he said, why don't you go to some lovely island and put a break? Let's see what happens.
17:10The swimsuit issue is the best idea that Sports Illustrated ever had.
17:16That was like revolutionary. It turned people's heads. So the editor of that time says, well, I think we have
17:21something here.
17:25To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times were a changing.
17:29From the Beatles to Vietnam, from civil rights and campus strife to JFK and Martin Luther King,
17:35SI adapted with that turbulent decade.
17:38The sixties, America began to become a much more complicated country.
17:43With music, with the way people behaved, the sexual revolution, everything.
17:50And it seemed to give Sports Illustrated the right in the mid-sixties to say, yes, we can step across
17:56the line.
17:57The magazine was reacting to the fact of a more sophisticated and more difficult time.
18:05I don't blame them for that.
18:06Editors were looking for something to fill their pages.
18:10I think that the timing was propitious for Sports Illustrated.
18:20It sells.
18:21In 2005, the swimsuit issue generated more than $50 million in revenue for timing.
18:28Its newsstand sales alone reached 1.5 million copies, 15 times the average weekly total.
18:36How many magazines alone have been around 42 years, never mind one that comes out once a year?
18:41It's drawn the interest of, you know, that of a Super Bowl, that of a major event in sports.
18:48You can't blame Sports Illustrated for putting the swimsuit issue out because, love it or hate it, everybody's talking about
18:54it.
18:56We consider ourselves very serious journalists.
19:00The reality is, it's such a huge money man.
19:09Sports doesn't even exist.
19:11Of the 64 million adults who looked at the 2005 swimsuit issue, three times the number who read the magazine
19:18weekly, are women.
19:19I look forward to it.
19:21I don't think it's a bad thing.
19:23Women look at supermodels.
19:25They have something to measure themselves against, right or wrong, but I think it's done.
19:30I love to see women that are athletic and toned and just well put together.
19:34It just gives me incentives and know where I want to go.
19:37At the gym, I can focus.
19:39For women, it's a way to look at the best bathing suits in the world.
19:44In 1997, Sports Illustrated made the swimsuit edition its own special entity, apart from the weekly issue.
19:53The first story I worked on was eight pages and a cover.
19:57It just kept expanding until it finally became the whole issue.
20:01I think that it became a freestanding issue because it became so huge.
20:05You're still going to get your Red Sox results now.
20:09You're still going to get 52 weeks of SI.
20:12Nice issue.
20:1522 million people can't be wrong.
20:17So who cares if they criticize it, you know?
20:20If there wasn't demand, they wouldn't be doing it.
20:22Thank God this is America.
20:23Why can't you blame them?
20:25Because they make a hell of a lot of money.
20:27They understand their audience.
20:29And last time I checked, the majority of males 18 to 54 like women in bikinis.
20:35If SI stops publishing a swimsuit issue...
20:38Check.
20:39I'll need to check that, um, those numbers here.
20:45Are you kidding?
20:46Yeah.
20:47Whoever makes that decision should be put in jail.
20:56Well, there you have it.
20:57The top five reasons you can't blame Sports Illustrated for its swimsuit issue.
21:01Now, we often get feedback on these programs.
21:04And let me take the time during this show especially to make a defense.
21:06There are many reasons you can't, of course, blame Sports Illustrated for its printing the
21:10swimsuit issue.
21:11Or Mike Tyson for losing to Buster Douglas.
21:13Or Art Modell for moving the Browns.
21:15The purpose of this show, however, is to merely point out there are reasons why they should
21:19not be blamed as well.
21:21Finding the balance or lack thereof between the two is up to you.
21:25I'm Brian Kenney.
21:26Thanks for watching.
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