sexual equality, et al. as embodied in the entire Republican agenda which received 47% of the vote in the recent presidential election.

Is not the model herself a prop, regardless of what she is or is not wearing?

The only real controversy are the so-called barely there bikinis. If this were done the exact same way and the models had on full torso, one piece swim suits, there would be no problem. (I have seem a lot less cloth at public swimming pools)
Anyway, if they stated they real reason for their lightness in the head at all this, prudery, they know they would be laughed at/ignored. So they pick a serous subject, racism, as the excuse to object.

That's only an insult if you think modern=high tech. Low tech people of the 21st century are modern people. There is no reason to assume that their cultures have remained unchanged since the stone age.

What I would like to know is why the SI Swimsuit edition looks the way it does. It rather assumes that sports fans are necessarily male, heterosexual, mostly white, and either young or at least okay with leering at women half their age.

Still waiting for Swimsuit Magazine's annual hockey issue.

They could just as easily photoshopped. Either the model OR the locals >>> it's that ugly and fake a juxtaposition.

My criticism is from a more aesthetic point of view.

Isn't the Swimsuit Issue primitive to begin with?

I mean, what does having women standing around in bikinis (that they sometimes aren't even actually wearing) have to do with "sports"?