They are the ones who go out and buy it. If they don't want it, they won't buy it.

Not everybody can do it. I've seen people take falls that make them avoid the pole forever. Not me. Never. I could do a trick just using my armpit. Takes skill.

And strength and stamina and grace and creativity. Personally, I know I could never do it but I am in awe.

I got taught by a ballerina from Germany. I cried sometimes and fell, but I would get into the zone and time flew. I think about joining the classes in town, but I got lazy after my kids. Maybe this year.

We want a demo, bravenak.

Once I hit 150 I found myself slipping. into my Entemanns.

I think I can still do a few moves, no upside downs or helicopters, tho.

You are beautiful!

i'm pretty good and my sweet tooth is usally under control, but that stuff is like crack.

I give up, really. As long as I can buy the same size I've been buying, I'm eating whatever I want. Caution to the wind!!

Soooo Goood.

We've got that shit down

Okay, I admit that I just had to stretch for it.

From a guy who lived in Portland for 7 years.

I would never have been able to pole dance, but I sure know that slipping move into the Entemanns.

I was up to two a week. Had to calm down. Started yelling at my husband when he took a piece of MY CAKE!!! Poor guy.

Evil bastards!

(That's my favorite, too. )

Last ones, though, I swear.

and features both men and women

http://espn.go.com/espn/bodyissue

FROM WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_Issue

In the bodies section athletes were featured on and off the field. Even a picture during a knee surgery was included. The "Bodies We Want" section was a feature of the best bodies in the world of sports all posed nude but with strategic coverage of private parts.[5] Another section showed the damage done to the human body in athletics such as Laird Hamilton's cracked heel and Torry Holt's crooked middle finger.[2] One action photo captured six members of Major League Soccer's D.C. United simulating a free kick defensive wall while covering their genitalia.[6]

That's all you need to know, citizen.

I have the same "visceral" reaction to it that most guys probably do.

That said, I still think there are valid issues to be raised - like capitalist commodification of the human body, or the lack of balance (or nuance) in the way both sexes, but especially women, are portrayed by the media. So of course I'm going to look, and enjoy looking, but at the same time I'm not opposed to thinking more deeply about it.

I think Hannah Davis is too skinny for my taste, but I dont want to be accused of "judging".

We live in a capitalist society. Pretty much every transaction that involves cash, involves "commodification". And like it or not, sex sells, and for whatever reason statistically men seem more interested in buying magazines with scantly clad women, than vice versa.

But "the media" isnt a monolith, and part of the problem I have with these sorts of "exercises" around this stuff, is trying to shoehorn examples of one thing into broad, sweeping generalizations about the whole thing.

If all magazines were the annual SI swimsuit issue, all the time, it might "mean" something, but they aren't.

i actually know a great deal more about society and the actual issues facing people, versus these imaginary, invented ones- from real experience in the actual real world- but i keep my mouth shut about 95% of it, because .... why bother.

You don't have to be IBM's chess playing robot to see the way the game will play out 3 or 4 moves down.

You do have a point there. Except that the SI swimsuit issue - which I couldn't care less about, generally - doesn't exist in a vacuum, nor does any other mass-produced image. I just hate to see people (not you personally) being such slaves to artificial images and constructed fantasies - at its worst, it resembles something out of "Videodrome."

"'The media' isn't a monolith."

True, though it can resemble one at times, when most of the content is generated by a handful of huge corporations.

I'm not saying suggestive (or more explicit) imagery is the problem, rather the unreal "reality" constituted by these images. Too many people are so caught up in that, that they can't see outside of it.

And in terms of seeing an awful lot of a certain way of thinking- I see an awful lot (at least around here) of this idea that the befuddled sheeple masses are brainwashed and being led around by their noses, save for us enlightened few who have seen through the matrix.

I don't buy it. I think we're all, to some degree, engaged in a dance with a mixture of personal/consensus reality both of our own and our cultural collective creation, but I also give people- all people- a lot more credit to think for themselves than these simplistic over-generalizations do.

but they're not that stupid, by and large.

I'm not claiming to be one of the "enlightened few." Actually, a lot of what I've said in this discussion comes from my own experiences and observations. I myself have had to resist being sucked down the rabbit hole of idealized, unattainable fantasy - and this is a still-ongoing process, mind you.

I'm extremely happily married and the feeling is mutual- married to someone who likewise can appreciate, on a totally superficial level, that beefy alcede guy from True Blood...

nevertheless I remain reasonably certain that she wouldn't actually be interested in him, either. We're big, complex grown-ups who understand ourselves and each other, which is absolutely essential IMNSHO to a working, long-term relationship.

All that said, I don't respond well to anyone whose message is "physical lust is wrong"-- I don't care if they come equipped with a priest collar, or a PhD in sociology.

Nor do I - and it was never my intent to imply otherwise. I do find it interesting to pick apart, or deconstruct, some of this stuff, but that doesn't mean I think it's a "sin" (or whatever the secular equivalent would be).

And I'm not necessarily real big on the whole "lusting after celebrities" thing anyhow. I find some of the young women I know IRL just as attractive in their own way.

I think all anyone really wants is a more balanced representation of women in the media, which is certainly not too much to ask.

In fact, Ronda Rousey is featured in a swimsuit in this edition, and she's one of the best athletes in America. I don't particularly care for MMA, but I've seen a few clips of her fighting.

They need to do better. I read somewhere that women on the cover are under five percent of their total:









As for your post, they aren't putting pole dancers on the cover, so your post does seem a bit gratuitous. They are putting bikini models who display beauty and form--but generally, no records of athleticism-- on the cover, and they use the models to generate both newsstand and subscription sales to keep the franchise operating.

I don't understand why people get so upset/excited about this topic. Frankly, the whole "roll out" of who gets the cover of the magazine seems a bit forced. They tried to get people interested with 'painted on' bathing suits, and that ran out of fizz pretty quick, so then they went to "Oooh, look at these BEHINDS" and people went "Ooooh la la" or "Tut tut" and they, of course, knew they had to top themselves, so now they're showing the barest glimpse of pudenda, in order to get people interested.

Back in the Old Days, people cared about who Miss America was, and who the "Playmate of the Year" was, too. Now, no one gives a sorry crap. Why? Because it's all just stupid.

I do find the heated discussion over the "swimsuit issue" a tad absurd. Like I said, it's about balance - if SI presented a wider range of images of women, rather than just "sexy" ones, I don't think people would be so up in arms.

Many cultures share similar traits throughout history;


Ancient Egyptian furry porn.


Roman orgies.


Viking women and the Sea Serpent.


Kinky Martian sex.


And of course Ron Jeremy.


I have no conclusion. Thank you for your time.

they were grandfathered in and slipped under the radar once people started pointing out sexism. That is just a guess.

I wish they would talk about a woman's athletic abilities and no concentrate on just looks good in a bikini. I would much rather see athletic women with 6 pack abs explaining how they did it and talking about the hard work it takes than just a skinny one in a bikini with nothing interesting to say.