What’s bugging me about sports this week? ESPN The Magazine

I’ve always had a qualm with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that women posing in bathing suits, famous athletes or not, constitute something a sports magazine should cover, unless of course, they are a professional swimmer/diver.

Now ESPN the Magazine has outdone the swimsuit issue with their body issue, on newsstands now. There are six possible covers for the issue, each featuring a different athlete in the buff or close to it. Tennis player Serena Williams, mixed martial artist Gina Carano, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, NFL running back Adrian Peterson, NBA center Dwight Howard and triathlete Sarah Reinertsen are the cover subjects. I must say, I was happy that the magazine choose three males and three females for the cover.

Then I looked at the pictures.

While I wish I could have the incredibly ripped body of Williams or any of the other female athletes featured, I know I do not have enough discipline and eat too much ice cream for that to ever happen.

I also realize that these women and men are proud of their bodies, as they should be, and that these bodies are what they make a living off of. When you are proud of something, you usually show it off. But I’m not so much condemning the idea of athletes posing in the nude but rather the execution.

Williams and Reinersten are both sitting down and completely naked with their legs crossed with their arms concealing their breasts. Still, not much is left for the imagination. Carano is wearing spandex shorts, while kicking a punching bag. Her one arm is extended, but the other is covering her one breast, because wearing a shirt or sports bra while practicing mixed martial arts is obviously something she does everyday.

The men on the other hand are a completely different story. Peterson is posed in the same manner as Williams and Reinersten, but is wearing shorts. Granted they are tight and possibly spandex, but they are still shorts! Howard’s cover is so close up that you only see him from the abdomen up. Yea he is shirtless, no big deal. Edwards is also shirtless and shown from the waist up, but he is curling a tire and holding a towel, actually looking like an athlete rather then a pin-up star.

I get it, sex sells. Naked women on the cover of a magazine will sell a lot of copies which will result in large advertising revenue. ESPN: The Magazine is also more likely to have more male subscribers than women, which accounts for more females featured in the issue then men.

I’m not asking the magazine or all magazines to stop putting pictures of athletes naked in their magazines, although I’m not 100 percent sure about how posing naked promotes the sport you play. All I’m asking is for magazines to do it fairly.

Why isn’t Howard pictured on the cover with his hands over his genitals? Why is Peterson wearing pants? If you are going to feature women one way and men another, you are sending the wrong message to all athletes. Women should be valued more for their athletic achievements then their sex appeal.

Williams is currently ranked number one in the world and reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion. Howard has never won an NBA title. He can eat his heart out.