I was minding my own business, breezing through Facebook (you know that’s a bit of BS cause Facebook is all about minding the business of others) when I happened upon an article post by fellow Facebooker John Riddick, about Serena Williams‘ “nude” image appearing on the October 2009 cover of ESPN magazine.  Along with the image John posed the questions of what we, his Facebook friends, thought about it.  Initially I didn’t think two ways about it since  naked celebrities on non porn magazine  covers ceased to be a novelty after Demi Moore and child graced Vanity Fair in 1991.  Although I had my own opinion I really was not going to comment on the topic, but a couple of the comments got me to scratching my head.  Of course there were the “hubba hubba” reactions from the men which are to be expected whenever there’s even a quasi nude female  form displayed anywhere, but it was the replies from the women that really got me.  One noted that she had no problem with the cover because if she had a body like Serena’s she’d be on covers too.  Indeed… I probably would too, but openly questioned the correlation between Ms. Williams‘ airbrushed likeness and sports.  Another replied, partially in response to my query, that because this is “The Body Issue” it’s only right that Serena’s ” beautiful nude body” be displayed.  She further went on to lament about America’s Puritan-esque attitude towards nudity and sexuality, reminding us that this was a sports mag, not an intellectual publication.  She and I went back and forth for about fifteen minutes or so, eventually arriving at the same destination exemplified in John’s comment on the subject: “[It has] absolutely nothing to do with sports. All to do with sex and exploitation.”

With the death of print media on the imminent horizon at the hands of E-media’s popularity, newspapers and magazines across the nation are pulling out all the stops to keep readers in their corner.  This centerfold like effort by ESPN, involving not just Ms. Williams, but Dwight Howard and a few others as well, shows just how far they are willing to go to ensure they maintain their audience.  It’s not a new tactic by any means.  Sex sells and marketing executives know this.  They take great strides to bring a sexy element of some form or another to just about every advertisement from cigarettes to tampons.  Of course the most ad elements of sex are not as overt as these covers, but it’s there and we are all aware of it.  It’s an age old practice that probably will not see its end anytime soon.  That notwithstanding, when it comes to these covers my question still remains… what do naked athletes have to do with sports?

It’s not that I’m opposed of Serena posing nude considering she’s a grown woman and can do what she chooses.  But wouldn’t Playboy or Penthouse be more of the appropriate medium?  Sure, the photo is done tastefully and Serena looks great but… doesn’t one turn to ESPN, Sport Illustrated and other publications of this nature for sport stories and statistics?  As John also said, seems to be a blurring of the genre line for the sake of a buck here and it just seems odd to me.  With this being the trend I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before we can expect to see hot CEO’s all oiled up and in their birthday suits on the cover of Fortune once its demo numbers begin to strip.

I did agree with the one commenter concerning this country’s prudish demeanor towards human sexuality, which makes this kind of thing a common occurrence.  If the topic was not such a taboo subject in our society ,magazines and other commercial entities would not be able to hook consumers with such “shocking” advertising techniques… using a woman’s naked form to sell material that has about as much to do with a woman’s naked form as plastic grocery store bags.  And I bet you dollars to donuts there will be nothing in the articles contained in this edition of the publication won’t have a dern thing to do with Serena’s nakedness.  Not that that matters much.  Most people don’t buy Playboy for the articles either.

Happy fapping, boys!

Just my buck fiddy.

M. Michelle