Salon.com > Sports Illustrated

A Sports Illustrated model’s bizarre Farrah Abraham rant

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:10:00 +0000

Talk about digging yourself deeper into a hole.

The model Christine Teigen, known for her Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue appearances and for a Twitter presence that teeters between voluble and unhinged, went on a rant recently about the "Teen Mom" star Farrah Abraham's recent appearance in a "leaked sex tape." Over the course of a couple of hours, Teigen called Abraham -- whose recently released tape has raised questions over how intentional it was, and gotten her lambasted even by "sugar daddy" dating company CEOs -- vulgar names, expressed disbelief that her followers didn't want to join her in shaming Abraham, and instructed those who were offended to unfollow her.

[embedtweet id="334451360630181888"]
[embedtweet id="334455540023451650"]
[embedtweet id="334456980607475712"]
[embedtweet id="334457273680277504"]
[embedtweet id="334458627802951682"]
[embedtweet id="334458810091597824"]
[embedtweet id="334459141009575936"]
[embedtweet id="334460697863913472"]
[embedtweet id="334461345120518144"]
[embedtweet id="334463410236440577"]
[embedtweet id="334470337079177217"]
[embedtweet id="334480061661057024"]

Is “Sports Illustrated” sexist?

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:36:00 +0000

That recent Sports Illustrated cover featuring Jason Collins was, in one obvious respect, a landmark. But in another way, it was business as usual for the venerable weekly.

The openly gay Collins is, after all, a man—and men are featured on the cover of SI about 95 percent of the time. That’s the conclusion of recently published research, which finds that, from 2000 through 2011, women appeared on just 4.9 percent of Sports Illustrated covers.

That figure is “comparable to levels reported for the 1980s,” write University of Louisville sociologists Jonetta Weber and Robert Carini. “Indeed, women were depicted on a higher percentage of covers from 1954-1965 than from 2000-2011.”

Jason Collins: Out of the NBA?

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:32:00 +0000

Yesterday, NBA journeyman Jason Collins became the first active American athlete in a major team sport to come out. There have been gay athletes before, whether active in individual sports, like Martina Navratilova; or retired from their league, like basketball player John Amaechi. But at the risk of reducing one man’s major life-decision to a sociology experiment, Collins is the test case everyone has been waiting for.

With his self-penned Sports Illustrated cover story, Collins forces a discussion about all the hypotheticals that have been bandied about for the last few years: How will players deal with a gay teammate in the locker room? How will fans feel about rooting for him? Will the insertion of an out athlete into the American sports mainstream change the discourse around gay rights in this country?

Luckily, Collins, in a sense, is the ideal candidate. And the NBA is the perfect choice for the first league to enter into this uncharted territory.

Sports fandom doesn’t have to be miserable

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:45:00 +0000

“This really should be the end of it,” someone I wouldn’t exactly call a friend said to me about the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Or something has gone horribly wrong.” He’s talking about, or more accurately issuing ultimatums about, the rebuild through which both the Cavs and their fans have suffered over the past three years. You know the one: LeBron left, team ripped off the longest losing streak in NBA history, Kyrie Irving teleported in from a planet where people believe in themselves but have very vulnerable lower bodies, and that about catches us up. There is reason for hope, but the team is still, at this stage, highly capable of getting blown out by 18 points in Detroit. This means some fans consider Cavs GM Chris Grant to be on the hot seat. They are not the ones whose hands are on the temperature dial, but they are no less certain for that.

Sports Illustrated uses people of color as props in swimsuit issue

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:54:00 +0000

Perhaps it's naïve to expect cultural smarts from a magazine that tweets things like, "There's nothing better than Swimsuit models wearing Body Paint!" — but still.

Sports Illustrated's latest swimsuit issue used their "seven continents" theme as an occasion to run photos of (mostly) white models posing with people of color as a background that signifies the "exotic" nature of the shoot locations.

In one shot from Guilin, Guangxi (an autonomous region of China), a white model reclines on a raft while a local man uses a pole to mimic chauffeuring her around.

In another, this time in the southern African Republic of Namibia, a white model poses with a black man holding a spear, wearing indigenous clothing that reveals as much of his body as hers.

Should NFL players be forced to wear pink?

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:00:00 +0000

As a sports writer, Peter King is undoubtedly used to getting flak for his opinions. So when he tweeted last week in despair at professional football's month-long, rosy-hued display of breast cancer awareness, "Please. Not pink for a month, NFL. A week, great. But a month?" the response was predictably unfavorable. "You got a problem w/ cancer awareness?" wrote one of his Twitter critics, while another asked, "Really? Is it that serious? If it's raising money for cancer is it really worth complaining about?" and yet another declared, "Get over it for those we've lost and survived, we honor them in any way we can."

In the face of the retorts, though, King pressed on, musing, "Is breast cancer the only charity NFL should support?" To the person who asked, "What if each team could pick one week in October where they wear the pink?" he retorted, "Perfect. That'd be ideal." But over at ESPN's radio 104.5, Jay Sanin was appalled. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" he demanded, suggesting, "Maybe instead of being an ignorant idiot about life-threatening diseases, Peter King should stick to being an ignorant idiot about the NFL."