The #MeToo Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Really?

February 28, 2018

It's almost too meta to bear: swimsuit models finding their voice by objectifying themselves with empowering words scrawled over their bodies.  In the upcoming annual swimsuit issue, models who get paid to sexualize themselves will pose nude in a special section, replacing come-hither looks with words of their choice--"mother," "nurturer," "artist," to name a few--written in magic marker on their bodies. I suppose it's a way of saying, "The me you gaze at on the other pages of this swimsuit issue, the me you imagine having sex with, that's not me. This is me."  Ok.  But you are still offering up your body for public consumption.  While I believe that a woman's power comes in part from owning her sexuality as the potent force it is, I come from an earlier feminist movement that believes that one can't accomplish that by making her body a commodity.  Today's budding feminists seem to believe the opposite--that one can self-objectify and command respect at the same time.  It's a leap, but I'll keep an open mind.  Let's see where this goes.