Attack on American Mailboxes

I got a text message from someone I love, and she was shaken.  She was very upset & needed some support and advice.  She had gone to the mail, and was sorting through it when she got to her husband's Sports Illustrated Magazine.  It was this years' Swimsuit Edition, and after seeing how very little the swimsuits are actually being showcased... she was hurt, she felt insecure, and she was praying that her husband wouldn't be upset with her for wanting to throw the magazine in the trash.  She sent me a few images from within the magazine, and I too am completely floored.  The magazine looks more like a Playboy filled with skinny women, with enormous breasts, showing the world everything they have.  I was completely speechless.  This magazine should have had a black protective sleeve on it.  You should have to be 18 years old to purchase it.  And young boys & men shouldn't be able to find this SMUT in their mailboxes.  I couldn't help but be disappointed in a country that allows this type of material to be mailed out in mass. This magazine arrived the week of Valentine's Day.  Men across the country are fantasizing about women, with unattainable body images, and flaunting everything they have for any household in America that subscribes to Sports Illustrated.
I found myself thanking God that my husband doesn't subscribe.
That is when it hit me... THINGS LIKE THIS ARE EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG IN OUR COUNTRY.  Yes, I said it.
This magazine creates many problems, but I am going to outline 5.

It made your wife feel insecure about her body.
As a mother of 2 children under 5... there isn't much about my body that I am 100% in love with!  Fact is, I don't look anything like I did before I had kids.  I have had 2 additional surgeries since my last c-section, and they left me with 12 visible scars on my stomach, legs, arms, and rib cage.  Even 3 years after the birth of my last child, I am 50lbs heavier than I was when I got pregnant with my first.  I use skin care products to keep my skin looking fresh and young, and makeup to cover the imperfections.  I workout, and eat healthy so that I can attempt to reverse time.  And I rub cream on each scar daily to try and make sure that my husband still thinks I am beautiful.  He would say that he would love me no matter how I look, but I want to look good for him.  I want to be the one that he thinks about, NOT THE WOMEN IN THAT MAGAZINE.  I can't look like them, no matter how hard I try.

It makes young men have unattainable expectations.
I can't imagine being single and turning 20 these days.  What men have been exposed too is so beyond what they had been 10 years ago.  These men have hopes and expectations based on years of seeing women like these.  They don't realize or even care that they are airbrushed, haven't eaten a real meal in years, and are being degraded.  SHE IS HOT, is all they are thinking, and it's what they want.

It makes husbands lust for someone that isn't their wife.
Porn RUINS marriages every day.  Do not be fooled by the title of this magazine... it is PORN.  Almost completely naked women (some are completely naked) mailed out in mass to men across the country, bought off store shelves, and flashed across computer screens.  It is P.O.R.N.  Make no mistake about it, the men looking at those pictures are doing what any man does when he sees a naked chick... thinking about sleeping with her.  Your marriage can not benefit from its husband lusting after a woman that he isn't married too.  PERIOD.

It is not discussing anything related to sports.
The first Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated Magazine was released in 1964.  The purpose of it was to fill a gap in good sports news during a month that there isn't much to discuss.  It has since become one of the issues that men look forward to receiving each year, and one of the only issues some men subscribe for.  The magazine in 1964 had 5 pages inside with a female model in swim wear.  Now the ENTIRE issue is devoted to half naked women wearing (or not wearing) the tiniest form of a bikini.  This is false advertising.  Putting smut into a magazine labeled with a SPORTS title... will only draw more men too it, and help drive up sales. Because everyone in America knows that for some disgusting reason... sex sells.

It is not prohibited for young audience.
This magazine sits on shelves in all of it's glory for anyone to see and flip through.  I read an article that is case and point.  A mother standing at a pharmacy counter with her 11 year old.  He saw the magazine and went crazy. He wanted to keep the magazine, because he could almost see full breasts.  I can't imagine how that mother felt, and I can imagine how upset I would be for my 11 year old to be exposed to that.  THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.  As American's we have freedom, but we aren't being responsible.  It is no wonder so many nations around the world hate everything about Americans.  Look at the kind of smut we allow children to be exposed too.

If this magazine had arrived at my house, I would have thrown it in the trash, and unsubscribed my husband. I pray that my uncle and his family of 4 young boys who are sports advocates didn't receive it.  I pray that young men across the nation learn that women deserve respect, and we don't deserve to be compared to something that is completely unreasonable and unrealistic.  I pray that they find happiness in their marriages, and not in some trashy magazine.  Sports Illustrated should be ashamed of themselves, and show some responsibility in their future issues.