From Jennifer Weiner in the New York Times:
This year, the hot new body part is the formerly unnoticed span of flesh between the top of one’s panties and the labia majora, currently displayed on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition by the model Hannah Davis.
In the shot, Ms. Davis stands, thumbs hooked into the sides of her bikini bottom, pulling it down to reveal more of her tanned, toned, hairless on-ramp than you would typically see outside of a gynecologist’s office. “It’s the year of the torso,” Ms. Davis told Matt Lauer on “Today,” in a transparent attempt to win the award for Best Use of a Euphemism on Morning TV. Seriously, when you look at her picture, you do not think “torso,” any more than viewers of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl nipple reveal thought “pecs.”
It’s shocking, and it’s meant to be. With hard-core pornography available to anyone with a laptop and a credit card, Sports Illustrated has to raise the stakes if it wants to stay relevant. (Disclosure: my gentleman caller edits books for Sports Illustrated and is the author of the oral history of the swimsuit issue that appears in “50 Years of Beautiful,” a coffee-table book of swimsuit shots. #Awkward.)
Some critics want merchants to cover the cover. Ms. Davis’s picture “borders obscenity, as the focus is specifically on the exposed pubic area,” said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
Obscene or not, I’m concerned that the shot has left women and girls with another raft of insecurities.
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