Letters

Not Plain in Spain
We have just received the swimsuit issue (March 9) and must thank you for giving your readers the same beautiful models as well as spectacular new ones year after year. We think your new model Vendela Kirsebom follows the standard of excellence set by Elle Macpherson and Kathy Ireland. Your magazine has definitely warmed up the remainder of winter term.
SETH ALTMAN
DINO KATSIRIS
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor

Good grief, I'm in love with Kathy Ireland again] How many more times are you going to do this to me? Oh, I guess one more time would be O.K.
LARRY HSU
Cambridge, Mass.

Kathy Ireland is the best. But where the Elle is Macpherson?
CHRIS STEELE
Rutherford, N.J.

The news of a monthlong delay of this year's swimsuit issue hit me like a ton of Lycra. But so did the breathtaking cover photo of Kathy, the most stunning of all your beautiful models. All in all, the wait was well worth it. To senior editor Jule Campbell and photographer Robert Huntzinger and crew, keep up the great work. This year's issue deserves a gold medal.
DAVID PAYNE
Clinton, Md.

Your swimsuit issue must have increased your circulation considerably. It did mine, and at age 75 I need all the help I can get!
PHILIP J. SCHACCA
West Hempstead, N.Y.

What has happened to the once-revered swimsuit issue? Many of the swimsuits look more like athletic clothing than swimsuits. There are quite a few ridiculous poses and absurd camera angles. Scenic sun-and-sand backgrounds are nonexistent. Your recent swimsuit issues are shabby compilations compared with those of even five years ago. Shape up!
ROBERT J. CORREIA
Braintree, Mass.

I was disappointed with the ordinary models, and whoever designed the swim-suits should go back to the drawing board.
L.A. ALDEMAN
Wellman, Iowa

If I want to see girls, I can buy Playboy. If I want fashion, I can borrow my wife's Vogue. Why take up space in my favorite sports magazine?
CLAUDIO A. LICHTENTHAL
Boston

As with the tomahawk chop and the name Redskins, all offensive practices continued in the name of tradition must come to an end. Inclusion of the swimsuit feature in your magazine carries the offensive implication that women are merely men's sport. Especially in a year in which the U.S. women Olympians in Albertville were clearly superior to their male counterparts, SI should be filling its pages with the athletic accomplishments of women, not their nearly naked bodies.
KAREN L. BARR
Washington, D.C.

How about expanding the current layout to include more swimsuits that I could wear on a beach without getting arrested?
GABRIELLE M. RIOUX
Everett, Mass.

It's too bad SI hasn't found a way to print the swimsuit issue upside down, so all the world could see these women as you do—hanging by their feet, no longer human beings, merely sides of beef that appeal to men's basest appetites. And how interesting that your 1992 version should be published just a few weeks after you expressed shock about Mike Tyson's actions toward a teenage beauty contestant, who, it should be noted, is most often pictured wearing a swimsuit. God save us from hypocrites such as you.
MARK AZZARA
Danbury, Conn.

To me the attention paid to other women in this issue—25 pages' worth, a noticeable amount compared with a regular issue of SI—came off as a blatant attempt to balance the 38 pages devoted to the swimsuit models. It is sad to think that bullfighter Cristina Sanchez, zookeeper Sharon Matola et al. probably would not have received the exposure they did (no pun intended) if they were not featured in this, your shallowest issue. For you to think that these features would pacify those who find the swimsuit layout offensive underestimates your readers and insults those women who truly deserve to be heralded in your magazine for doing something more than putting on a swimsuit and posing.
KATIE MARTIN
Crockett, Calif.

Again, a Shot of Shana
I watched HBO's Official Swimsuit Video and was filled with awe at the sight of the sensational Shana Zadrick, but I was disappointed to see only one photo of her in the swimsuit issue. Please do me and any of your readers who may have missed the video the favor of giving us one more glimpse of Shana.
JAMES E. BRAGG
New York City

•Our pleasure.—ED.

PHOTO

ROBERT HUNTZINGER

Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and should be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020-1393.