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Making Sport of Men Too

3/4/2017

10 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

In the history of Mindful Marketing, it’s rare for the blog to treat the same topic twice, especially in consecutive posts. However, given that last week’s discussion of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition struck an especially deep nerve and because there’s more to be said about the images’ impact on men, this week’s Mindful Matters is a sequel: SI-2 (or, too).
 
Last weeks’ post argued that although Sport Illustrated’s claim of inclusiveness seemed noble on the surface, deeper analysis reveals harmful indecency.  The magazine appears to embrace diversity by including women of various shapes, sizes, ages, and skin colors; however, that inclusiveness really isn’t female-friendly when one sees how women are portrayed in the annual edition. 

“Swimsuit” is somewhat of a misnomer, as many models sport only half a bathing suit, and some wear nothing but body paint.  Furthermore, the poses of many of the women are extremely erotic and clearly aimed at arousal.  Such prominent media portrayals of women as sex objects perpetuates a harmful stereotype, undermining the personhood of all women and making it less likely that their male counterparts will consider them equals.

Of course, Sports Illustrated will dispute that claim, but how might the magazine deny evidence that it also is doing a great disservice to its main consumers—men?  More specifically, there’s good reason to believe that through its swimsuit issue, SI encourages a very destructive form of addiction. 
 
According to Echo Media, Sports Illustrated is “the most well-known name in sports media.”  The magazine has an average weekly circulation of over 3.1 million.  The mean age of its readers is 37, their average income is $60,913, and 77% of the audience is male.
 
Given that over three-quarters of Sports Illustrated’s target market has no practical interest in women’s bathing suits, and that such skimpy suits have virtually nothing to do with sports, why does the magazine even produce such an issue?  Of course, it’s not the bathing suits that SI’s predominantly young, male target market desires but the near-naked women wearing them.  These images, which in many cases appear pornographic, can easily become an obsession.
 
The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) defines addiction as “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry . . . characterized by inability to consistently abstain, impairment in behavioral control, craving, diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships, and a dysfunctional emotional response.”
 
Of course, people can become addicted to substances like nicotine and alcohol, but is pornography in that same category?  WebMD describes the debate as to whether pornography use represents compulsive behavior or actual addiction.  This distinction seems irrelevant, however, when one considers that neither type of behavior is edifying and that Psychology Today uses “compulsive” to describe addictive behavior:
 
“Addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, nicotine) or engages in an activity (e.g., gambling, sex, shopping) that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive [emphasis added] and interferes with ordinary responsibilities and concerns, such as work, relationships, or health.  People who have developed an addiction may not be aware that their behavior is out of control and causing problems for themselves and others.”
 
The bottom-line is that pornography use, once started, proves difficult to stop and is often destructive to both the user and those around him.  Addiction.com reports that those addicted to pornography routinely spend 11 hours a week or more searching for and viewing pornographic material and that sometimes that preoccupation exceeds 30 hours a week.  That expenditure of time alone can cost users’ their jobs and relationships.
 
It’s not just lost time, however, that makes pornography so destructive.  Users often experience a variety of other negative effects such as feelings of guilt and shame, anger and hostility when confronted, lack of control over their own lives, emotional distance from others, and reduced intimacy in relationships.
 
By now you might be thinking: “But, Sports Illustrated only puts out its swimsuit issue once year.  How can such infrequent exposure be blamed for addiction?”  Any addictive behavior starts somewhere—the first drink, the first puff.  What’s more, the magazine provides much more than one image; it presents dozens of pornographic pictures that are easy for users to consume continually through the hardcopy issue delivered directly to their home or through the SI swimsuit website, which doesn’t even require a login.   
 
A final question all should be asking is “Why?”  Why would any organization want to place its key target market in such a vulnerable position?  To be honest, it’s hard for me to understand Sport Illustrated’s thinking.  A good guess is that the swimsuit issue is an especially big seller for the firm (i.e., a significant income source) and that the special edition serves as a subscription hook (i.e., individuals want that issue, so they order the entire year).
 
Given the longevity alone of the SI swimsuit issue (53 years), it’s likely that the special edition is creating value for Sports Illustrated, in addition to perverse pleasure for those who “read” it.  That gratification is short-lived and superficial, however, when one considers the destructive long-term impact the indecency has on its users and many others.  Once again, Sports Illustrated can be seen as practicing “Singe-Minded Marketing."


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10 Comments
Kelsey Robertson
3/24/2017 06:46:12 pm

Thank you for making this sequel blog. As a woman, I appreciated your initial post in addressing the issues of how Sports Illustrated objectifies women, albeit their diversity initiatives. However, especially on a topic such as the swimsuit edition of SI, it always gets analyzed for the harm it does to women and not men. When in fact, things like SI swimsuit edition actually affect both parties. Marketing campaigns that are rooted in sex appeal by objectifying women are most always critiqued for objectifying women, which they do, but there is also room to critique these marketing initiatives for their negative effect on men. While I wish this could be classified as Mindless, because of a failure to uphold societal values and a failure to create stakeholder value, it unfortunately is single minded since there is stakeholder value. One day, I hope SI will run a swimsuit edition that actually focuses on the sport of swim, with athletes and models actually wearing swimsuits that athletes wear – which ironically are on the very conservative side for swimwear.

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Kyle McAbee
3/24/2017 10:49:28 pm

This was a great post. I agree with you that this magazine edition has harmful effects on the minds of its readers. Many people may not think it is harmful, but the little tease the pictures offer leads the viewers to move on to more serious issues. The only reason SI makes this swimsuit edition is to draw in more customers or to make big money on a single edition.

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Sean McCarrell link
3/26/2017 07:44:45 pm

Thank you for taking the time to reveal the effects of this magazine issue. I agree with what you had to say about its negative impact on men. It seems as if SI is either unaware of these consequences, or they value the extra profit more than their customers' well-being. I would suggest taking time to gather data and see if there is any connection between men who regularly read this issue and their divorce rate. Thanks again for the post.

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Ulisses Banuelos
3/26/2017 09:45:39 pm

First off I want to thank you for putting up this blog post. This is very needed in our society today. First off what caught my eye was when you stated,"undermining the personhood of all women and making it less likely that their male counterparts will consider them equals." We see our culture screaming about equality for everyone and especially women, but how can men see women as equals when they continuously have been exploited as sex symbols? This is a question that our culture and society need to face. We cannot have double standards in our culture if we want to strive for equality. It just doesn't work.

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Luke Kenton link
3/27/2017 03:21:06 pm

SI seemed to uphold no moral values, but instead to accommodate the desire that men have for women. As the blog mentioned, SI is viewed by 77% men from all different ages. Because the articles are viewed mostly by men, SI has taken advantage of this and has no problem sharing this pornographic like images in their magazines. Although it is wrong, because it treats women as sex objects, it has continued to give SI more business then they ever projected.

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danielle
3/27/2017 03:44:39 pm

I think that this ad was not as successful because they failed to acknowledge the moral values that most families and woman would have. Rather they put this woman up as a pedestal and focused only on her physical looks in order to grab men's attention. But at the same time, this ad also did accomplish the idea of a double standard that is held in society as if it was a half-naked man, not as many people would be as upset.

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Matthew Garza
3/27/2017 08:36:50 pm

I feel that so many people need to read this blog. Our society has skewed the image of women so thoroughly that it's common for women to dress, or pose in a similar fashion to magazines like these. The problem is that not only are women encouraged to act and dress a certain way, but that there are also less and less substitutes for these actions. For example, a majority of women clothing manufacture's thrive off of selling revealing clothing. These articles of clothing are often referred to as "scandalous" and encouraged by society. Thank you for your blog. It is more than needed!

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Briana Acuna
3/27/2017 09:03:42 pm

I really enjoyed this blog, I feel like a lot of people need to read this blog, very beneficial for our society. As a women we idolize other women, the way we dress, act, talk and behave because of others. The Kardashians have single handedly altered the way we think about one another, my friends struggle with worthiness because guys compare us to these woman on the internet. It was much needed to read the blog, you can sense that we have created an image.

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Morgan Fritzius
3/28/2017 03:40:44 pm

I enjoyed reading this blog post and a lot of these thoughts really resonate with me. Not only is this magazine a problem for men but also for women. Magazines like this are using women to attract male buyers and it is degrading. Guys end up setting the women in these magazines as the standard and others end up not being enough for them. Women feel as though they can't measure up and it then becomes a problem for both men and women. This type of marketing seems to be working for them, however they clearly don't uphold any moral values.

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MckinneyVia link
4/1/2022 04:25:04 am

I very much appreciate it. Thank you for this excellent article. Keep posting!

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