Sex on a Beach
How sex sells, anytime, anywhere
The Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, first
published in 1964, is an
annual publication historically known for legitimizing the bikini as an
acceptable form of swim-wear.
Bikinis have now become bathing suit staples, but they
still hold the same sense of forbidden sexual allure they did forty
years ago. Sports
Illustrated markets its swimsuit magazine in a manner that presents
sexualized women in a matter-of-fact manner, and the magazine is
considered tasteful enough to leave on a coffee table. The swimsuit
edition has become a mainstay of the Sports Illustrated
franchise, and the magazine itself, rather than advertising products
featured
within its pages, serves to promote the company. As Sut
Jhally argues in his article “Image-Based Culture:
Advertising and Popular Culture”, Sports Illustrated uses the
photos they publish to associate the feelings the photos evoke -
sexiness, coolness, desirability – with the name Sports
Illustrated. The company then hopes that consumers will purchase the
magazine in order to associate themselves with those attributes as well.
These five photos were all shot by Warwick
Saint, a
South African-born and New York-based photographer. Two were shot as
part of the Sports Illustrated 2009 South
African Swimsuit edition but were not featured in the
magazine, while the other three were shot for and printed in the
2010
publication of the same. Although the appearance
and placement of the models is typical of the commercial
American image of female sexuality, the photos on the whole are
raunchier, and some feature partial nudity. Warwick Saint is well known
for his photos of female celebrities and
advertising spreads for various companies, many of them featuring
sexualized women. He uses his association with this theme to brand
himself and
his work.
Emily Goldman and Rebecca Richman