from NY Times: There are, it seems, subscribers who dislike Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue.
They do not want to see it and they certainly do not want it sent to them. They view the sensuous lounging of supermodels in expensive bikinis as alien to the mission of a weekly sports magazine.
The anti-swimsuit-issue backlash never developed into a mass movement of anti-bikinists burning the special winter edition in protest. But there have been letters, more in the past than now, saying that the pictorials objectify women.
Subscribers can now dial a phone number (1-866-228-1175) to request that the issue not be mailed to them. Those who make the request will have their subscriptions extended by one issue.
So far, 25,829 paid subscribers, out of Sports Illustrated’s total of 3.2 million, or 0.8 percent, have asked not to receive the swimsuit issue. Last year, when the policy was not spelled out on the magazine’s letters page, 21,065 subscribers chose not to receive the special edition, which sold 1.56 million issues on newsstands.
