Sports Illustrated: “No girls allowed!”

Writer Mary Beth Williams tweeted the following this morning:

No actively competitive female sports figures on SI cover since Olympic gymnast team. July 2012.

Intrigued, I went back through Sports Illustrated’s cover archive and counted the number of covers featuring active female athletes. I only needed one hand:

2013: 0
2012: 1 (US Women’s Gymnastics Team)
2011: 1 (Hope Solo)
2010: 3! (Serena Williams, Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso & Vonn)
2009: 0

Pathetic. And ESPN the Magazine isn’t any better…most of the female athletes on their covers over the past five years are naked. Well, except for this one of the incredibly talented skier Lindsey Vonn with her face photoshopped onto Sharon Stone’s body in the leg uncrossing scene from Basic Instinct.

As Williams notes on Twitter, Sports Illustrated “could show women as more than bikinis. As athletes.” and “I want my daughters to read sports magazines & see themselves represented, not Barbie.” Seems like we need a Title IX for sports magazines.

Update: Vonn’s face was not photoshopped onto Stone’s body. Which is…better, I guess? Maybe?

• magazines
• Mary Beth Williams
• sexism
• sports
• Sports Illustrated