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ESPN Magazine to Launch 'Body Issue' with Nude Athletes

In attempt to lure some looky-loos away from the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue feeding frenzy, ESPN The Magazine announced today that it will publish an annual 'Body Issue,' which will feature pro, amateur and Olympic athletes posing in the nude. However, the editor-in-chief claims that the new annual issue is not about sex per se; rather, Gary Belsky wants to use the magazine to explore how "athletes' bodies are bent and pulled, tortured and broken, inflated and improved and made to excel." Belsky added that his challenge, as well as the photographers', will be "to use equipment and pads and bats and goalposts and soccer nets and pucks and helmets to obscure body parts that we still can't quite go to in a magazine that's part of a company owned by [Disney]."

Originally launched in 1964, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue reaches 67 million readers across a number of media venues (print, web, etc.). In 2004, ESPN The Magazine featured a spread on Winter X Games athletes in the nude, which sold very well. Belsky hopes to repeat that success with the new body issue. He said that he is already in discussions with a number of athletes to pose for the upcoming issue, but no names have yet been confirmed. We can think of a number of athletes whose bodies we wouldn't mind seeing 'bent,' 'pulled,' or 'made to excel.' The 'Body Issue' will hit newsstands on Oct. 19. [USA Today]

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And let me guess...the only

And let me guess...the only athletes posing nude will be women? Why is it that only women's bodies are featured nude. Are men really that juvenile and do we think so little of men that they cannot help themselves when they see a naked female body? Men's bodies are sexy as well...and if its about appreciating athletic forms we should all types of athletic forms. Discourses around nudity and sex should be shifted so that sexy+naked = woman ALWAYS. All bodies are beautiful and should be celebrated by both sexes.

naive

well you guessed wrong! there are nude men as well. It has all kinds of bodies. a sumo wrestler, a girl with a prosthetic leg. so they are appreciating all types! You might want find out more before you run your mouth and sound really stupid.

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June 11th, 2009
Tim McElreavy's picture

Tim McElreavy is the Managing Editor of CarnalNation. He has been a writer, editor, and communications manager for nearly twenty years. He holds a master's degree in art and art history from Tufts University and did additional graduate work in modern and contemporary art at Stanford University. He is adept at herding cats, big black dogs, writers, and recovering engineers. His other favorite play thing is language.