Alert Diver does Sports' Illustrated

[Dafydd]

I hope you know what the effect of complaining could be...
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I have not seen the issue and subscribe to no scuba magazines, and only read the first page of this thread.
Now for a little magazine history that effected a magazine that I was tremendously fond of. I am a photographer, now I spend my days teaching photography in a public high school. There was a magazine that had great articles and truly respect the art of photographers. The magazine would never put "copy" over pictures that were part of articles. Gutter bleeds were avoided. The writing was masterful and insightful. The whole magazine was a great read. But the circulation was small, (for a nationally distributed magazine). The amateur oriented magazines were and are cluttered with bright flashy ads and cheesy articles that are shallow and dull. The reading is aimed at the lazy minded. But those magazines sell. The classy well written "Camera and Darkroom" lost advertisers to the schlock mags that would put in any thing to get the magazine sold. This created a spiral effect and in the end C&DR folded, holding true to the ideals of "photography as visual art to be respected, and literature as art to compliment the images". The magazines were so fine that I collected them when they were being published and keep them to this day.
I'm not saying that the magazine in question here should be let off the hook. If they published something truly offensive to their stalwart readers to attract new readers of a different mentality, then they are in trouble. It would be insane to knock out your foundation to build a second story. On the other hand, if they were trying to liven up there magazine and just went too far, tell them, but don't cut your ties over one mistake. On the other hand, no as Tevia said "there is no other hand".
I just thought it pertinent to point out that scuba magazines are not too plentiful, and to lose one over a single mess up would be a real shame.


Hang In There,
Dafydd
Thinking of eternity and how fun it is...

[fishnerd]

I am a diver mom, and was also offended by the cover. I am glad to see I am not alone. My daughter got certified last year at age 12, my younger daughter will have to wait a few more years. She enjoys the magazine. I certainly don't want her to think diving is about big breasts and eye makeup and false eyelashes (different article, same issue). What about pictures of women marine biologists, or women instructors? I WILL be writing to SD magazine to tell them what I think. I would encourage a writing campain to the magazine. They need to know women divers have voices and brains, not just breasts.

[watergal]

Hi, Fishnerd, and welcome to you and your daughter from another 'fishnerd'. I hope your daughter is going to be a board member as well. The folks in charge put a great deal of time and effort into making sure that the whole family can review and enjoy the posts here.

Dafydd: I agree that it would be a shame to lose a special interest forum because of somthing silly. But I am a lot more concerned about the effect that NOT complaing could have! How else do the powers that be know what we want? I would hope that sensible people would fix the problem and leave the rest.

[kellie]

I also was a bit confused as to the content of the issue. I was not surprised though as SD is mostly fluff and ads anyway.

I was more confused when DAN decided to associate with SD instead of a quality dive publication. I feel Dive Training would have been a better choice.

As for the girls in the ill fitting gear.......they are just models......it was a poor choice for SD. They were worth a laugh. I also only get the mag. as a result of DAN.

The models did need a few meals though! And I bet they were just miserable during that job! Sort of makes me laugh just thinking about sitting around in wet suits all day in the heat. Oh, I am fairly crying!!!!

[Starfish]

My first response was "Oh no not them too! Well Sports Illustrated would be proud," and then I threw it into the recycle bin (normally I would have looked through the magazine though I don't take it's contents too seriously). If it was meant to encourage me to buy SCUBA gear for women as a woman, it didn't. Starfish, Ph.D.