Monday, October 14, 2013

Has the Swimsuit Issue Gotten Too Explicit? (3)

So there’s a bit of commotion swirling around Chrissy Tiegen and Brooklyn Decker of late, thanks to this video of Chrissy giving Brooklyn a—um—“vagina raspberry.”
They’re very close. They even switch bottoms. Or tops, not sure which.
The video was picked up by Swim Daily.

Interesting. Boobs and butts are common territory, even getting their own “cams” dedicated to them. And legs? They’re pretty quaint, as objects of desire go.
But the aforementioned V-word is generally the unmentioned body part in re: the swimsuit issue. This is interesting, considering the fact that a woman’s bathing suit is essentially an arrow pointing to it.
My ongoing effort to track every instance of a girl wearing a top but not a bottom drove home what a taboo that area is, the most overtly sexual of the models’ sexual zones.

I do remember a behind-the-scenes video of Tori Praver in this shot:
…talking about how a kid who happened to be behind them on the beach at that moment was about to glimpse his “first female vagina.” I can’t find that footage anywhere, but I know I didn’t dream it. I wonder if it was deemed too dirty by SI and pulled.

But then there’s this interview with Alyssa Miller, in which she divulges one of the secrets of bodypainting: the pussy flap.
Somehow the missing “L” makes it even more apt.
It allows for that area to look as smooth and harmless in paint as it looks in a bikini bottom. It’s a rare instance of that part of the anatomy coming to the forefront. We Americans have a squeamish relationship to that organ, despite our fascination with the female body.
Exhibit A: the pussy flap.
Anyway, one of the few other instances of this phenomenon is this photo of Julie Henderson, posted on the SI Swimsuit Facebook page last summer.
The (official!) caption reads, “One time, at band camp…” Those of you who are familiar with the movie “American Pie” know the rest of the line.

It’s yet another manifestation of my contradictory attitude toward the swimsuit issue. Of course it’s sexual. But can’t you let me hold on to my fantasy that it’s a little more innocent than that?
I guess not.

1 comment:

  1. This is a good example of SI having its cake and eating it too. Officially, in Swimsuit Issue, they're pushing the envelope, but there are still lines they won't cross. But all this extra stuff: boob and butt pics, the pussy flap, and now Chrissy and Brooklyn's antics, it's just girls behaving badly, which is good for SI, but at the same time, SI gets a pass.

    An anecdote about the girls I went to high school with. They were wonderful. They looked nice. They dressed nice. Once in awhile, they'd get all prettied and sexied up. But I remember one of my gym teachers revealing that while the boys used a lot of soap in the shower, the girls hardly used any.

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