But she did not get the same treatment. Old age is to be celebrated for what it is without artificial enhancement. That should be the glamor.

BS is the correct call.

If by “redefining” they mean refusing to grow old gracefully, I guess.

She has the means to try to hang on to her 30 year old self as long as humanly possible, pretty much how most women of means in the spotlight have since forever (millions of years!) What’s so groundbreaking about what she’s doing?

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Of course she did. You don’t think they pose the other models in the most flattering way possible, or put them in swimsuits that compliment their figure, hide things they don’t want seen, apply makeup to enhance their beauty, and airbrush photos to maximize their appeal?

We’re talking about a matter of degrees. My guess is Martha had a good bit of creative control over the final product just as the other women likely did. Why should her age be a consideration whatsoever?

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I didn't know you went to high school with me.

For me this woman was and is a good friend. I am always saddened when she posts yet another picture of her boobs on FB or instagram. She is a smart very very nice woman with a masters in history. Her parents got her into pageants when she was young and she was in Miss Ohio multiple times. And she is still desperate to have people say she is pretty. But there is so much more to her that most people never see. She actually does still look good, but we are just shy of 40 years removed from high school and all have a few miles on us.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

i'll argue she's not getting the same treatment. The younger models get retouched to remove transient flaws: blemishes, dark circles and visible ribs.

Martha's gotten the equivalent of an angle grinder to face and chest. Her age has been categorically removed from her image.

Put an 81 year old on the cover, benefit from the virtue signalling publicity, but also make any visible evidence of age disappear. It's not progressive, it's falsehood.

with that i think i've used up my rant quota for the day.

Not a point I’m really invested in arguing, but what you’re talking about isn’t transient (dark circles, wrinkles, blown out lighting to hide blemishes and wrinkles etc). It is still a matter of degrees. An 81 year old will get more touchups than a 61 year old, who will get more touch ups than a 21 year old. But they all get it, and it’s all pursuant to the same goal, and none of the images are pure and authentic.

If SI is trying to make a counterfactual argument in the accompanying text, then I’m with you. Otherwise, let Martha look and feel how she wants to look and feel.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

All I know is that Duffy would hit it.

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Suffer Well.

Just count me on the side of natural without enhancement of any degree. Matching by varying the degree of enhancement serves to confuse. Losing grasp of the difference between real and fake is worrisome.

Oh the things you can do with Photoshop.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

I think you know the rule on these matters.

Pics or it didn’t happen.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I am with you here. It's as if SI is trying to say...." Look at how beautiful you can be at 81" when in reality she is not that beautiful without a hell of a lot of editing. That's not to say she is ugly but in terms of overall beauty, we all get worse looking as we age, unfortunately it hits women the hardest.

It is an objective fact that a girl aged 25 will be more physically desirable and beautiful than a women aged 81. Why try and run from it and put out a false version of what age really does to you? Embrace your age but no need to put it on the front of SI. Although SI has become a joke for the last 10 years so who really cares. They put whales on there last year if I recall.

I hope you haven't looked at any photos of any models or actresses in the last 40 years or so. Nothing in a magazine or ad is natural without any enhancement. Hell, even good hair and makeup are enhancements.

SI has been trying for a few years to shed the criticism that it's a sexist out-of-date dinosaur. So they put overweight women in the swimsuit issue. They put an 81 year-old in the swimsuit issue. They put a transgender woman on one of the covers. It's all part of some mild virtue signaling so they can grasp at a dwindling audience.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I'd argue we have to make a distinction between digital post-processing of images and people like washing their hair in the morning.

There are photographers (and models) who like to go without digital filtering. And I think it's great.

Can you define enhancement? Does makeup count? A push-up bra?

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Spanx, push up bra, and makeup skills...

The difference between "enhanced" and natural can be mind boggling.

Models and actresses and their photos for the past 40 years have not had my attention. I get that there is a market for beauty, both feminine and masculine. I get that vanity is sought. I have never been a fan of the practice. That's all. Natural looks to include looking your age works for me. As for SI and making a buck, wasn't relevance first found in a swimsuit edition that went to print during the dead season of sports after the super Bowl and before spring training? I guess virtue signals are good in season.

Down the dangerous road I go. plastic surgery, dyeing hair and heavy make up are definite no nos. My personal fashion model of 50 years ,aka my better half, serves to instruct my thinking.

Looking at recent pics of both Joe Biden and Martha Stewart inform me that surgeons have pulled, cut and tucked perfectly good aging epidermis. That is not right.

Absolutely nothing worse than an old person trying to remain young looking by having their skin stretched to oblivion or getting Botox injections so much their face is a brick.

What Goldie Hawn did to her face, along with many others is sad to see.

The problem is people think they are supposed to stay attractive and enticing as they get older. They aren't.

It's OK to age and get ugly, everyone does it. No one is exempt.

When we say a women or man looks good, for his age, we are acknowledging that person is not really that good looking but trying to throw them a bone. People need to be less wrapped up in their looks.

I'm certainly not an aficionada of plastic surgery so maybe it's well done much of the time and you can't really tell the person has had and it makes them look younger than they are, but it seems like much of the time they just end up looking old and freaky thanks to the plastic surgery.

SI is advertising their "rookie" group of models (not including celebrities like Martha, Padma, or Livvy Dunne).

Of the eight new models, maybe three have traditional model bodies, three are probably somewhere between curvy and overweight, one certainly looks obese (although not as much as the model from the OP), and one is pregnant. This is on top of an 81 year-old, multiple transgender women, returning obese models, and a self-identified pansexual model.

It's easy to see that they are making a specific effort at "body/identity inclusivity," for better or worse


https://swimsuit.si.com/...023-meet-the-rookies

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I try to keep an open mind here. It's important to think this through instead of, potentially, just signaling.

I think a lot of avenues of enhancement are totally acceptable, but you want it to be hard to notice as pure enhancement. You want to remain human looking.
Many aging women are not remaining human looking. Considering their obvious original intent, it's really a tragic situation.

Who named you king of the world and gave you the right to say that what someone does with their body "is not right"? What someone does with their body kind of sounds familiar...

If anyone tried to stop my hair and nail appointments, they would be stabbed in the eyeball with an ice pick. And I'm sure I could show you some photos of what you might call "heavy makeup" and you wouldn't know the person had much makeup on.

Pretty funny that nearly 100% of the comments here are from dudes.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

If I cancelled one of my wife hair or nail appointments same thing.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

You ask a fucking question and then bitch about people answering the fucking question?

It's an opinion. Even men are entitled to them.

Well apparently SI can't win. Show regular-type women, they're virtue signalling. Show enhanced and airbrushed women that's "not right."

What are they limited to? Only slightly malnourished women who've had no cosmetic ops between the ages of 18 and 26? Anything outside that is virtue signalling?