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Show UVU REVIEW OPINIONS A6 Hey Sports Illustrated, we're #notbuyingit Swimsuits are continually missing from the swimsuit issue and apparently Barbie is totally into that By Brittany M. Plothow Opinions Editor @brittanyplo Sports Illustrated released its annual swimsuit issue this week. The irony of the situation is that all three cover models weren't wearing swimsuits at all. Well, they are wearing swimsuit bottoms, just nothing else. Perhaps calling the 50th anniversary issue the birthday suit issue would have been more appropriate. The swimsuit issue has a long history of objectifying women while using the guise of sports. Since its beginning in 1964, the cover has gotten more and more revealing and pornographic. This year's issue features three models, Nina Agdal, Lily Aldridge and Chrissy Teigen and this number beats the number of female athletes featured on the cover of the magazine for the entire 2013 year. Something is seriously wrong with that. In recent years model Kate Upton has been featured on the cover twice, once topless and one wearing an extremely thin bikini. Opening the cover of the 200-page magazine will assault the viewers with dozens upon dozens of topless models in suggestive poses. The magazine also features models in nothing but body paint. Remind me again how this is supposed to be about swimsuits? And what happened to the sports? Caryn D. Riswold, Professor of Religion and Chair of Gender and Women's Studies at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, published an article entitled Of Course Barbie in which she stated, "Let's just stop pretending that the male gaze cares at all for the Silt down and shut up We've come a long way baby, but there's still a long way to go Barbie can be seen on billboards marketing the swimsuit issue using the hashtag #unapologetic. You're right, Mattel. That's pretty unapologetic. It's also just plain icky. flesh and blood women with brains, hearts, and ambitions it regularly features." "They gave up on actually featuring swimsuits years ago," she said referring to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Barbie even is getting in on the party this year. A special SI edition of the children's toy will be available at Target starting the same day the swimsuit issue is released. Barbie and Sports Illustrated are also teaming up for promotion. Barbie can be seen on billboards marketing the swimsuit issue using the hashtag #unapologetic. You're right, Mattel. That's pretty unapologetic. It's also just plain icky. Lexie and Lindsay Kite, Ph.D., co-founders of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined are fighting back against this and many other forms of objectification of women in the media. In a post on their web site , beautyredefined .net, the Kite sisters call out this continued social issue, specifically Sports Illustrated and Barbie. "Barbie and Sports Illus- #NOTBUYINGIT A8 By Lacy Bentley Staff Writer rainbowsinblue@gmail.com One would expect a civil rights activist to desire equality and justice for all and to wholeheartedly support any person in being treated fairly. It also seems such a freedomand-equality-for-all-thinker would need to feel the same on all counts. This has not been proven to be accurate. Let's be perfectly clear, in the early days of women's rights no one was talking about rights for black women, poor women or "other" women. Forget gays. Just admitting to that would get you shot if you were lucky, tarred, feathered and hanged if not. A)0/nen ate nod eoyS Barbie & Sports Illustrated join teams to objectify women. For Heaven's sake, don't kill me for having a different opinion. 4MM PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY LAURA FOX UVU: no smokes please A group on campus aims to make UVU tobacco free By Thomas Hall Staff Writer hall.tom5@gmail.com ILLUSTRATION BY TREVOR ROBERTSON Hype never lives up Excitement for an upcoming movie or video game hardly ever justifies the final product By Jimmy Hall Assistant Opinions Editor @jimmyrhall For those who follow video games like I do, you will notice that Respawn Studio's futuristic metal-bot first-person shooter "Titanfall" has been headlining all gaming blogs. The beta version, a small version of the game that the public can test out, has been building hype and excitement around this new franchise. I, a gamer who only has a Wii U, have also fallen victim to this hype. And it's not even coming out on my console! But you bet I've been tossing around the idea of dropping $500 for an XBox One, or around $200 for the outdated 360, so that I can play it once it comes out in March. Of course, I'm not going to. I'm not that fiscally irresponsible. But this massive PR push has affected the niche of gamers like myself. I'm not here to just talk about "Titanfall." I'm here to talk about how media producers use hype, and most of the time it fails. We all know about the notorious flops that come out on a yearly basis. These are the HYPE A7 According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), "in 2011, the tobacco industry spent $8.4 billion on cigarette advertising and promotional expenses in the United States alone." "According to a report from the Surgeon General of the United States, any exposure to secondhand smoke is dangerous to the human body, including incidental exposure as you walk past someone smoking," said Dr. James Bemel of the Department of Public and Community Health at UVU. "Furthermore, students with chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma shouldn't be forced to find alternate routes entering or exiting a building in an effort to avoid tobacco smoke which may exacerbate their symptoms. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air and avoid being exposed to the deadly chemicals found in tobacco smoke." We can be a part of making our campus and our community safe from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke by choosing to adopt a tobacco-free policy at UVU. A student led and student driven campaign is the best way to make a change. If you are a smoker or tobacco consumer, begin your personal change today by supporting a tobacco-free policy at UVU. And if you are a nonsmoker and do not consume tobacco related products, be a voice to help make the change. The mission of NUVU is to persuade the Utah Valley University administration to adopt a comprehensive tobacco-free policy. The mission is designed to support the Utah Department of Health and the Utah County Health Department in achieving the goal, "To create an anti-tobacco social media campaign, targeting at-risk 18-24 year olds in Utah County." Because our student body fits the goal of the target demographic, we feel there is no better way to get involved than by affecting change at the UVU policy level. NUVU stands for NonTobacco Utah Valley University. It was conceived of by a group of community health SMOKES A8 Black men still didn't even qualify. These other classes just were not important enough and often not considered intelligent enough. And here we are again, only now we seem to be backsliding down a dangerous slippery slope of "That's not what I believe and you are wrong, so sit down and shut-up!" Weren't we just there? The issue at hand here is not women's rights, gay rights, or any other divisive and categorical level of rights or privilege. The issue is basic human rights and with them certain civil liberties and freedoms. Does a person have the right to express his or her mind openly and publicly while being heard and respected, even if not agreed with? Are freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to formulate and ruminate over ideas, freedom to think and express oneself freely, rights to be agreed upon or not? At first glance it is easy to be affirmative or to say "Sure, but they don't respect me and my ideas, so I'm not listening to them." That's not the point. The point is, one either believes ALL people have the right to express themselves and be heard, treated fairly and with respect, or they don't. There are no two ways about it. Everyone wants to be heard and to change the world in the way they feel is for the better. Everyone has an idea. The problem is the common knee jerk response of defending one's position at all costs. We agree with those who agree with us and furrow our brows at those who don't. I've been known to thumb my proverbial nose a time or two as well. No person being totally honest would admit anything different. And yet here we are, fighting to the death with ideas and beliefs, hopes and dreams, while seeking the same thing: to be seen for who we are and respected. Men, women, gays, straights, black, Japanese, Latinos, Mormons, Muslims, Atheists, whomever, we are all fighting the same fight! So why can't we all just get along? Because we do not SIT DOWN A8 |