Name: Polly Gilmore

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Sexualization of Women in Fashion

Date of Fieldwork: December 17, 2018

Name of Organization: Sports Illustrated

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: MJ Day, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Editor

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed MJ Day of Sports Illustrated about her work on the Swimsuit Edition. We talked about her goals for the issue, like having more inclusivity, and showing the models’ personality more.

What I learned:

We learned how Sports Illustrated goes about interviewing models. They don’t ask for measurements or anything like that, but they do ask about goals and plans. This goes hand in hand with trying to show the model’s personalities. We also learned about how Sports Illustrated photoshops the swimsuit models. Never body shaping, only retouches with the models’ consent. This put in perspective for me how, at the end of the day, the Swimsuit Edition is for modeling swimsuits, not sexualization.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that sometimes in an industry that makes such unrealistic images, and mostly only shows the same types of models, baby steps can lead to big leaps.