The world would be a pretty boring place if were were all the same size. It would be just as boring if the entire world looked just like Houston (don't mean to offend any Texans, but you get my drift- besides, it would really suck if it looked like Salt Lake City :)). It's like saying a landscape image sucks because it's an image of a beach and you really love mountains.

LSM, I wouldn't let any one person get you down, and it doesn't appear he has :) Sometimes I think the gallery is populated by fourteen yr-olds still proud of sprouting their first wood. Don't worry about it.

That said, I think there are larger issues here... like why the swimsuit edition of a frikkin' SPORTS magazine is their largest selling issue of the year. Why it was first Maxim, then Stuff, now countless clones of what seems to be the same magazine. But it's not all their fault. Cosmo and Glamour and others have been having rail-thin women on the cover for years and years (and if they aren't thin enough, they photoshop 'em). I wouldn't have a problem at all with the magazines as long as there was some kind of "equal time" for different figure types. Something that people could look at and say "hey, that looks like me." I'm not about to say there should be a law about it... but it does say something when the buying power determines what magazines stay and go... what movies are made and those that get tossed. My wife and I have talked about this too many times (we agree, btw). Unfortunately, I'm afraid it's only going to get worse. Media does effect perception, in my opinion. What we see, over time, does effect how we think. A lot of Maxim/Stuff/etc readers are going to grow up with the mistaken idea that they're going to get it on with someone named Pam 24/7, when it's more likely their destiny lies in a trailer park with an empty case of Bud laying on the floor while they help Springer keep his ratings up.

So why do the rags seem to be pressing this image of beauty out there? Because people are buying it. I guarantee you, if everyone abstained from buying Cosmo, or Maxim for a couple months, they'd be gone, governed by the power of the dollar.

ok, sorry for the diatribe, but I couldn't help it. However, I do know that SI won't get a dime from me until they get a woman with some serious hips on the cover of that swimsuit issue :)

LSM, keep making that stuff you make. I just wish more people would actually read the words above the comments box: "your helpful comments for improving this image".

Will