Kate Upton has appeared on back to back covers of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue because she is what people with blood in their bodies picture when they hear “woman who looks great in a swimsuit.” Well, you know, except commenters on the Internet, but you could give those guys a Scrooge McDuck Money Bin full of gold and they’d complain about the thickness of the walls.
The covers made Kate a household-ish name, upping her from “model bloggers can’t stop talking about” to “movie star who has her love life discussed on TMZ every day.” At some time between point A and point B, Kate’s fun-loving attitude turned into frustration and the feeling that she was being used for her body, and now she’s telling Elle magazine that being on SI made her feel terrible and exploited.
Kate Upton should have been on top of the world when she covered her first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in February 2012. Instead, the 21-year-old supermodel felt objectified and ridiculed. “After my first Sports Illustrated cover, I felt terrible about myself for a solid month,” ELLE’s September 2013 cover girl reveals. “Every single guy I met was either married or about to be married, and I felt like I was their bachelor present or something.”
The 5-foot-10 beauty continues, “I’m not a toy, I’m a human. I’m not here to be used. I am a grown woman, and you need to figure your sh-t out.” Even in professional settings, Upton says she’s treated like a stereotypical “dumb blonde.”(via US)
First things first, Kate is totally right. Women shouldn’t be judged exclusively for how they look, or presented to men as prizes or presents. Second things first, though … yo Kate, what did you think “being a popular model” meant? Did you think the swimsuit issue was a catalog for ladies to order the newest swimsuits? Do you think “lady lying naked in the sand with her hands over her boobs” was a swimsuit somebody could order? It is “Gawk At Ladies, The Magazine.”
According to the Elle interview, Kate is now also fighting a war of religious acceptance, which she fights against idiotic photographers by getting tiny finger tattoos.
“I was at a photo shoot and I was wearing a cross necklace that my mom bought me, and somebody made a joke like, ‘Why are you wearing a cross? Like you would be religious.’ And then they took it away. I was really affected by that,” Upton recalls. She later decided to get a tiny cross tattooed on the inside of her finger. “The whole thing made me realize that I do want [a cross] with me, at all times.”
Here’s the Elle cover, which may not be given to anyone outside of a library.
