Sailer says she's shot full of steroids.

(Or something like that.)

She and her sister had similar builds for the first year, but not thereafter.

I actually LOVE seeing women like Serena posing like this because she is BUILT.

So many women are hiring personal trainers for their weddings like, "Uhhh... I want to be like, toned? But not, like bulky? Do I, like, HAVE to lift?" So many men, when they saw the US women's gymnastics team in swim suits were like, "Ugh she's all muscle. So unattractive."

So I am always thrilled to see women who don't promote skinny-fitness. Who show that, in the process of doing cool, bad-ass stuff, you may pack on some serious muscle. And are showing it off.

I am biased. I train BJJ with lots of Amazonian women.

That is such a milquetoast swimsuit. She would look so much better in that silver cutaway swimsuit Rihanna wore in 2012:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/18/article-2088139-0F82675600000578-272_306x661.jpg

And yet, it is ok for women to objectify men. They can make all the comments they want about hunks, have "good looks" on their checklist for a husband, almost always marry a taller man than themselves, demand and assume that their man can and will do all the heavy lifting around the house.
What men find attractive in women is almost all related to youth, health, and ability to have children. Wide hips indicate ability to carry a child. Slim build indicates youth. Smooth skin and pretty hair indicate good health and maybe good genes. It is totally sensible for a man to prefer these things and be excited by them, just as being taller and stronger is a good indication to the woman that the man can provide for her and protect her. This tut-tutting about being attracted to good looking members of the opposite sex is either naive or reflects jealousy. You notice that men almost never think it is inappropriate to like to look at good looking women (except for male feminists, the hypocrites).

CNN sniffed that Christie Brinkley's posing with her daughters wasn't "in tune" with the DC Women's March (dunno the official title).

Amazingly, they were promoting the acceptance of immigrants from the banned countries.

Who would cheerfully beat or kill Christie and her daughters for being seen in public - and possibly force their genital mutilation.

These pictures are illustrative of freedom and women's rights, and are in no way a step backwards. If you're such a slug you cannot control yourself, report to a zoo. As soon as they can figure out what you are, they'll put you with an animal which will teach you what you had on the outside: a view of a world treasure, not something to be defiled.

"By baring (practically) all in this Swimsuit issue, Serena has loaded importance on her body parts rather than what her body enables her to do as a tennis player."

This sort of dichotomous, win-lose, zero-sum mentality is exactly how literal losers think.

I don't see how her posing for Sports Illustrated in any way diminishes her accomplishments. Is there anyone who, if asked who Serena Williams is, going to respond that she's a hot black woman who posed for Sports Illustrated?

I doubt it.

I think anyone who's heard the name will identify her as a tennis player. The fact that she posed for Sports Illustrated is merely an incidental to her career. It doesn't define or eclipse it.

Besides, she's wearing a swimsuit, and not an especially revealing one. Should female Olympic swimmers be chided for appearing in Sports Illustrated in the athletic attire of their sport?

sofar:

So many women are hiring personal trainers for their weddings like, "Uhhh... I want to be like, toned? But not, like bulky? Do I, like, HAVE to lift?" So many men, when they saw the US women's gymnastics team in swim suits were like, "Ugh she's all muscle. So unattractive."

Well, as a gay guy, I'm not really the person to ask, but I see nothing wrong with the builds of Olympic gymnasts. They look very fit and healthy and still feminine. Quite lovely, really.

However, I don't find women like the late Joanie Laurer (WWE's Chyna) to be attractive. She was very obviously roided up. There was nothing natural about her appearance.

I always laugh at the way some women are so terrified of "bulking up." With very few exceptions, the hormones just aren't in place for that to happen.

Men spend countless hours in the gym, lifting obscene amounts of weight, trying to bulk up.

Introduce a resistance band in an aerobics class, and you will invariably find women who drop it like it was a live snake, protesting, "I don't want to bulk up!"

Yes, ladies, if you so much as think about using a piece of rubber surgical tubing to provide resistance to your workout, you'll look like Nitro on The American Gladiators by tomorrow!

Patrick brings up a good point: female swimmers wear swimsuits not unlike the one pictured.

I'm left wondering, has the author ever, you know, actually watched women's pro tennis and what they wear on the court?

Of course Sinead Kissane has a problem with strong beautiful women. She reminds me of a bird (avian, not English) with an eating disorder.

I ran into many people who thought women who compete in figure were hideously muscular when I was in shape. I could never convince them that a woman at a contest has dieted down to show off that level of muscle. I would just laugh when they would comment on the awesome bod of a woman in the gym who invariably would be a off season competitor.

" loaded importance on her body parts"

Like the women marching wearing vagina costumes?

Moar---

First of all, the Irish. M'kay? Comprende-mundo? I'm not schoolboy, but off the top of my head I can think of nothing special done by Ireland for tennis, feminism, or newspaper commentary. Or swimsuits. It would be great if their attention could first be given to the junction of these realms within their own Republic. There's a reason this woman is sniffing into the United States' Venn diagram of these topics: We rock the world in all these regions, intersecting or not.

Secondly, who in your life says things like this? Who even thinks them?

Serena has loaded importance on her body parts rather than what her body enables her to do as a tennis player.

Listen, I'm a video engineer. But I "load importance" to many different parts of my life over the course of a day. Who even thinks in terms like that?

Nuns, that's who. The sort of sexless, cowardly, indoor person who presumes the only reason to go out on a tennis court in a short skirt and a tight blouse is that it will show off one's tennis game a little better, as if the erotic allure of an athletic woman in good health was thereby somehow made invisible, and Serena's appearance here is a sudden surprise.

This is not the case. I'll never forget the first photo of Serena that I saw after she'd filled out in adult growth (whether by steroids or genetics). My response was da-yum. This was the same response felt by countless millions of other men. We've felt it almost ever other time a briefly-dressed and athletic young woman has stepped onto a tennis court. It's a grown man / grown woman thing.

Rhetors of this type aren't leading the thinking of anyone, though we can well imagine they lead others by their insular, childish idiocy.

I R A Darth Aggie:

I'm left wondering, has the author ever, you know, actually watched women's pro tennis and what they wear on the court?

And the way that the wind blows up those short skirts as they're running around on the court, Serena Williams isn't showing anything that her fans haven't already seen on the court.

Imagine if things were reversed; if society thought men were beautiful and sexy and women werent really worth looking at. Feminists would wine about the sexism being thrown at women. Their battle-cry would be that society should appreciate feminine beauty. Feminists will always find something to complain about. Always.

Just a wild guess here; but, I'll bet that Sports Illustrated never offered Sinead Kissane the modeling job.

N, I'll believe you that those women dieted down to show off their muscles. But at the same time as a man it is unattractive. The off season look is much more pleasing to most male eyes.

cc: What men find attractive in women is almost all related to youth, health, and ability to have children. Wide hips indicate ability to carry a child. Slim build indicates youth.
_______________________________________

You seem to be contradicting yourself a bit.

How can you have a slim build AND wide hips? Fashion models certainly don't, usually, and THEY have no trouble getting dates.

Not to mention that it's been pointed out more than once that rich countries value thin women and poor countries value fat women. (This would also explain why there's no shortage of BOTH thin and obese nude women in paintings by famous European artists from more than 200 years ago.) Also, of course, obese does not mean healthy - or healthful to any future children. Yet men in poor nations still prefer such women.

Also, I believe that an individual's beauty doesn't have QUITE as much power as it did 200 years ago, in the days before photography and magazines gave people easy access to view any and as many real-life (or airbrushed) body types they preferred. With porn constantly at one's reach these days, it's easy to imagine almost any man not wanting more than a few dates with anyone - or even wanting less attractive women for a change, as with Hugh Grant. As a well-known writer said: "Show me the most beautiful woman in the world and I'll show you a man who's tired of sleeping with her."

Of course, no amount of "fat acceptance" will change the fact that your body will very likely refuse to keep you alive after age 70 at the most, if you're 100 pounds overweight. There's a reason that people say "looks don't matter after the first five minutes," though that probably doesn't include obesity.

For the record, men's looks (aside from hostile, humorless faces) matter little to me, though I do prefer healthy men. On the other hand, it takes a lot of personality to impress me.

It is the hourglass figure Lenona. Yes men like it. But you can't have everything so people compromise. And yes, wealth (or the appearance of wealth) can be sexy too.