A well-known sports magazine features transgender Kim Petras as its swimming costume issue cover model!

Last Updated on 05/21/2023 by てんしょく飯

This has been met with backlash… but why?

Famous American sports magazine Sports Illustrated’s decision to feature transgender pop star Kim Petras as the cover model for its swimming costume issue has sparked an online backlash.

Sports Illustrated magazine features Transgender singer Kim Petras on the cover of the Swimsuit 2023 edition 👙 pic.twitter.com/eMy53FcOJV

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 16, 2023

Sports Illustrated, whose latest cover girl is now 81-year-old Martha Stewart, was in the news when it revealed transwoman and Grammy Award-winning pop singer Kim Petras as the cover model for its swimming costume edition.

However, the decision has been met with a mixed reception online.

One Twitter user wrote: “Kim Petras, who is biologically a man, is Sports Illustrated’s new cover model …” and “For the second year in a row, Sports Illustrated has taken the spot that real women crave and given it to a man who thinks he’s a woman.” It writes.

Two years in a row Sports Illustrated has taken a coveted spot from actual women to give them to a man who thinks he’s a woman. https://t.co/X0tlCJOwAR

— Even More Pissed Off Patriot (@POdPatriot) May 16, 2023

Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Editor-in-Chief M J Day said there was no theme to this year’s shoot, referring to Kim as ‘an inspirational beacon for the LGBTQIA+ community’. ‘There is no theme to this year’s issue. Rather, there is a vision, a feeling, a hope that women can live in a world where they don’t feel limited internally or externally’ ‘But just because there is no theme doesn’t mean that these women don’t have common characteristics. These women are constantly evolving,” she explained in an interview.

This was met with an online response: ‘If you are an adult and want to identify as a different gender, be my guest. But the recent trend of companies and sports featuring trans women instead of biological women and giving them awards and top spots is very concerning” and “Why are biological women being replaced by biological men again? And where are the feminists who have championed this cause for decades?”.

On the other hand, Kim herself was reported by Fox News as being “excited” to be offered the job and commented that it was “a big dream come true for me”.

Incidentally, this is Kim’s first cover model, but she is the second trans woman to do so, as actress Raina Bloom appeared in the magazine in 2021.