Latitude’s Too One-Sided
Isabel ‘Piper Afloat’ Tifft, of the Bay-based Ranger 29 Voyager, recently wrote what this writer believes to be a very valid note:
"It seems you regularly run a letter from a woman who’s disgusted by a photo that’s more tawdry or cheesy than usual. Well, I find that sailors (especially Bay sailors) are a pretty tawdry bunch, so my expectations are not that high. As long as everyone concerned is a consenting adult, they can show whatever the law will allow.
"What disgusts me is the one-sidedness. Come on, people! Given the testosterone-saturated eye-candy I can find on any dock in the Bay, where are the men wearing nothing more than a little equipment and a big smile? Throw me a bone, here. I want to see short shorts scarcely punctuating tanned torsos, too — I just want something different in ’em.
"Neat or bearish, lithe or cuddly, let’s see some three-day scruff and zestful grins, great legs bracing mighty efforts, backs rippling with working muscles, those perfectly-proportioned sailorly arms — and skin! Skin! Skin!
"I’m no pervier than anyone else around here, it’s just that if you’re going to sink to such shameless cheesecake, you owe it to your own gleeful tastelessness to serve up some beefcake, too.
"Women are coming into their own in the sailing world as never before, and you sure don’t want to be too slow off the mark to catch them. Hope to see you on the water . . . with yer shirts off!"
We like to consider ourselves fair and balanced — at least where tastelessness is concerned — so we invite you to share your tawdry photos of more manly models. Just be sure to send them to LaDonna for . . . um . . . evaluation.
Isabel, this one’s for you:
