Boobies and Breast Health

This is the cover of Wired magazine this month, and some of the images from the inside of the issue.

Earlier today, I was in line at the grocery store.  I always pick the wrong line.  Today, I was behind some forty year-old nerd and his momma.  Instead of loading their groceries onto the belt in a quasi-efficient manner,  they were engrossed in a loud and grammatically questionable argument about the ratio of Snapple to Coca Cola being purchased.  The particular flavor of Snapple seemed to be a point of contention.

In any case, I was stuck staring at the magazines for a while.  The issue of Wired jumped out at me, since  it was practically shouting "Boobs, BOOBS, BOOBS, BOOOOBIES!"   I tried to ignore it, but then it started to shout "Tits, Titties, TITTTAYS!" in the voice of Eric Cartman.  I decided to respect its authoritah, so I picked it up and gave it a quick read.

There are several things I found striking.  One was that this issue was out in plain sight, while the cover of Cosmo was obscured behind one of those magazine cover shields.  The woman on the cover of Cosmo this month even had some clothes on. Huh.  I bet someone at Cosmo lost their job over that.

What was really strange was that the article in Wired was not offensive at all.  It was actually quite interesting.   It described breakthroughs in the use of stem cells to reconstruct breast tissue for women who have had mastectomies  (Breasts and Regenerative Medicine).

So, WTF, Wired?  There is a big mismatch between the content of the article and the imagery accompanying it.   Do we really have to use porny imagery to accompany an article about breakthroughs in breast health?   Can we count on you to run a similar cover if there is a major breakthrough in testicular cancer?

Yeah, I know.  The testicular cancer cover wouldn't sell many copies, and it would probably frighten small children, little old ladies, and pretty much everyone else. 

I have no doubt that the provocative cover caused more people to read a good, largely pro-woman article.  I still don't love it.   Thoughts?