Skimpy Coverage explores Sports Illustrated’s treatment of female athletes since the iconic magazine’s founding in 1954. The first book-length study of its kind, this accessible account charts the ways in which Sports Illustrated—arguably the leading sports publication in postwar America—engaged with the social and cultural changes affecting women’s athletics and the conversations about gender and identity they spawned. Bonnie Hagerman examines the emergence of the magazine’s archetypal female athlete—good-looking, straight, and white—and argues that such qualities were the...

Explores Sports Illustrated's treatment of female athletes since the iconic magazine's founding in 1954. The first book-length study of its kind, this accessible account charts the ways in which the magazine engaged with the social and cultural changes affecting women's athletics and the conversations about gender and identity they spawned.