Everyone's favourite business woman, Snoop Dog's BFF and iconic cook Martha Stewart has made Sports Illustrated Swimsuit history. The 81-year-old was revealed as the oldest cover model in the publication’s history.
Sports Illustrated dubbed her the “OG of influencers”, with 99 books to her name, a lifestyle magazine of her own, a range of clothing and home products and multiple TV shows, that seems like a fair title. Editor-in-chief of the publication said of Martha: “Never in her life has she let her circumstances dictate her outcome,” Day says of Stewart. “She’s changed with the times—always one step ahead, it seems—to build a wide-reaching business empire.” Photographed by Ruven Afanador in the Dominican Republic, in a white swimsuit, Martha told the magazine "I don't think about age very much, but I thought that this is kind of historic and that I better look really good."
Taking to Instagram, and her four million followers, the cooking icon told fans “My motto has always been: 'when you're through changing, you're through', so I thought, why not be up for this opportunity of a lifetime?”
Adding that “I hope this cover inspires you to challenge yourself to try new things, no matter what stage of life you are in. Changing, evolving, and being fearless - those are all very good things, indeed.”
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Martha Stewart might not think about her age very much, and too right, but her unapologetic attitude and commitment to being herself is inspiring. She's never let herself be put in a box, despite her path being a rocky one. In 2004 she was sentenced to five months in prison after she was found guilty on a number of charges related to an insider trading scandal. Since then, she has rebuilt her brand, starring in her own reality television show, expanding her food products and teaming up with rapper and friend Snoop Dogg in 2016 for a television series.
Ageism in Hollywood is rife, especially when it comes to women. A study of older actors by the retirement residence company Amica Senior Lifestyles found that "only 2% of top 2021 movies featured senior lead actors." (Amica defines "senior" as 60+.) Similarly, a 2021 report from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media concluded that characters 50+ were "less than a quarter of all characters in top-grossing domestic films and most-popular television shows from 2010 to 2020." And out of this small number, men represented four out of five 50+ characters in film. Martha's sexy, fun, and empowering cover is a needed antidote to the misogyny and ageism we are bombarded with. She's proof that there's no such thing as ‘hitting a wall’ or ‘mutton dressed as lamb’.
A lot of Twitter users certainly agree…
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Sports Illustrated have made huge leaps in the coverstars, in recent years. Last year, they were praised for a number of ‘firsts’ and for challenging what people think a swimsuit model ‘looks’ like: Ashley Callingbull (the first Indigenous model), Yumi Nu (the first Asian American curve model to appear on the cover), Maye Musk (the first woman in her 70s), Kelly Hughes (the first swimsuit model to show her C-section scars) and Katrina Scott (the first visibly pregnant model). However, most of the models featured remain thin, white and able-bodied. Hopefully ‘firsts’ will become a thing of the past, and start becoming the norm.
More representation like this, please.
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