Documentary turns focus on Jule Campbell, NJ woman behind Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue
By: STEPHEN WHITTY | Published: 2025-06-24 11:28:00 | Source: www.njarts.net
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COURTESY OF PHILIP JACHE
Jule Campbell, left, with “Sport Illustrated” swimsuit issue models Kathy Ireland and Carol Alt.
For more than 60 years, Sports Illustrated has had a swimsuit issue.
Somewhere along the way, though, they realized they had a swimsuit issue.
Wasn’t this a pretty obvious way to boost sales by marketing sexy pictures to horny men? Wasn’t the whole project just perhaps the most perfect example of “the male gaze,” the way that images in popular culture typically demean and objectify women?
The first answer is, yes, absolutely.
The second answer is … well, it’s far more complicated than that.
And far more interesting.
Because the first and longtime editor of that annual issue was actually a woman — a married mother with a…
