Because I want the whole world to know.

Dear World:

I picked up the Jan 2011 issue of RunnersWorld yesterday and about died.  A page fell open with a nude lady covering herself, wearing running shoes.  You may be asking why I didn't see this earlier when I have looked through that issue?  Well, we happened to have two Jan 2011s around (one from our subscription and my dad gave us one).  My dear husband had already ripped that ad out of one and ripped it up and thrown it away.  I never saw it and didn't know about it.  But here was this PORN in our house.  Disgusting.  So I sent the following email to RunnersWorld right after I saw the ad.


I am disappointed that you decided to include what amounts to pornography in your Jan 2011 issue. We have subscribed to your magazine for several years and have given several gifts subscriptions. Never again. I will never invest one more cent in your magazine.

I received the following response today.

Dear Christi,



Thank you for contacting Runner's World Magazine.


We apologize if we have offended you. We believe that an active and healthy sex life, based on mutual consent and respect between partners, is an important component of physical and mental well-being. We also respect that sex is a private matter, and that each person has a different opinion of what sexual practices or levels of discourse are appropriate. Rodale is committed to offering responsible, practical advice on sexual matters, supported by accredited professionals and legitimate scientific research. Our goal - for sex and all other topics - is to publish information that empowers people's lives.


If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us or you can visit http://www.rodaleinc.com/customer-service/frequently-asked-questions.


Sincerely,


Alvin
Runner's World Magazine Customer Service
www.runnersworld.com

So I replied.

Alvin-



I'm not offended. My feelings aren't hurt. I'm not even mad. I just can't support a company that tries to pass off pornography in a light-hearted, justified manner. And, by the way, I subscribed to a RUNNING magazine, not a sex informational magazine. Good grief. If you want to sell porn, don't try to pass yourself off as something else.


A pornographic ad with a nude lady is not advice or scientific or informative or whatever you are justifying in any way. It's trash. Anyone with a healthy sexual relationship with their partner should be sick at their stomach to see their significant other strutting their stuff for millions of people. Rodale should be ashamed of themselves.


Trash trash trash.


I really hope, in the depths of my heart, that you personally do not really feel what you wrote in your response. I hope that you value the women in your life as people, not as images for the world. I hope you would CRY if your daughter decided to pose like this. And I HOPE that the response to my email was a mandated response from a bottom-line company, not a REAL PERSON.


I will be sharing your response with many, many people. And I hope they ALL cut ties with RunnersWorld, including my marathoning sister and all her buddies. It's sad, really. The magazine has so much good information, but rodale had to go throw garbage in there.


Christi K. Johnson
Manchester, Iowa
Wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend.

I'm aware that I don't have a huge readership.  That's fine with me.  But I encourage you to share this with ever runner (or parent, spouse, sibling, child, or friend of a runner) you know.  I have posted this to my unprotected blog so you can provide links to anyone and everyone.  And I encourage you to NOT support a company who tries to slide obscene material into what should be a totally innocent magazine.