What's With "Nudesweek"?

February 13th, 2006 7:04 AM

What's with the naked woman on the cover of Newsweek, shrouded only by an eyeglass? The provocative cover is meant to advertise an issue on "Sex and the Single Baby Boomer," the demographic that started turning 60 this year -- what reader in their prime really wants to read about this subject? Once again, baby-boomer journalists display an obsession with themselves.

The hot item on the Newsweek website right now is a "Carnal Knowledge" quiz, a 45-question interactive test. The headline encouraging test-takers is "Boinking, boffing, bumping, bedding—boomers always thought they invented it all. So here’s a pop quiz on the half century of sexual high jinks they lived through. Show us how much you know—in the Biblical sense." Unsurprisingly, there are no Bible questions, and there are a lot of questions on gays, transsexuals, feminists, porn, hippie be-ins and 1970s TV. And a question noting the Moral Majority was not "pro-environment."

PS: When looking for romantic experts, I suspect there's something lacking in this author's expertise:

University of Washington sociologist Pepper Schwartz, 59, a twice-divorced single boomer herself and the author of "Finding Your Perfect Match."

UPDATE: At the very end of  the weekly "Live Chat" at the Newsweek web site with Barbara Kantrowitz, who wrote the cover story, she defends the nudie cover as clever:

Chapel Hill, NC: Why does Newsweek insist on putting a naked woman on the front of the mag? Aren't women exploited enough?
Barbara Kantrowitz: Speaking for myself, I thought the cover was pretty clever! As a woman, I didn't feel exploited. As a Boomer, I laughed at the bifocals. I think we can all relate to that.