Congratulations, Lisa Harrison. You’ve sent a very important message to young girls across America: Don’t take your clothes off — unless you get enough money.
Harrison, the Phoenix Mercury forward who recently won the second “Sexiest Babes of the WNBA” title, from playboy.com, decided Monday that she wasn’t going to accept an offer to pose nude for Playboy magazine.
Not because she felt it was morally wrong. Or gross. Or embarrassing.
She decided not to pose because the magazine wouldn’t meet her asking price.
“They sent me a contract and I looked it over and had other people look it over for me,” Harrison told The Arizona Republic. “I made changes to the contract with concerns that I had, but obviously the number one issue was the money factor.”
Harrison refused to disclose what her asking price was, but it’s believed to have been more than Playboy’s starting point, which was estimated to be in the low six figures.
“I really felt I needed to stick to my guns and stick to what I orginally asked for,” Harrison said.
We couldn’t agree more. Everyone should have a price tag. As SPM Design Editor Teresa Aguilera so duly noted, “There’s a big difference between a $10 hooker and a $500 one.”
Harrison mentioned that the dollar amount needed to be enough to benefit her in the “long term” and how it was “the only way she could feel justified doing it.”
She obviously forgot that she’s already paid to play basketball in a league that stresses women’s independence by clinging to the success of the men’s league it was unfortunately spawned from. From where we’re sitting, she’s got it made. We don’t have the luxury of averaging 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per night for a team that could easily lose to a good collection of high school boys — and getting paid for it.
Consequently, we decided, as an editorial board, that we all needed to set our own prices — we all had to be absolutely certain how many zeroes we’d need on a paycheck to get naked for a magazine that will probably be read by another exorbitant accumulation of zeroes.
Left with little more than our wits and a lust for money that stems from others’ lust for skin, we started throwing around some ideas.
“I’d do it for a month’s worth of groceries,” Opinion Editor Ashlea Deahl said. “Or a year’s subscription to Playgirl.”
Managing Editor Justin Doom said his price tag would be astronomically higher and that there’s no way he could afford to accept complimentary magazine subscriptions.
“It would take several million dollars,” Doom said, “and not just because I don’t believe in selling yourself for cheap. I’d also have to be able to cover my enormous legal bills.”
What?
“Yeah, my legal bills,” Doom continued. “Anyone who sees me naked is probably going to want their money back and I’ll be damned if I’m going to just hand it back over to them.”
City Editor Scott Bewick said all it’d take for him would be a cold beer on a hot day.
But, clearly, it’s important that everyone has a price. It’s also very important that you don’t just decide to have one for the purpose of mocking someone else’s terrible decision. That’s stupid, not just financially, but because it sets a disgusting example, especially for young girls.
So, fearless readers, you have an important decision to make. And don’t settle for a penny less.
