Suzy Chaffee, A Liberated Beauty
by Marian Christy, ''The Lebanon Daily News'', March 17, 1975
Beautiful blonde Suzy Chaffee, the glamorous model and Olympic skier recently turned down 'Playboy' magazine and $10,000 to pose for a nude picture layout.
Then Town & Country magazine made a similar proposition and Suzy jumped at the chance.
"The difference", says Suzy about the modest, full-length side view of her wearing nothing but olive oil and a pair of skis "is that skiing is an exhilarating that requires a highly-boned body beautiful, The statement I made with that picture has nothing to do with sex.".
Suzy, a wholesome-looking 29-year-old model who also does the Dannon Yogurt television commercials, says she and 'Town & Country' wanted to do a "tasteful" nude with a sportive tie-in. At the end of the all-day photo session which, incidentally was staged atop a remote mountain overlooking Lake Tahoe, Suzy expressed a great sense of personal accomplishment.
"I felt I had finally expressed myself." she says.
Suzy's best friend, Tish Greene, 27, a champion equestrian accompanied the photographer, Douglas Kirkland. Suzy, a bubbly extrovert, says she needed strong female moral support from someone who understood her motives.
"I did the nude because I want to alert women that active sports are a way of conditioning the body.", she says "A woman should be able to stand in front of a mirror with or without clothes and like the way her body looks. Frankly, I needed to have an enlightened female to cheer me on." says Suzy. "We both believe that sports are an exciting way of liberating the female body."
Liberation on any level is hard to come by.
Recently the Hart Ski Company of Saint Paul, MN asked her to endorse their products. When final contract negotiations got under way, a Hart executive made an indelible impression. "He told me I'd surely marry a millionaire and therefore I wouldn't be be needing much money from the endorsement." says Suzy about the contract she never signed.
"When a woman gets really angry at the way things are, a tough determination sets in. Then she discovers it's a big challenge to get your point across. If a woman has any success in blazing a trail - however minor - she begins to to feel the tremendous 'up' of accomplishment. But you've really got to be mad first.".
Suzy, a UCLA dropout is deep into mind development courses that further build confidence through self-awareness. Her mother, Stevia Korzan Chaffee, an Olympic skier of the late '30s never went to college. "My mother is a brilliant, sophisticated, well-read woman who has spunk and great incentive." she says. "These are the things that count and you can't find them in a classroom."
Suzy's father, Keene Chaffee, an engineer, who is part owner of a Rutland, VT firm. Patch Wagner is perfecting an invention of a carburetor which cuts down on pollution. Did her parents object to her posing in the nude?
"My parents are incredibly modern." says Suzy. "At a certain point in life, the children become the teachers of the parents. They were against the Playboy layout and I respected their opinions. They supported me when I did the Town & Country nude.". Before Suzy's grandmother, 84 year-old Helen Chaffee was shown the magazine with Suzy on the cover - the nude was carefully removed. "That's where the generation gap exists." laughs Suzy.
There has been no lack of suitors in Suzy's life but she has never married. " I have seen lots of beautiful qualities in a lot of different men", she says "But I have never found all the beautiful qualities in one man.". If and when Suzy does marry, it will be an open marriage because she is a believer in the "totality" of freedom.
Suzy says "It's foolish for society to impose the restriction of one man to the married woman. I'm not advocating sexual promiscuity but I think it' possible for a woman to have many kinds of relationships with many men and it shouldn't affect the status of the marriage. The husband in turn should have the same freedoms."
Suzy Chaffee, a thoroughly modern woman feels that the nude photo has opened prestigious new doors. Other status magazines want to talk about nude layouts. And she's just signed to a syndicated television show, 'World of Skiing' to air coast-to-coast in November 1975. Suzy, the host, will interview glamour skiers on and off the slopes of the world's big-name resorts. "Skiers are in love with a risk sport and they're uninhibited - even in conversation," she says.
About the nude picture that boosted her career: "The streaking syndrome started a new feeling about freeing the body. Nude beaches are getting more common. The world was ready for Suzy in her birthday suit.".
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