I fly a couple of times a week and when I am not working on the plane, I usually read.  I will bring various reading material — both Church related and non-Church related.  When I read religious material, I have found that I have a very different reaction when I am reading the Ensign versus some other Church material (e.g., scriptures or Dialogue).  I find I can read a book, either religious or not religious without any concern or embarrassment.  However, when I read the Ensign, I often feel embarrassed and a bit like a religious fanatic.  While a book is very text heavy with minimal pictures, the Ensign has a lot of pictures and some that take up the entire page.  I feel like a religious fanatic with all of these pictures staring me in the face and in my fellow traveler’s faces.  The pictures are much like those found in the Watchtower (Jehovah’s Witnesses magazine) — a bit tacky and overdone oftentimes.  The models tend to be white and beautiful, not reflective of the Church as a whole.  So I will admit I am sometimes embarrassed to read the Ensign in public because of the pictures and graphics in the magazine, not because of the actual text.  I feel that it will reinforce the strange stereotypes people already have of Mormons — white, conservative and fanatical — basically the graphics and pictures one sees in the Ensign.  I should note that I usually enjoy most of the articles which is why I read it every month diligently (except occasional ones which have been known to result in the magazine being thrown away in a huff).