A Duty to Look Good?

[ralmcg]

I read in a Times Online article http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6583801.ece that Yelena Isinbayeva believes that it is a duty for female track athletes to look like a woman. Although being a beautiful woman isn't a bad thing in track and field, I believe it is a more important duty for female track and field athletes to concentrate on their performances and not on their looks.

[Marlow]

Given today's culture, if you wanna maximize your earning potential, you MUST look good too. She's right. wPV is lots more popular than wHT (for example), and Isi is doing her part to keep it that way.

[SQUACKEE]

It's my duty, as a viewer, to monitor how good she is looking and i must say i approve of her pink kit.

[Cooter Brown]

The popularity of women's sports (and events within t&f) with Average Joe Sports Fan is in direct correlation with the attractiveness of the competitors. Just a fact of life.

[Marlow]

The popularity of women's sports (and events within t&f) with Average Joe Sports Fan is in direct correlation with the attractiveness of the competitors. Just a fact of life.

Even women's team volleyball with six women in spandex can't outdraw beach volleyball with only two women . . . in bikinis.

[Mikewats]

Isn't this where things are going wrong with female athletes, scared to lift real weights because they don't want to look manly. Well particularly in the sprints.

[kamikaze7]

A few years back, Sepp Blatter the FIFAS president suggested that female soccer players should wear tight short shorts as they do in volleybal and T&F. Suffice to say it was not well received.

[imaginative]

The comments on the pragmatical benefits of looking good are spot on; however,
I am troubled by the phrasing that it would be a female athlete's ``duty''.

I note, in particular, that both looks and femininity vary naturally in the
population; and that it should be the choice of each individual athlete (or,
indeed, human) how she prioritizes various aspects of her person---up to and
including extremes like Buschbaum (who should not necessarily be allowed to
compete with women, however).

(Beware that I am lacking the exact context: The given link timed out for me.)

[Powell]

I note, in particular, that both looks and femininity vary naturally in the
population; and that it should be the choice of each individual athlete (or,
indeed, human) how she prioritizes various aspects of her person---up to and
including extremes like Buschbaum (who should not necessarily be allowed to
compete with women, however).

Huh? She should not be allowed to compete against women because of her clothing or hairstyle? :shock:
Of course, once she started taking male hormones as part of the sex-change process, she was eliminated from women's competition, but before that, did anyone have a problem with her?

[Marlow]

Isn't this where things are going wrong with female athletes, scared to lift real weights because they don't want to look manly. Well particularly in the sprints.

I 'appreciate' fit, athletic-looking people, male or female. I've never seen a female athlete who looked too strong, i.e., manly. There were some East Bloc women athletes, maybe a certain 800 WR runner, who looked a little . . . rugged . . . but one suspects there were other factors involved there.

[Mikewats]

Isn't this where things are going wrong with female athletes, scared to lift real weights because they don't want to look manly. Well particularly in the sprints.

I 'appreciate' fit, athletic-looking people, male or female. I've never seen a female athlete who looked too strong, i.e., manly. There were some East Bloc women athletes, maybe a certain 800 WR runner, who looked a little . . . rugged . . . but one suspects there were other factors involved there.

Yes but a lot of young girls who are say 17-18 and may be starting a weights routine will just have a picture of a female bodybuilder in her head, who has dabbled in steroids and now has no breasts. I think we've all seen pictures of them.

I think sometimes they don't quite realised how much harder it is for a female to get muscles without steroids. Plus low reps and low sets should be encouraged and explained that this won't build great masses of muscle, plus a greater appreciation of diet.

basically this


instead of this

[copyrighted photos removed by mods... good grief, it even said "copyright" right on the photo; how hard a concept is that to understand?]

[ralmcg]

I am going to admit something. I do have a weakness for female athletes in shorts. Having said that I am not expecting every female athlete to wear shorts if it makes her uncomfortable and/or decrease her performance. The point is that a female athlete should not have to have as her greatest duty to be "feminine" in order to be an athlete.

[Wang Lung]

I wouldn't get too carried away scrutinizing her use of the word "duty". She is Russian, afterall, and it's reasonable to assume subtleties are lost in translation.

[TheTransporter]

Isn't this where things are going wrong with female athletes, scared to lift real weights because they don't want to look manly. Well particularly in the sprints.

I 'appreciate' fit, athletic-looking people, male or female. I've never seen a female athlete who looked too strong, i.e., manly. There were some East Bloc women athletes, maybe a certain 800 WR runner, who looked a little . . . rugged . . . but one suspects there were other factors involved there.

I don't think the problem is lifting weights. Isi is not implying that women need to look "noodley" (read: sickly thin) like runway models with no muscle tone. I am sure she is not advocating that women stay out of the weight room altogether. The lifting of weights does not 'maculinize' women, it increases their effectiveness for whatever they are training for, and, I would argue, increases their wholesome aesthetic appeal. One qualification, of course, is that when the end goal of the woman hitting the weights is to be absolutely massive, then they are entering into the realm of "self degirlification". Usually that comes with chugging back chemicals and pills so as to feed abnormal muscle growth that rails against the wholesome mandate that women be women. Aside from muscles of an unorthodox size, they get manly features that are quite noticeable - especially in the face. Men should be men, women should be women.

Yes, "sex sells" and no one wants to see an unrighteous objectification of women or standards and expectations for female clothing and conduct where male viewership is encouraged to ogle in a state of sexual arousal. (That may be unavoidable as those unchecked by self-control have their fetishes and can be turned on by women in traditional Muslim garb). But the wholesome admonition that women should look like women, and in doing so seek to look beautiful, is absolutely acceptable and should be trumpeted with more frequency.

[Powell]

I don't think the problem is lifting weights. Isi is not implying that women need to look "noodley" (read: sickly thin) like runway models with no muscle tone.

She is no stick insect herself, so I don't suppose she could mean that at all.