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It's a sideshow! I thought that I had written all I had wanted to write about the Lingerie Football League in my inaugural post, The Lingerie Football League - Are you freakin kidding me?, but now that a LFL team has popped up in my backyard I felt the need for some cathartic writing.  This past week it was announced that Abbotsford, British Columbia will be the newest market to host a LFL team.  Irony has placed the team in a relatively conservative church going community of the Greater Vancouver area (Abbotsford is about an hour outside of Metro Vancouver), which has some of the locals on edge with Bibles in hand.

Amanda Carrasco, Canada team leader of the XXX Church - which administers outreach to workers in exploitative industries  - questioned why the league would choose Abbotsford, with "its thousands of churches."  Carrasco, who provides Bibles for guidance, said, "We will go in and spread some love on the girls." (The Province, 2012).

I don't think she really meant that last part the way it came out but football and Gomorrah aside what caught my attention was a related article about a 23 year old woman from North Vancouver who was the captain of her high school rugby team and eager to join the LFL. Kate Marshall, whose father is a football coach and mother was a former body builder, said to The Province:

"I feel like its a great opportunity for girls to showcase their talent...I feel that's the closest I would come to being a professional athlete."

My feminist hairs stood on end when I read this because, well, she might be right - running around on a field in nothing but lingerie and a hockey helmet playing the sport she loves is probably the closest version of the NFL she will ever experience.  The saddest part is that professional women's football leagues exist!  A number of leagues, such as the Independent Women's Football League, (as I understand it) enable women to play semi-pro football.  The fact that an athlete such as Kate Marshall would choose the LFL over trying out for a league where they allow (and probably encourage) the players to wear pants speaks volumes about the state of women's professional sport.  Little boys dream of playing in the NFL and now little girls can dream of playing in the LFL because that's the best option they have to play football.

I agree that separate but equal is not necessarily equal and that women's sports do not need to mimic men's in order to be legitimate but playing football in lingerie is not football. That's like saying acting in a porno is the next best thing if you can't make it in Hollywood. Perhaps this is an extreme example but isn't the logic the same - acting is acting, you're just doing it without out any clothes on.  Football is football, you're just doing it without any clothes on.

Sorry Kate, but the LFL is not a great opportunity to showcase women's talent.  It is merely great for showcasing half-naked women.  Marshall's male friend, Jeff McCutcheon told The Province, "I know there are a lot of people who are upset, if you're upset about it don't watch. From a guy's perspective, it's lingerie, football, girls - I love it."

Thank you for that illuminating statement Jeff. And if your best shot at the not-so-pros was to play in a Borat thong would you be just as nonchalant about it?  Now I'm no Bible-waving church goer but let's call a spade a spade.  If Mitchell Mortaza, LFL founder, wants to create a beer-swilling, Victoria Secret wearing, bone-crunching spectacle then so be it. That is the wonder of capitalism.  However, when young women think that near naked football is the best option available to play their sport that is when we really need to question how we can better support women's professional leagues.

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• Football
• Sports
• SportsPLUS
• Discrimination/Title IX
• Gear & Equipment
• Sexism

This post is related to an ongoing story:

• Lingerie Football/Basketball Leagues

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