You are right on with this. I am in full support of female athletes, but get frustrated when I see other women being oversensitive on the sexism issues.

Friday, February 12, 2010 at 11:08am PST

I completely agree with this. The athletes aren't being forced to pose this way, and even in the SI video Lindsey Vonn says she loved doing the swimsuit shoot because she finally for once was shot with something besides her helmet on. I think it's great that athletes like her can embrace being both an athlete and a woman.

Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 4:11pm PST

Glad you guys agree. Just as an FYI, Hannah defended her pics yesterday basically saying the same thing: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61D0O120100214?type=sportsNews

Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 7:21pm PST

Spot on. This of course is a false dichotomy. But what is more, censorious nit-picking only distracts from issues genuinely deleterious to female athletes and women's sports.

Monday, February 15, 2010 at 6:54am PST

I agree Rob. It is a sensitive issue and I want to be respectful to those on the other side, because there are times when legitimate issues should be spoken out against. That said, the SI swimsuit edition, Vonn's recent cover -- these are not big deals as a result I worry that the "nit-picking" hurts the cause more than helps it. At the end, speaking out against minor issues ultimately takes away from the legitimate gripes, b/c it sets us up for the, "Oh, no there they go again" response.

Monday, February 15, 2010 at 7:33am PST

As a man, I do think that I'm in a tough spot when I root for an athlete to succeed merely because she's hot, because I would typically not do that for male athletes. However, it obviously helps a sport to have a superstar that's marketable, and being good-looking and photogenic plays a huge role in that. However, I like cheering for skills above all else, and if forced to choose between coverage that highlights how an athlete looks in her swimsuit and how an athlete looks on the field of play, the field of play wins out. That's because I don't need to watch the sport that an attractive woman plays to see her in a seductive pose; the internet will do that for me.

But like I said earlier, marketability and exposure matters. And because there are comparatively so few female fans of sport, almost every women's sport aggressively attempts to appeal to a male audience, and the method traditionally employed is the "Hot Girls" approach. If we become familiar with a few superstars, then their names stick in our minds, and the coverage of their sports will be tolerated by the fickle fanbase that wants to see their favorite sports get the most coverage. So if you're an NBA fan who can rattle off 30 players' names without even thinking of it, being able to rattle off 5 or 6 WNBA players in the same fashion is a good thing, even if you only heard of those players because they were in swimsuit shoots, or are dating celebrities. Unfortunately, that's probably good business for any organization in the business of promoting sports to male casual fans.

However, that's why it's so important to have standards and minimum thresholds of quality. If Beyonce wanted to play basketball or soccer, no matter how much press it would bring to those respective sports, she shouldn't be allowed to bypass the traditional barriers to entry. Furthermore, average and below-average players shouldn't be prominently featured in marketing materials just because they're hot, or have posed nude, or some other thing that might prove appealing to that kind of male fan. However, if an elite player, the kind of player that would get coverage for her skills alone, also happens to be attractive or sexy, by all means, her ability to reach different audiences, and to demonstrate that a female athlete needn't be forced to sacrifice her "femininity" to be great, should probably be encouraged, because she may raise the tide of coverage, which in the end, lifts all boats.

Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 7:43am PST