http://www.caughtoffside.com/2011/06/10/germany-womens-world-cup-team-pose-for-playboy-video/
I rather like this photo of some German women professional footballers. It was taken as part of a Playboy spread. It reminds me of Sirens, and that scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
It is olde-worldy, and modern at the same time. I find it sexy. Maybe that’s just the wet t-shirts.
But women’s ‘sporno’ is presented, sold and critiqued so differently from men’s. The Times newspaper England printed a very moralising article about the Playboy shoot, suggesting the women were distracting from their duties as sportswomen by posing for ‘raunchy’ photos. The article made no mention of the endless stream of photos we see of men sports stars with their kit off. It is almost as if nobody wants to acknowledge that objectified men are …. sex objects. But women are assumed to be sex objects, even before they have taken their kit off or posed in front of a camera.
Also there is the obvious situation here whereby a group of young women are frolicking together in their wet-tshirts, indicating a familiar lesbian chic’ vibe. In men’s sporno, especially in this hyper-aware metrosexual age, men are rarely photographed other than on their own. This could be seen as a double-standard whereby women’s ‘bi-curiousness’ is presented as acceptable and even ‘hot’, whereas men’s is kept firmly in the closet.
As I have said before, feminists display some of these double standards as much as anyone else. On one hand organisations such as OBJECT are organising demos outside London’d new Playboy club, and fighting ‘sex object culture’. On the other hand, feminists ask why it is ok to feature men with naked torsos on magazines sold in newsagents, but not women?
There are so many ‘double standards’ in how we perceive objectified images of men and women (and those who identify as neither, or who confound gender expectations such as Andre Pejic), that it is more of a mosaic of confusion than a ‘double standard’.
But I am glad to see some sportswomen getting down and dirty with consumer culture. If it’s good enough for the boys, eh?
P.s. I haven’t mentioned him,but you know who’s the (metro)Daddy don’t you? He has written about most of these issues but only tends to show men’s sporno on his (GAY) blog! ;D
Quiet Riot Girl 
First of all I have to say whomever took that picture is an amazingly gifted photographer it looks like a scene from a renascence era painting very tranquil the women look very natural and beautifully sensual (to be honest its the kind of thing I wish we saw more of in mainstream porn)
Now as for the double standard you mentioned I feel and this is just my opinion it is to do with the fact that male bodies have become so desexualized while female bodies for a very long time have been hypersexualized in our culture this I think leads people to notice more when women strip for a magazine especially when that magazine is one well known for its sexy lady pics like Playboy. Women have had to fight to be taken seriously in male dominated spaces like sports so I can understand there is some resistance when women pose for pics like this. There’s also the fact that men tend to be semi naked in almost any sport they partake in so male nudity kind of becomes just normal.*
Perhaps if the men would pose in a more explisity erotic manner?
At the end of the day the reason female athletes pose for shots like this the reason male athletes do it to as you’ve stated before, narcissism they know they look good and want to show it off why shouldn’t they? They’ve obviously put a lot of time and effort and sacrifice into getting there bodies to look that why why not put it on display for all the world to see. They should’t be browbeaten for it.
*Its also a clever way women can gaze at hot men without being shamed for there desires which I am in full approval of.
good points!
I think what makes or breaks the difference between male and female sporno is its placement.
While these pictures are not that much different from Backham in Speedo panties, there is a difference in there placement. These pictures are only published in an explicit magazine to which only adults have access (adult as in older than 17 years, very shaky definition, I know), whereas Beckhams junk gets plastered unto billboards and regular available publications.
So the difference seems to be that women’s sporno is softcore porn, while men’s sporno is simply advanced advertising.
Arrrrg, typos !
Where is the edit button ?!
Good points Tim. But in a way, men’s sporno looks more like ‘hardcore’ porn than women’s. The placement and the fact nobody will admit it is (homo)erotic, means they get away with much more explicit imagery!
I totally agree, but it looks a lot more like hardcore porn. Especially Beckham in his panties, pointing his junk into my general direction… But it does not get rated as porn at all. People look at it and say ‘half-naked dude, duh’. But if that would be a woman, everybody would be crying about pornofication, about sexualisation of our children and about objectification of women.
Lets do this:
We make a photo showing a woman in panties holding her crotch arrogantly into the camera, then we put it all ofter londons subway stations and finally we watch the incoming shitstorm.
Quiet Riot Girl:
Are you and MS going to get a room? Are you SURE he’s gay, as opposed to bi? And if he is bi, when I can I come to the wedding? 😉
I mean you talk about the guy practically every post to the extent that I’m thinking you should rename your blog a bit; put that your blog is a SUBSIDIARY of his blog or something.
Anyway, I’m sorry if I outed your secret crush. I’m a big mouth sometimes 😛
🙂
I have no secrets from you dear readers. I love Mr Simpson but our interaction is pretty cerebral I’d say! If you have more earthly fantasies that is your business.
I don’t think this blog is a ‘subsidiary’ of his, as it is very much my own voice and interests. But they have collided with his area of expertise and I am not the kind of person who passes other people’s work off as my own.
I like the above picture….
that is all….
You should masturbate before you post. As you should never go grocery shopping while hungry.
Every post? It would get a bit samey…
The dresses at Wimbledon are pretty spornographic too aren’t they? But you make a good point, despite women being more “objectified” (although I hate the word, I think broadly that particular feminist assertion is true), I think you are more likely to see a topless Rafa Nadal in an advert than Maria Sharapova in her underwear. Sadly. (Although both sound equally orgasmic as they hit the ball…) In fact, I think male sports stars in general are more likely to trade on their physical appearance for its own sake than female ones.
Is it because there are more places to see hot naked women so the demand for hot naked sports stars is not there so much?
Is it that the feminist narrative that thinks talented, successful women are betraying the sisterhood if they are also attractive discourages them?
Is it because sports star is an archetype of male attractiveness whereas it doesn’t apply to women in the same way?
In fact, I think I know your answer to this question QuiRi – you’re going to say “go read Mark Simpson”, aren’t you?
Apropros of nothing, my own particular sporno crush is England cricketer Isa Guha (she also does some presenting on ITV4’s IPL coverage). I can think of nothing sexier than a hot woman who can kick my arse at one of my favourite sports; I kind of wish she was a batsman rather than a bowler though, somehow that’s sexier. Actually my ex had been a junior UK 100m champion, I pride myself on being quick across the ground and used to find it incredibly sexy that my girlfriend could probably thrash me. I guess it’s related in some weird way to dominatrix fantasies (which I’m not particularly into), the idea of the woman taking on the stereotypically “male” role.
I also used to joke to her that “I’ve never fucked a woman who can outrun me before”, but that’s not funny cos it’s making light of rape and contributing to the rape culture we live in whereby all men think rape is fine and dandy. Obviously.
Oh and PS, there are elements of sporno in my and others’ discussion with ‘shellshock’ here…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/12/hugh-hefner-matrimony?commentpage=all#start-of-comments
I dont think I can read Gail Dines on Playboy. She’s too mad.
Lots to think about there elfjo. Actually, women’s objectification is one subject Mark Simpson doesn’t pay that much attention to. he is too busy ogling the boys…
Can’t blame you for giving that one a miss, it was indeed the shitstorm you might expect, but actually I sent the wrong link, it was after this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/13/fifa-iran-women-football-strip
It was an interesting point of view from a ‘how The Feministz think’ perspective, this poster shellshock was basically arguing that by actively trying to look sexy on court a female tennis player is a) diminshing her achievements on the court and b) ‘raising the bar’ for other women in terms of physical standards. I refrained from using the term ‘slut-shaming’ because I’m sick of eharing about slut walks, but that’s basically what it was. Phrase like ‘reproductive organs hanging out of her clothes’ and ‘You can look attractive without taking your clothes off’ and other charmingly feminist sentiments flying around everywhere. Yay sisterhood!
The more I think about it (why male sports stars trade on their physical appearance more than women), the more I think it’s because a successful sportsman is something men aspire to be, so is exploited by advertising. There isn’t the same cultural theme of women aspiring to be successful at sport, so Maria Sharapova doesn’t represent that in the same way, so doesn’t tap into the base emotions, so doesn’t sell things. Whereas Kate Moss, whose PRIMARY role as a celebrity is simply being pretty (although I disagree FWIWI…) taps into something expected of women much more clearly.
Maybe elflojo. But I think there is something much more base than even that. Men’s bodies are hot property at the moment and sportsmen have some of the hottest bodies around
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