Athlete or Pin Up Girl
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying watching the Winter Olympics, I usually watch the figure skating and sometimes the curling but this year I’ve discovered some new events to watch including snowboard cross (a-mazing) and skeleton.
The athletes are truly awesome but on at least three occasions the commentator has referred to a female athlete as a ‘pin up girl’. Apparently Lindsay Vonn is the pin up girl of downhill and Melissa Hollingsworth the Canadian pin up girl of the winter games. Is it only me that thinks this is quite wrong? I’m no feminist but the last time I checked I was watching the Olympics, the greatest sporting contest on earth, a gathering of the world’s finest athletes coming together to compete as ‘athletes’. Shouldn’t we be focusing on their physical strength, their skill, their awesome abilities at what ever event their competing in rather than their aesthetic appeal. Quite frankly I couldn’t care less if a competitor looks likes the back end of a bus, if they can compete and conquer the best athletes the world has to offer then that’s all I really care about.
Can we please keep talk of pin up girls for Miss World and other beauty pageants, the Olympics is a sporting competition, let’s not dilute it with this kind of commentary.
Would you agree?
I'm a 27 year old mum to 4 year old Erin. We live just outside Edinburgh in a small rural village.
I've been blogging for four years and write about anything and everything that takes my fancy.
Themocracy
I agree, lets not. I have discovered ski cross and snowboard cross, utter madness in a great way!!
It’s fab TheMadHOuse – I’ve found myself pricing up ski-ing holidays this week!
I do agree but have to admit to seeing Lindsay Vonn in the winners area and thinking she was a really pretty girl. My shallowness is equal opportunity shallowness though as I think the US snow boarder Shaun White is quite kind on the eye too.
Oh I agree totally, Erica. They wouldn’t be refering to the men as pin ups or gorgeous hunks surely?!!
I think thst’s my point Rosie, it *would* sound really strange, it feels like they’re undermining the achievement of the femaile athletes by talking about modelling!
I totally agree. I don’t see how it is at all relevant how a competitor looks in a sporting competition.
I’m a feminist (although I align myself more with the doctrine than the movement) because I believe in equal rights. I sometimes bang on about it a bit on my blog, but don’t hate me for it
Ella – I don’t mind feminists I just didn’t want it to seem like I am overly feminist and I’m having a pop, I just think in this particular instance as you say it is completely irrelevant.
i think it’s really out of order to be honest. these women are athletes, they have dedicated their lives to their sport, achieved something that most can only dream of and yet because they are women and gasp pretty they are reduced to being merely scenery. Sorry, but this really irritates me.
Totally agree – hate the sexualisation (and implied trivialisation) of these athletes
Great post !
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Consider that this may be less bad than it seems. Men (and women) will always have idols who embody what they deem most visually appealing. As a girl just getting into fitness, I’ve discovered that the typically “male” activities such as weight lifting are most rewarding to me as opposed to long, body slimming cardio sessions. Trying to keep myself motivated, I look at pictures of women I aspire to look like. In my searches, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find men writers gushing over women athletes- women with biceps- rather than anorexic models and actresses. This is one such site- To me, it feels like men ARE admiring the strength and ability of a woman when they prefer muscles over implants. I understand how it might seem degrading, but it is certainly no worse than oggling any woman who decides to portray herself in a sexual light, which I don’t think Vonn shyed away from. Either way, don’t you think this creates a healthy image of beauty for women?
I can’t see what’s wrong with admiring their atletic abilities without likening them to a ‘pin up girl’, there was no need to sexualise the women involved as they were competing in sporting events and not modelling. Why does it have to come down to such basic instincts as ‘oggling’?
I don’t have a problem wth men admiring these women but this was a commentator on a well respected tv channel, also there would have been impressionable girls and young women watching the program and I don’t think it’s anymore helpful to blur the lines between sporting achievement and aesthetic appeal than it is to promote anorexia, they need to understand that you can be a success whether you fit into the ‘pretty’ category or not.