Women in Swimming - Case Study Example

Order 441405 Topic: Women in Swimming. Feminine attractiveness and sports are a good combination. What if the sexualized poses become more popular than the action poses especially those of swimmers? For obvious reasons, women swimmers have to cover essential parts of their body with the minimum apparel. Any extra weight of the dress will have the negative effect on their performance. The body of the swimmer is naturally healthy; women with extra flesh would not be there in the competitive international swimming. Their poses at times look provocative, inviting varied reactions. Whiny women who are ugly will feel jealous; the press photographers will do their professional duty, clicking pictures from different angles and with different viewpoints. The winner swimmer will attain international fame, and become overnight a sex symbol as well. Physical beauty and swimming ability are an awesome combination. One has the potential to become a crossover world star overnight. One may be the cover-page girl and the editors are sure to select the most provocative pose amongst the dozens of photographs their lens man has been able to get. Commercialization has crept in and the female swimmer is posed in a sexualized manner. She may do it willingly or the cameraman might have clicked her in that position. A female swimmer’s achievement in sports lasts for the duration of the performance but her sexy poses are cashable and marketable for many years. The athletic performance takes the back seat as compared to her sexy poses. Top swimming stars do would not like to miss the opportunities for making a fortune. In real terms, prize-money accrued out of a bunch of gold medals is kindergarten stuff as compared to the massive returns an attractive pose in the swimsuit may fetch for a top athlete. Sport sells but sex sells better! Yes, those poses looking at which the viewer roll their eyes and sigh in exasperation. Sport and Gender Whether it is right or wrong from the sociological point of view, female swimmers are presented by both the print and electronic media, by highlighting their physical assets. The articles also emphasize the swimmer’s sexuality and the photographs are mostly to highlight their sexual features. When they get contracts as models by the multinational giants, the advertising people make their figure more glamorous by lighting and make-up. Her swimming talents take the backseat for a while. Her breathtaking and flawless skin and endless legs are given prominence. Her ripping muscles are made to look more attractive. And sky is the limit for the imagination of the copy-editor, as if he is the sculptor who has chiseled her body parts: The Olympic gold medal winner is described as an all-round hottie. A few gold medals in swimming make the woman athlete as an over-accomplishing personality. She is hailed as complete, attractive and accomplished, socialite. (As if the editor of the magazine already had a date with her!) It goes without saying that women swimmer’s physical attraction gets higher billing. She is portrayed as a great lover of healthy children, by a multinational giant—the manufacturer of baby foods! Reading some of the features at times you wonder whether you are reading a sports magazine or a fashion and a women-oriented magazine! From the practical consideration a women athlete in swim suit has definite plus points and no one can blame her if she takes advantage of her talents and physical assets in a decent style. Attractiveness and decency can as well go hand in hand. There is nothing demeaning about it. If stories appear in the magazines revolving around women athletes describing their looks, it is fine. It is not a case of discrimination. Not only the society, but the women athletes seem to be aware about the appeal of the body-curves to the spectators. They see themselves more as women, besides being athletes. Somewhere the gender norms and the advantages they have as compared to the male figure plays within their minds. “For example, in beach volleyball the women wear tight fitting swimsuits, whereas the men wear loose shorts and tank tops. Why is this? It obviously does not affect their playing, so why don’t the women wear the same loose clothing as the men? ….this is because our society wants to enforce the sex appeal of being female. In the media we seldom see women portrayed as athletes. Articles about female athletes usually show her out of uniform doing something distinctly feminine. This is because that while society says outwardly those we except female athletes; it is not really ready for them to become a mainstream part of our culture.”(Everyday sociology….) The earnings of the competitive media are mainly through advertising. Sex appeal is the dominant factor that has been exploited by the media since time immemorial, in one way or the other. Sex plus sports is a good combination for them. When scandal is added to these two powerful forces, the press ravels in sensationalism. Even if the gender norms are enforced by the mainstream magazines, the yellow press will go all out to exploit the situation. The issue boils down to the core subject for the media and the magazines. They are in business and any businessman wants to make profits; they will publish what it sells. Publishing semi-nude and nude pictures—the best poses can be had in the swim-suits—has become part of the media culture. People want it; the society wants it. Do not blame the companies, blame the culture of the nation and to a great extent the policies of the government and how it goes about controlling the issues related to public morals. If the government takes drastic action, it will be immediately challenged in a court of law in the name of freedom of the individual. The model, whose picture is published, might have given the pose for a huge monetary consideration. Court case and hearings means more publicity for the magazine and the nude/semi-nude figure. Who would not like to hit the headlines on the front pages of the newspapers? Why beat about the bush? The facts are known to all sports personalities. The career-span of swimmers, athletes is very short. One needs to earn for a lifetime, within that short period of active sports-life. So the attention given by the media to their lips, chest, butt etc and some publicity about their private life is to the liking of most of the female athletes. They do not mind showing off their body, may allow this to happen deliberately, to get wide publicity in the press so that they become known figures in the society. The possibility of alternative careers, and getting huge advertisement contracts as brand ambassadors for top multinationals, looms large in their minds. So the swimsuit photographs needs to be viewed from the larger societal perspective. You come across a number of models in bikini dress, who have nothing to do with swimming or any type of sports activity. It is but natural that female athletes are mostly looked upon as desirable figures and receive more than required coverage. Can you call this a biased attitude? This is just an inevitable development in the society, deeply impacted by materialistic civilization, industrialization and internet revolution. Semi-naked and naked poses of the female athletes are looked upon as normal features of the advertisement profession now. The public may not welcome sportswomen in a long gown and with an untidy hair-do. Women have the right to look attractive and if men like it, there is nothing wrong in it. Merit in sports is not accrued through the curves of the body. A female athlete will have to work hard to attain the international status and ultimately she is selected for her playing ability and the importance of looks and sex appeal will assume importance later. The readership of men is more as compared to women, and therefore, women get more coverage in magazines. As the society becomes more and more modern, the swim suits seem to be getting smaller and thinner. Blame whom? None! It is the chain reaction. The demand and supply theory! When women athletes are portrayed in magazines, they have limited freedom and have to abide by the terms of contract. The photographer of the magazine leaves behind her athletic achievements for the editors to write about. He is simply concerned about her figure—how to make it more presentable, more attractive than what it is. The record that she is going to make through the cover page of the magazine is for all time to come. But the present day enlightened generation knows that to show women as sex objects does not have the tag of inferiority about it. Nor it is disrespectful to them. Most of such poses are given out willingly, for mutual benefit. About the French swimmer Laure Manaudou and her pictures that have been exposed on the internet. “ On 25 March, 2007 Laure won her 2nd World Championship Womens 400 m Freestyle in Melbourne swimming very close to her world record with a time of 4:02:61.She won the gold medal in the Womens 400 m Freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Laure currently holds the world record for the 400 m freestyle at 4:02:13.” (Laure Manaudou….) Her naked pictures have created sensation. They must! She is referred to as the “French Mermaid.” Internet has been responsible for her raunchy photo scandal. Her ex-boy friend, Luca Marin, is reported to have posted her 20 naked photos and a sex tape. She was the first French swimmer to win a gold medal since 1952. Luca Martin is an Italian swimmer and she fell in love with him. In 2007, she declared that she would be leaving her French coach and will go to Italy to join her boyfriend and to seek training at the Turin club. “Between Italy and France,” she said, “I have chosen Luca Marin, the love of my life. I want to live with him and have a baby.” (French Swimmer….) But everything went haywire. Turin Club didn’t want her saying that she was lazy. Her relationship with the boyfriend was short-lived. They had a serious argument and Laure Manaudou threw the ring presented to her by Martin into the pond. The retaliatory action by Martin took just two hours. Her nude pictures and the sex video appeared on the internet. But Martin denied his role in this scandal. The scorned lover has defended his position of innocence. “An interesting twist, Marin began a relationship with Federica Pelligrini, who won a medal in the 400m free, which will put Pelligrini and Manaudou head to head against one another. But Manaudou is gracious and stated, “The woman to beat, the woman to follow is Federica,” says a gracious Manaudou.”(French Swimmer….) France has taken this negative publicity stoically. With solid support from her country, she proceeded to Beijing, China with proper frame of mind, like a true sportsperson. She has accepted the entire episode philosophically. She stated, “Anything I achieve here is a bonus,” Manaudou said last week. “If it goes well, great. If it doesn’t go well, it’s not the end of the world. I’m not going to die as a result.”(French Swimmer…) She has entries to compete in four events including the 400M freestyle, 100M and 200M backstroke. Farewell to love-life; farewell to swimming: “ Fallen French swim star Laure Manaudou, an Olympic gold medalist in 2004 who dominated her sport from the Athens Games to 2007, has announced her retirement from the pool at the age of 22."Its decided. Im stopping. It wasnt an easy decision to take," Manaudou told the daily Aujourdhui en France."It wasnt an impulsive decision," the three-time world champion added, saying it had been some time in coming.” (AFP: French….) The publicity that Laure Manaudou got at the young age of 21 may last till several Olympics. Her naked pictures can be downloaded from several sites right now, and it is really strange that the international law is helpless when an individual’s private life is invaded in an awesome manner. The said pictures were reportedly taken by herself for the benefit of her boyfriend. After the ugly public break-up at a swim meet in Hungary, Martin denied the knowledge about the video and said that he had seen the pictures like any other viewer. He agreed that those were the pictures of Laure Manaudou, and said that the allegations against him were false. He also expressed his satisfaction for having terminated the girlfriend relationship as she had acted rudely by throwing the ring away. It was an act of madness. ----such events are the double-benefit-schemes for the press. The engagement of celebrities is big news for the press; the breaking of the engagement is even bigger news. Breaking up is not an easy option. Should she cash in on her new-found fame? She cannot avoid the fame, may be it came in a painful style. But success is the best revenge for an athlete. Anyway, the gossip magazines had their harvesting season. The private individual without the swimsuit…. Manaudou said that swimming was no longer a pleasure for her. She made desperate attempts to bounce back at the Beijing Olympics but failed. She fled the pool in tears. The tragedy of her personal life must have badly affected her concentration. She further said that she had lost her will to compete at the highest level. 2008 was her last swimming season. This was the girl, who used to swim 14 kilometers a day from the age of 14 and she had 30 French individual titles to her credit. She blames the media pressure and complaints that is being constantly spied upon about all her activities. She expects the media to leave her in peace. She deeply regrets her lost childhood in relation to schooling. She also regrets her decision to give up traditional schooling at the young age of 14 for the sake of swimming career and advises the future swimming stars not to give up their studies. She feels the void about the lack of knowledge of various subjects, other than swimming. She is bored of the talk about swimming. Her advice to the youngsters is to continue with their passion but not at the cost of their studies. The French Swimming Federation, while respecting g her decision to quit, expects to engage her as the swimming coach and utilize her talents. ************ Works Cited: AFP: French swimmer Laure Manaudou to retire…. Retrieved on May 12, 2010 Everyday Sociology Blog: Sport and Gender 25 Apr 2009 ... Even the way female athletes dress when playing their sport is different … < nortonbooks.typepad.com/.../2009/04/sport-and-gender.html - Cached – Similar>Retrieved on May 12, 2010 French Swimmer Laure Manaudous Naked Pictures | Stupid... Retrieved on May 12, 2010 Laure Manaudou, French swimming star Retrieved on May 12, 2010 Read More