The Woman Athlete Revealed
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commodify feminist principles of choice to serve its own ends: “Though women
may be voluntarily posing to show off their muscular bodies, these new body
types had to be first accepted by men and then be transfigured into
[commodified] images of sexuality” (Carty 6). The sexualized, eroticized bodies
of both male and female athletes are sold by the media, and eagerly consumed
by the fans, making such bodies objects, not autonomous subjects with real
political power: consequently, “the kinds of individual ‘empowerment’ that can
be purchased through consumerism seriously reduce women’s abilities to
identify their collective interests” (Dworkin and Messner 350).
Take, for example, one of the most popular events at the 2004
Olympics in Athens, Greece: beach volleyball. Jose Cuervo, the tequila
company, created beach volleyball through heavy sponsorship in the late 1970s,
and, according to one company spokesman, intended it to be a “legitimate sport
with a party lifestyle” (qtd. in Jay 201). Perhaps it is not then surprising that the
uniforms for the women’s athletic competition were very nearly the same as
what the female dancers wore while entertaining the crowd and the media during
breaks in play. According to the current Riles of the Federation Internationale de
Volleyball, women players are required to wear proportionately less fabric than
the men: “The top must fit closely to the body and the design must be with deep
cutaway.. . armholes on the back, upper chest and stomach (2-piece). . .The
briefs should. . . be a close fit and be cut on an upward angle towards the top of
the leg. The side width should be maximum 7 cm [2 Vi inches]. The one piece
uniform must closely fit and the design must be with open back and upper chesf ’
(“Beach Volleyball” 3). Although the Riles allow for one-piece bathing suits for
women, the de facto uniform is a bikini.
There is certainly no reason for the women to wear bikinis for this
event. It is true that a game played on the hot sand, at a beach, does not lend
itself to heavy clothes, but the bikini was obviously not the most functional
choice: after every play the women had to adjust their briefs because they were
riding up—not a terribly sexy move, and a sign of some discomfort. Surely if the
women had been wearing the same functional, and probably more comfortable,
apparel as the men are allowed—a tank top and shorts—they would have played
just as well; or, if the bikini is the more optimal choice of attire for performance,
then the men would probably wear some versio