The Woman Athlete Revealed
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heterosexuality through costume. Nevertheless, their pigtails and large smiles, and media
profiles that play up their roles as girl-next-door or little-sister, reassure spectators that
these athletes are indeed “female athletes"; as one male viewer put it, they may not be
sexpots, but in their veiy feminine cuteness, they are “kisspots."
^ Female gymnasts’ skimpier uniforms should also not “require adjustment" during
competition (“Competition Attire" 40). In ot \