Swim Suit Edition, Swim Team, What’s the Connection

Okay, that does it! I am done with watching the news at 7 here in Indiana. It has left me pulling my hair out with frustration. Seriously, are we insane? I realize that much of what I am about to let loose on has been around for a long time. But the bigger question is why? Is it that hard to figure out why things happen? Okay there are three case in points that I wish to discuss and somehow or another in my infinite (Very tongue and cheek) wisdom I will tie them all together.

• High School Swim coach brought up on charges for video-taping his swim team undressing!
• This year’s cover of Sports Illustrated

Believe it or not it all goes together. We are selling out, over and over again to this notion that there is no connection. Is there cause and effect, maybe not but there is a connection. Every action does in fact require a reaction, even if that action is to do nothing, it is an action! Societal reaction is in fact as a result of an action. What action can we find in the two aforementioned ditties? Hello???? Tell me this, how many women coaches are there for boys swim team, boy’s sports? Why do we feel it is okay for men to coach high school girl’s sports? Are we not inviting trouble? Coaching at the HS level is indeed a Very intimate reality. It should not be taken lightly. The influence of a coach on the athlete is incredibly strong. That alone is cause for concern when it comes to mixing influence with gender difference. It has nothing to do with equal rights, yadayadayadaYA, it is about proper protocol and the removal of risk associated with it all. How in the world was it possible that the video tapes were made in the first place? It does not excuse the man who victimized the young ladies, they are not to blame the system is to blame. A society that, in the name of money allows advertisements called, “girls gone wild!” Somewhere we are sending out confusing messages. The line between right and wrong is skewed. Watch late night T.V., it is all prevalent. So now we have coaches gone wild, mad, insane again inappropriate.

Oh which brings me to the next issue, Sports Illustrated, hello???? Is anybody really there? Is anyone really paying attention? This year’s proclaimed dittie is so revealing that they had to smear out the top, evidently topless bedazzled beauty. But she worked hard to come out from the inside of the magazine to finally be the featured semi-nude model, representing super-models everywhere! The female newscaster smiling gleefully as she says, “She is pretty.” What, lady do you understand how hard women have had to work to get to the position as newscaster, for women to be taken seriously at all? Does anyone understand or recognize how hard women are fighting to escape the identification as mere sex-symbols? But, who is to blame, the model, the publisher, the advertiser, the one who buys the magazine?

We link sex with sports through swimsuit, super-models! I am realizing that this year’s edition is getting my ire up more because ironically the coverage of it came right after the story of the swim team being violated by the alleged video-taping by the coach. Evidently there are even those that link sex with high school sports. It is sad, but true. Yes, there is a correlation; sex is directly linked to sports. Sports Illustrated makes sure of it. But, we glorify it, encourage it. Do any of the sprawled out, arch backed, loin strapped women that grace the pages of Sports Illustrated have the right to be ranked above women of effort, training, strength, wit, intelligence endurance, power? Should they be representing women, the women who have fought tirelessly to be taken seriously as athletes? We lose the right to call ourselves a “super-power” when we get more excited over a super-model’s bold display on a cover of a magazine, than we do over a woman fighting to the top to actually be a front-runner in a Presidential election. Well, as for this woman I am more impressed with the young swimmer who looked right at the camera while being interviewed as a result of the accusation of that the coach had video-taped her team, and said, “does he (the coach) understand how badly he hurt us?” Does anyone understand how badly women are being violated daily, in the name of arousal?

Maybe it is time for Sports Illustrated to embrace fully the concept of what athletic endeavor is about. What it is to be a woman trying desperately to be taken seriously. Maybe it is time for Sports Illustrated to put quality emphasis on Title 9 and completely support women and sports and leave it at that.

June marked the 35th anniversary of Title IX. (This marks the 40th year of the swimsuit edition) Yes, in a country where young women have only had the same rights in sports for 35 years as young men and have had the vote for less than one hundred years it does not surprise me that we are still exploited as sex objects. It is time for sports Illustrated to step up to the plate and put an end to exploitation of women in the name of sales. Yes, Sports Illustrated supports women’s athletic endeavor and the athletic form that the super-models take on the pages of the swim-suit addition does indeed give respect and adoration to the female form. Women everywhere, yes we can applaud the swimsuit models for fairly and completely representing the efforts of women in the United States. They are there because they represent the American female athlete aren’t they? It is amazing as I researched the Women’s Sports Foundation, I looked and looked and searched the pull-down menu of sports represented and sadly I could not find the super-model swimsuit event! Well maybe next year women of all ages will actually protest this issue, and maybe boycott the advertisers as well. Isn’t it only right to boycott that which inappropriately represents a sector of society?

Oh and Danica you couldn’t hold true to your power on the track and remain a strong voice for young women? Do you need to rely on a swim suit to be taken seriously on the race track? But then again, maybe I am all wrong.