Now I do not follow the lingerie football league very much but I recently heard that there name hwas changed to the Legends Football League so that they seemed more credible. Now if you are not familiar with the now Legends Football League they are much like any other football league where it is full contact and women playing inside an indoor arena. The women play like it is a regular football game but they wear lingerie as they play (bra and panties). I was watching a video of one of the games and before the game started one of the commentators, who was a woman, was talking about how she was looking forward to "boobs popping out of the outfit, broken nails, and hair extensions lost throughout the field". Even the women who were interviewing the teams was wearing lingerie to interview them. WHYYYYYYYYYYY?! Now many of these women wanted to be respected as real athletes, but they have and support these ideas of the game being all about looking sexy. Even the players look better than the cheerleaders which is usually vice versa.
These women play football as serious as a man would play but many are distracted by their uniforms. It reminded of me when they were talking about how with many sports associated with women, like volleyball, when are dressed to show their features. Isn't there a way for women to play the game of football without having to be naked or is it just that since they are playing a male dominated sport they have to find an extreme was to show that they are women. Below is the video I watched of the game and the first 10 minutes of the video before the game even starts is very interesting to watch.
I agree with your questioning of why women have to wear such revealing clothes when they participate in sports. And more importantly, why they are pushed to wear extremely revealing things when their sports have to do with me. I am referring not only to the lingerie that these girls wear, but also to the outfits that are worn by cheerleaders and dancer from professional football. Although they are a little more covered up than the girls hear, I don't understand why it is necessary for women to wear so little clothes when it comes to anything that represents a male activity. I think you are correct in saying women are encouraged to wear things like this to allow the men to still have the masculine upper hand.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange. I understand usually wearing less clothing or tighter clothing usually helps with better performance. For instance, in swimming or cross-country when skin-tight clothes are worn to increase speed and decrease clothing getting in the way. It seems as though this type of attire, make-up, fake nails, etc. would decrease the women's ability to play to their fullest potential, though. We have been talking about women's clothing in my Anthropology course, too, because head scarves are worn by women and often interfere with their ability to function normally. We don't often see men's clothing as interfering at all in the multitude of ways women's clothing on a daily basis to in sports interferes.
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