Topless models. No, this isn’t a link to a dodgy website, this is a promotional tactic from an advocate of women’s sports. In 2012, a horse was named ‘Sportswoman of the Year’, a controversial, but amusing choice. However, this year at the ‘I Support Women in Sport’ awards ceremony, run by Women’s Health Magazine, nearly naked models were paraded down the red carpet wearing barely painted on sportswear. Whether this was a successful promotional tactic for women’s sport or merely a distraction from the true purpose of the event, is something that is being widely debated. Many blogs, forums and newspapers have chosen to discuss this issue ever since photographers captured this revealing display.
The awards have been running for 4 years with the aim of giving recognition to and telling the stories of Australian sports women; for this I fully support them, women’s sport needs a champion (especially one with an audience of 350,000). This event epitomises what the promotion of women’s sport is about, as women struggle every day in the sporting industry to get media coverage and appreciation for their talents.
Unfortunately, this marketing ploy went ‘tits up’, quite literally, when models posed nude as a swimmer, gymnast and a runner who wore a design that resembled Cathy Freeman’s iconic running suit from the Sydney Olympics 400m final. Women’s Health Magazine drew criticism from Twitter and other social media sites for the sexualisation of models as a promotional tactic. Danielle Warby, a board director of the Australian Womensport and Recreation Association, made a fair point that “[t]he sexualisation of women in sport is a massive issue,” and argued that, “these women are not athletes, they are naked and I don’t know why they are there.” She may be right in some respects. Instead of using size 6 models to promote women’s sports, we should be promoting strong, able women who choose not to use their bodies merely for their looks or as a form of sexualisation.
The question is, did this stunt distract the cameras away from the real cause, or draw them closer? Many angry journalists have argued that ‘sex just sells sex’, and unfortunately they are mostly right. In today’s society, success in the sporting industry is driven by athletes being promoted as sex symbols above their sporting ability. However, I feel their anger is misplaced and we should be asking whether we have to use nipples to grab attention.
Despite this promotional attempt being misguided, I reckon that all this debating and arguing has done us a backhanded favour; it has highlighted the extent to which women’s sport feels it must go in order to get the media’s attention and publicity. In a male dominated industry, no matter how impressively our athletes perform, women’s sport is an afterthought. The uproar caused by this issue has allowed this sports culture to be thought about more and finally examined. This may just provide some hope for preventing issues like this from arising again and a possibility of increasing the coverage of women’s sport in an attempt to reduce this need for sexualisation. If this is the case, then maybe the painted boobs were worth it?
Edited by Georgina Varley
Sources:
http://magazines.org.au/news/i-support-women-in-sport-awards