Lingerie Football: Why Do Women Do This?
June 13, 2009
by Judy Silver
|
Blogger FitSugar says:
If you thought NFL cheerleaders were putting the “skin” in pigskin, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Sam Donnellon of the Philladelphia Daily News says:
Talent is a Bust at tryouts for the new Lingerie Football League.
Ugh. Yes, the guy who brought us the Lingerie Bowl alternate programming during the half time of the Superbowl now is launching a ten-team professional league of women who play football in their underwear. At a time when women have more career options than ever before, why do women do this? Donnellon takes a stab at one answer:
At an NCAA Women’s Final Four a few years ago, they held a symposium that addressed the lack of preparation women in major college sports receive for that time when their athletic careers are over. Randall [one woman at tryouts] is not one of them – she had a 3.6 GPA at Cheyney and will attend medical school at the University of Pittsburgh after taking next year off. But many of the more athletic women [at tryouts] yesterday were simply looking to play something, and get paid to do so.
Yet it’s clear that athleticism is not what this league is about. As Donnellon discovered:
At least two women seemed to have made the team already as a quarterback and a receiver, even though, to the naked eye, there seemed to be at least a dozen athletes there – Randall was one – capable of running, catching and throwing better than either.
Ah, but there’s the rub, if you’ll excuse the expression. The lingerie league does not put a premium on those skills. Really, on any skills, unless makeup application is considered.
Susan Thurston of the St. Petersburg Times watched a tryout and interviewed a cut player:
“I’m very disappointed. They aren’t very organized,” said Haylock. “They didn’t ask any questions. It’s all about looks.” And, more specifically, chest size. She deduced that the girls who could fill out the bikini top best made the first cut. The girls who couldn’t, well, they got benched.
So do women do this for the money? They’ll be paid a percentage of the gate so that they’ll have incentive to promote the league. Could that possibly be a substantial and reliable income?
There seems to be no shortage of women willing to do it — 65 women tried out for 16 positions in Florida; 80 tried out in Pennsylvania. I just can’t figure out why.
Probably most of them work in some sex trade and feel it is good business promotion for their other sex selling activities. The dominant culture is patriarchy. Many women like these do not fight against it or look for a better way or even believe there could be a better way. They simply attempt to stake out the best place they can in the middle of the Patriarchal sewer and they will fight any changes in culture as hard as the men who also benefit from the system. But they are really no different from the first wave of women token placements in such institutions as Corporate Media who do nothing for female viewers but simply promote themselves within the malecentric structure by kissing whatever hairy a** that happens to be in front of them. Of course it is possible that we will all be forced to subsidize this league if they are placed in the basic cable line up since we do not have the option of cable TV a la carte.
Why do they do this? I guess because starting from infancy many girls are taught that the most valuable thing about them is their looks. Maybe because the only power too many women experience is that given to them by the sexual desire of men. Maybe they see it as a short cut to financial security. Maybe they want to be famous. Probably they don’t have a clue how exploitative and demeaning it is.
Lots of men trade on their looks but they aren’t expected to do such demeaning things. I guess the equivalent would be to have NFL players compete in a cooking contest in G-strings, or some other stereotypically female pursuit. By the way, isn’t it dangerous to play football without protective gear? It seems there is a good chance some of these women are going to get seriously injured.
Many of the NFL players DONOT take these women seriously. I actually asked a couple of the women what other sports they enjoy, since they claimed to be such die-hard sports fans, and I didn’t get an answer. Well, that isn’t entirely true; one of them actually mentioned that she’s a fan of Lacrosse. Wow. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but being that she is a sports fan she should at least know something about baseball, basketball, or even hockey. They’re basically hired to pretend to be professional football players. You should see how some of them conduct themselves on their Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook pages; they swear the LFL is on the same level as the NFL, and their trash talk is laughable. Heck yeah the women are putting themselves in danger of serious injuries or even death. With all of the protective gear NFLers wear, they STILL face some of the most gruesome injuries known.
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
January 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
January 5, 2012 at 9:31 am
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online