Posted: Mar 02, 2014 1:37 pm
TMB wrote:
In the referenced article this was stated.She also cited the inequalities of media scrutiny over the appearance of male athletes compared to female athletes.
"It’s hard for a woman. A woman has to deal with it – and that’s never easy.
"A guy doesn’t get comments on his weight or his looks."
The relevance of a female athlete's looks is clearly going to be in regards to sponsorship. It's not like female athletes are - as far as I am aware, anyway - being excluded from competition until they get a nose job or something. It's about the image of the athlete in the mass media being linked to their ability to promote products.
And in this regard, male athletes have an advantage. Just by developing an athletic physique, a man is going to be regarded as more aesthetically pleasing. They've already made themselves "photogenic" as a side effect of their athletic training. Male physical attractiveness seems to be based - at least in part - upon attributes like strength, fitness and power. It is almost impossible for a man to develop the body of an athlete and not become more attractive in an aesthetic sense.
This is not the case with female athletes. Female attractiveness seems to be more based upon youth and facial architecture. It is entirely possible for a woman to become extremely physically fit without necessarily increasing her attractiveness in any sense that the mass media gives a fuck about.
It certainly throws up an extra hurdle for women in sports. Not as far as participation goes, but as far as making a career of it goes.