Should we all just be good sports?

I am not a sports fan at all, but lately I’ve been spending time with one, and so I’m exposed to a lot more of sports media, and the attitudes demonstrated towards manhood and womanhood. In the last two weeks I’ve both watched portions of the Superbowl (OK, actually I fast-forwarded through the actual game and commentary, and watched the commercials, and The Who’s performance), and looked carefully at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

The first thing that struck me was that a number of the commercials I saw were sending the message that you have to fend against women’s attempts to “feminize” you in order to be a man, and that the way to keep some sense of manhood is to buy something “manly.” This ad for the Dodge Charger was particularly blatant in that regard. Even the etrade ad with the babies was sending a similar message that all women (or in this case baby girls) want is to limit men’s (or baby boys’) freedom and even adds in some competition between females for good measure. Lying is funny!

The SI issue was interesting. The model on the cover, Brooklyn Decker, is wearing the bottom of her yellow bikini, but the top is just draped over her shoulder. Her breasts are covered, but with so many of the models inside similarly topless, or on several pages totally naked but with a bathing suit painted on, it certainly doesn’t seem all that different from what you’d find in a magazine like Playboy. What it has to do with sports I really can’t say, although I’m told that Decker and others are dating or married to famous athletes, and there are a few winter Olympians featured in swimsuits. This article from 2005 (and reprinted on Slate last week), describes the history and some of the controversies.

What I see is that gorgeous, young, slim women with large breasts (sometimes obviously fake, other times not) and seemingly perfect skin–clearly the models with paint on them are airbrushed to death since you can’t see anything, and there’s a very poorly art directed foldout poster with a cover from from Reebok suggesting that one “unzip” before looking at it, with all the models who clearly were not anywhere near each other when each was photographed, seemingly in the same space and sometimes leaning on each other–that is being sent to homes where there are young boy subscribers as well as adult men, and girls and women that would otherwise not allow pornographic magazines in their home. The friend who loaned me the magazine, who has subscribed since he was about 7, (he’s 49 now) was amazed when the first one arrived in his home. His parents had even paid for the subscription!

On the other hand, although I couldn’t easily find the “lineup” to insert it here, there are dozens of photos on the SI website that I can look at, for free, without having to pay or to sign in or anything and so can all the 7 year old boys out there. It’s easier to see such images than to avoid them.  A lot of today’s media seems to be designed for men to masturbate to. Is it giving very young boys an idea of the “perfect woman” that us mere, non-airbrushed real women cannot measure up to? Or is it just fun and we should be good sports? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Curtis, Brian. “The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue: An intellectual history”. Slate.com. February 9, 2010 (reprint from 2005). http://www.slate.com/id/2244177/

Cover of Sports Illustrated February 12, 2010, taken by Walter Iooss Jr.

This Year’s Dolls

This is the cover of this month’s Vanity Fair. It has the latest “it” young actresses on it. It’s something they tend to do every year, but this year I’m particularly struck by how very very similar all these actresses are. Usually they at least have at least one or two actresses of color to balance out the others.  This year they are all seemingly white. With all the mixed-race actresses out there, given that one of the top Oscar nominees is Gabourey Sidibe, it seems as if in the “post-racial” American some say we are living in, thanks to an African American President, it seems inexcusable.

The actresses are: Abbie Cornish, Rebecca Hall, Anna Kendrick, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Kristen Stewart, Emma Stone, Mia Wasikowska, and Evan Rachel Wood. Only a few of these are in what I think of as popular movies, though I tend to see the artier sorts of films some of them are in. I wonder how many of you are familiar with them? Because I go out of my way to see movies I think will be Oscar nominated, I have seen Kendrick in Up in the Air and Mulligan in An Education (both well worth seeing). I can’t quite bring myself to see Precious–I have issues with disturbing movies that make a lot of the Oscar nominated films hard to stomach, and usually get around 4/5. This year since there are 10 nominations, and since the theater that shows most of that type of movie is an hour away I’m not trying to see then all. I’ve seen 3, and will see Avatar on Thursday.

Of course they’re also all slender and dewy and young. They mostly have what I think of as fresh faces, though there’s something about Kristen Stewart that doesn’t seem quite so innocent, and knowing that Evan Rachel Wood is engaged to Marilyn Manson makes that pretty suspect. Those that are showing a lot of skin are showing coltish legs. It’s all very classy, or is it? They’re all challenging the camera and the viewer, but is it sexual? Why does the subtitle of the article describe them as dolls? Some of them are sitting like “broken dolls” but others aren’t.

Honestly the only thing I know about Abbie Cornish is that she’s famous. I haven’t seen her in anything though I’d like to see Bright Star.  I’m had to look up who Rebecca Hall and Emma Stone are, though I’d seen then in some movies apparently. Hall was in Vicki Christina Barcelona, which made me want my two hours back, and in Frost/Nixon, which was good but her part was tiny. Evidently I saw Stone in Superbad, but don’t remember her in it.

The others I know better, but I don’t know if they’re the best. Are they the prettiest? Maybe. The smartest or most talented young actresses? I’m really not sure. They don’t have the bad reputations of people like Lindsay Lohan. Maybe they just match the Vanity Fair brand the best?

Peretz, Evgenia. It’s Showtime!: Annie Leibovitz photographs the nine dolls on V.F.’s cover, as Evgenia Peretz explains why Anna Kendrick, Kristen Stewart, Carey Mulligan, et al. are nobody’s playthings. Vanity Fair. March 2010. http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/03/cover-girls-201003

Photo: Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair.