What's the best way to compete against a widely popular sports magazine that showcases half naked bodies (eh-hem Sports Illustrated)?  Showcase female and male athletes engaging in a sporting activity while in the nude and call it the "Body Issue." 

Simple enough, I guess.

This idea appears to be the marketing strategy for ESPN's The Magazine with its first "Body Issue" hitting newsstands this fall.  No doubt The Magazine will be competing with one of the most successful sports magazine on the shelf.  So while it might seem like a competitive ploy to feature naked athletes for profits and perhaps bragging rights over SI, The Magazine's editor Gary Belsky insists that "The magazine won't do anything that would compromise ESPN and Disney brands [The Magazine's parent company]."

The idea, see, is to "use equipment and pads . . . to obscure body parts" so that, in the very least, the photos won't tread soft porn territory.

Well, call me curious Georgia then because a gal like me is eager to see how the editors and photographers might strategically place a basketball on, say, a body like Dwight Howard's.  Yaozahs!

Photo courtesy of Dimemag.com

There's no arguing that back when humans were throwing rocks as shot puts, athletic bodies were, in and of themselves, considered masterpieces of art.  Dodai over a Jezebel, points out that the Ancient Greeks participated in sport while nude (although, while men might have participated in sports, it's been noted that women were forbidden to compete in the ancient Olympics and if they did 'play' a sport they might've worn something like this).  

But perhaps it's not so much the idea of naked bodies gallivanting around while engaging in sport that's shocking, but rather the titillation translating into profits that might rub folks the wrong way.

Only time will tell (October 19th, to be exact) if the "Body Issue" will prove to be a modern example of dignified art through sport or just another excuse to sneak a peak at Amanda Beard’s boobs.

Feature photo courtesy of ESPN "The Magazine"/Clint Clemens

"It's not about becoming masculine" said female Arab bodybuilder Dorra Zaier to Sonia Ounissi of Reuters.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters)

I can't tell you how many articles THIS MONTH alone I've read where some person (usually some ill-informed male blogger or journalist, not all of them, but some of them) talks about female pro athletes looking like a man, wanting to be like a man, or wanting to get paid like a man.  I haven't come across any articles talking about male pro athletes trying to play, or shoot, or kick, or hit like a woman.  It's obvious why the latter arguments don't really exist: typically in modern-day society most people deem sports as part of the male domain.  Anytime women step into this male-dominated zone they tend to face criticism for trying to be (or look) too much like a man.

Granted, some arguments are warranted; particularly those that address the physical impact participating in sports can have on women and young girls.  But when a woman is told that she should not be participating in athletic competition because she’s a woman, I have a huge problem with that logic – and so does Zaier.

Zaier resides in one of the most progressive nations in North Africa, Tunisia.  However, she's had to face challenges as one of a few female bodybuilders in the country.  Though her father supports her ambitions, her mother continues to tell her to hide her broad muscular shoulders by wearing her hair down. 

But Zaier isn't the only woman who has to grapple with the beauty ideal as a female athlete.  I was never petite by any means.  I still carry a muscular frame even after all these years of not competing in organized sports. 

Along with carrying a muscular frame, admittedly I also carry some insecurities about my body while looking at billboards, Internet ads, and television shows of thin-waisted women with bubble boobies.  I don't think any women in this day and age can escape the Western "beauty ideal" – or myth (popularized by author and intellectual, Naomi Wolf).

Though women like Amanda Beard, Anna Kournikova, and Ashley Harkelroad have used their athletic bodies to pose for Playboy, Maxim, FHM, blah . . blah . . blah . . most female athletes, particularly those participating in the 2008 Olympic Games, are most known for their brawn and not their (photoshopped) beauty.  Case in point, Austrailian swimmer Libby Trickett, pictured below.

So while most of us deal with the beauty ideal, some female athletes are speaking out about their own bodies – not to be seen necessarily as masculine, but as healthy, tone, fit, and ready for competition.

I applaud Zaier for speaking out (even though she did say in the interview that her fiancé will "allow" her to continue bodybuilding after they get married – mmmkay.)  But even still, I always like to come across stories about female athletes defying the odds, breaking gender roles, and most of all proving that sports can be a means through which we all can achieve physical greatness.

With all the hoopla (like this and this) surrounding the 2008 Olympic games, how could I not add my own little one-cent to the blogosphere hoopla as sort of a week ending round up.

TGIF!!

Okay, so Gawker dedicated a post this week to the top 25 Olympic Hotties ranging from U.S. swimmer Amanda Beard to U.S. wrestler TC Dantzler.  Profiling “hot” Olympic athletes in mainstream media is nothing new, it’s actually great for sponsorship and yep, it’s great for business. 

In 2004, my fellow track and field teammate at the University of Houston, Jenny Adams, was featured on the cover of FHM’s Sexy Olympic Special Issue (incidentally, Jenny didn’t qualify for the Olympics that year which sucked because I was rooting for her hardcore). 

Seeing as how most Olympic athletes aren’t necessarily rolling in the NBA or MLB dough, arguably these athletes have to take advantage of what they can during the Olympic season.

Although, I’m not quite sure how I feel about (what appears to be) the objectification of fe/male bodies in mainstream media.  (Oh yes, I’m putting that MA degree in Women’s Studies to use!).  I wouldn’t be “socially conscious” if I didn’t consider the potentially damaging image these athletes are portraying, or rather the image we, the folks, are buying into.  

Am I over reacting?

Before answering, consider this question: What do Amanda Beard’s boobs have to do with her impressive seven Olympic medal performances? 

I don’t necessarily have an issue with homegirl covering FHM (she’s a grown woman so more power to her), but I wonder if sexualizing Olympic athletes is the way to go right now (if ever), especially with so many controversies surrounding human rights’ issues in Beijing, etc. And honestly, do we really need our top world athletes contributing to a sexually obsessed, and repressed, society???  

Granted, escapism, in the form of Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie six pack, is refreshing especially during a time when everything else from the economy to foreign policy is in the dumps.  And don’t get me wrong; I’m down for the eye-candy once in awhile.  I can also get down with sex-positive feminism, but I just wonder what are we actually celebrating with these images: human agility and athletic performance or an athlete’s butt-cheeks in the foreground of photograph with the phrase ‘Golden Girls’ hanging below?  

You get the point.

I remember growing up idolizing Florence Griffith Joyner in all her flamboyant outfits and long-neon-colored fingernails. I never understood Flo Jo’s image as 'sexualized' in any way (maybe that’s because I didn’t know what sexualized meant at the ripe old age of ten).  I was too focused on her superhuman ability to run a 100-meter dash in those eclectic outfits she wore.

(Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not going to get into the steroid controversy right now). 

Point is, I understand that sexing-up athletes is nothing new, and the images of these “hotties” pales in comparison to some of the other sexualized images we see everyday via the idiot box.

Yet I still can’t help but wonder what’s the point.