My rant: A post in which I share my feelings about professional sports, women, and skimpy outfits.
So here's the deal. We get to the game and out come the cheerleaders. They are simply wearing a tiny, skimpy, flimsy little dress that covers basically nothing. Then they start to dance. The moves are very provocative. Then at half time this group came out to do some trick dunks. Included in the group were two females. While the men were wearing basketball shorts and t-shirts, the women were wearing bottoms that looked like a pair of very tight boy underwear. On top they had a sports bra. That's all. And the women didn't really dunk. Instead they did flips and splits while the men did the dunking (they were all jumping off of trampolines, so really, anyone could have dunked it). The purpose of all the women? To be a sex symbol. End of story.
Why are the women who get to participate in professional men's sports there only as sex objects?
Why aren't the women able to do fun trick dunks in a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt?
Why are the dance moves geared only to get the mind thinking about one thing?
I'm sorry, but I feel that these things are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!
Women have so much more to offer to the table than their bodies. And speaking of those bodies, their bodies don't have to be on display like that in order to be fantastic and amazing. Dancing, dunking, whatever the talents these ladies have they shouldn't need to be mostly naked in order for those talents to be appreciated.
And truly, are they being appreciated? No. They are being lusted after. I'm so disturbed by the trend in men's sports to make women into objects. Now I've been aware of this going on for years. But lately I've been surrounding myself with all kinds of body positive resources for women. So last night the contrast was extremely disturbing. I think my husband even thought it was ridiculous and a bit disgusting.
My intent was to get on here today and beg the women and girls that read this post to stop this pattern. Let's refuse to take part. I wanted to appeal to my readers to realize the worth of women beyond the physical.
But this morning as I got up and read some of the blogs I normally follow I was heartened. There really is a large community of people out there trying to take back the dignity in being a woman. And as I mentioned, I have been so immersed in this community that I had almost forgotten the objectifying until last night.
And I realized that I may not be able to stop the tidal wave before me on a global level, but here in my little corner of the internet good things are happening. We are fighting back. And in my own home, that is where I have the most power to influence for good. You have that as well. Lets teach our sons to respect women. Then lets teach our daughters to be confident, strong, capable women who are more than their appearance. We will change the world, one amazing girl at a time.
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