Enough with the bikini sports leagues, okay?

[obamanut2012]

September 28, 2012

tags: bikini basketball league, bikini hockey league, lingerie football league

"The Lingerie Football League has had its share of high-profile troubles, including labor disputes involving entire teams, complaints about shoddy safety gear and contractually-obligated nudity and low attendance, which is why it surprised approximately no one when the league went on hiatus. Clearly that has not been enough to deter some people from thinking that the world is clamoring to watch scantily-clad women play sports, which is why we are now faced with the prospect of yet another bikini sports league: the Bikini Basketball League.

A call went out on Twitter yesterday in search of women who a) look good in a bikini, b) can play basketball and c) don’t mind combining the two for the visual pleasure of gross dudes to try out for six teams around the United States, including – perhaps not surprisingly – one in Orlando.

I don’t think I have to tell you that I consider a “Bikini Basketball League” to be a terrible idea, nor do I really want to explain why. What I do want to talk about is one of the defenses I’ve seen of the proposed league, which I find rather disingenuous and completely out of step with reality, specifically that there exists some kind of demand for bikini sports leagues."

<snip>



http://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/enough-with-the-bikini-sports-leagues-okay/

[Starry Messenger]

1. I had happily never heard of any of this before this week.

How is that even physically safe?

[obamanut2012]

2. Why does safety matter

When it's HAWT?

[longship]

3. Face palm!

What's next? Nude sports leagues?

This guy is astounded by this.

But, then again, the Olympics had women's beach volleyball. Another face palm! No questions about what that was about.

Shudder. No wonder Todd Akin has a chance in MO.

[stevenleser]

18. I object to your characterization of women's beach volleyball as would, I'm sure

the players of that sport. It is not a sport for purient interests or reasons. The women who play that sport have the option of dressing however they want. Participants in Bikini or nude sports leages (yes, they exist), do not have an option.

[JoeyT]

4. I hope whoever's behind it goes bankrupt

and this is the last time someone tries to form one of these.

I'm sure I'll get my first wish, far less certain about it preventing this from happening again.

I just hope they go bankrupt before someone gets seriously injured.

[kdmorris]

5. I also have never heard of this

WTF?

[obamanut2012]

6. I've heard of the football one

Some of the recent scab NFL refs were refs fired from the Lingerie Football League, which was used to insult the scabs. I actually think they were probably REAL refs, and got let go because they treated it like an actual football game.

The hockey one is mindboggling.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Where are the Speedo Basketball and Briefs Football leagues?

What, is there no audience for watching men run around in skimpy attire while trying to play these sports?


Beach volleyball used to be about watching women in bikinis and men in Speedos before the game evolved into a sport. Many of the women still wearing skimpy outfits but compression bras and shorts are at least practical outfits.

[obamanut2012]

8. I think guys playing flag football in boxer briefs would be very popular

With women AND men.

Especially if they were shirtless and all sweaty.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Let's start a league!

[obamanut2012]

10. That's a good idea -- I bet we could make money!!!

Let me send a tweet out.

Beefcake Football?

Tighty Whiteys Flag Football?

Or maybe flag rugby?

[Gormy Cuss]

11. I like "Tighty Whiteys"

"Beefcake" is too obvious.

[4th law of robotics]

12. I can't think of anything preventing such a league from being created

just like there is nothing from preventing a female version of Hooters from being built.

Of course that has been tried on many different occasions and always ended up bankrupt.

If a woman wants to see a man naked mostly she just needs to ask.

If a man wants to see a woman naked often he has to pay.

Hence the differential success between the two business models.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. We're joking about men's underwear leagues

because it's so absurd to form leagues of "sports" that are really just T & A shows. I wouldn't support a league where men were being objectified that way either.

A male equivalent of "Hooters" would never be successful if marketed as a family restaurant because our society doesn't view an emphasis on penises as equivalent to an emphasis on breasts. That difference by gender is what we're talking about.

You lost me when you stated that woman just need to ask to see men naked vs. men needing to pay. If I walked up to five guys in a bar and asked them to strip I doubt there would be any takers. If I offered them $20 each, I might get one to disrobe.

Most of the time when men and women disrobe for each other it's a voluntary, fee-free arrangement. That there are more opportunities for men to pay women to disrobe rather than vice versa is a testament to the inherent sexism in our culture.

[4th law of robotics]

14. I think it's pretty clear

that there are differences here between men and women.

Women have considerable spending power in the US (hence why most ads are geared towards them).

Using sex (or the implication of sex) is hardly a novel tactic.

And yet Hooters type restaurants only exist to a large extent for men. Or lingerie football leagues or whatever.

Either there is less demand from women for such things or US businessmen are deliberately conspiring against women to forgo millions of dollars in profits.

I've never heard of a businessman letting their personal preferences get in the way of a profit so that leaves . . .

[Gormy Cuss]

15. Women don't have more spending power.

I think what you're referring to is market research which shows that in households with both men and women heads, there are whole segments of goods where women are more often the partner who drives the decisions (kitchen and dining room furniture and food products, for example.) Similarly, there are market segments where men are more often the ones who make the purchase (e.g. TVs, cars, Hooters.) For many market segments though the most important demographic is age.

That said, the topic here isn't why the businesses exist. It's that they are inherently sexist and objectify women. Please remember that you are in a Feminists group where we focus on bias and sexism against women.

[4th law of robotics]

16. The implication of your comment

was that it was sexist because there is no counterpart.

I was giving a possible reason as to why a "speedo-league" didn't exist that had nothing to do with sexism or objectification. Merely market forces.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. 4th law, that was not the implication of the comment.

The joke about a men's counterpart was pointing out that such a thing would never happen and it's because of sexism, not market forces.

For the final time in this thread I would like to remind you to read the SOP of this group. Deflecting attention away from the topic, not by supplying facts but by suggesting possible explanations that boil down to "it's not sexism" is inherently a violation of the SOP. It's not the first time that you have been warned about this and I'm sorry to say that it's time to block your participation in this group.

Gormy Cuss, host of Feminists Group.

[One_Life_To_Give]

19. But nostalgic Leagues would be funny

MTV? Had a reality show "70's House" and the basketball game was comical for the way the boys were embarrassed by the vintage uniforms.

[obamanut2012]

20. I loved that show!

My Mom and I talked about that during the Olympics, how short the men's uniform shorts used to be.