Oh cut the bullshit that sex has no place in athletics.
Look how extraordinarily well women’s tennis is doing with their sexy approach. It wasn’t too long ago when most of the field were manatees.
But look at them now. Sleek, sexy, with figures to die for.
And check out their share of the purse. Before, it was a fraction of what the men made. Now, the women’s take is the same or close to what the men get.
And that is because these days, there are a lot more good-playing, good-looking women on the tennis pro circuit, and the world loves to watch them.
Anna Kornakova is a case in point. Her game sucked, but the men flocked to the stadiums - not because she played so well, but because she is/was (in their opinion) gorgeous.
I don’t quite get your assertion re the “sexy approach”. How is the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) going to dictate, influence or otherwise control the “look” and physique of those who do well? Are they going to say “Sorry you’re too ugly. You can’t play!” or “No, you’re too dykey. No tournament spot for you!”
Well, to a degree I guess you have a point. The thing is, Pete Sampras killed pro male tennis. He would stand on the baseline and win the game by serving really hard. He won it all, beat all competition, and made tennis incredibly boring.
Women players still play like men did in the 70’s (but women didn’t), so we get exciting games like we had between Borg, Connors, Nastase McEnroe… Long duels, games where the winner was lamost certain beforehand. Excitement, mainly. If it were only the eye candy, why are so many women turning up to watch the games? They’re surely not lesbians, all of them?
Top rating programs, 2001 no women’s surfing to be seen. Stevenson copped a lot of flak back in the day for sexy posing and tarting about on the golf course. She maintained then that is was the only way forward and now seems to have trouble seeing it go forward without resorting to her cheap displays of underwear. Hard to be an aging sex-symbol when surrounded by athletes I guess.
This morning’s “Sportscenter” on ESPN claimed Stephenson went even further in her comments (I’m going to have to paraphrase what they said–it’s not on the ESPN website any where). They claimed that Stephenson had said that lesbian golfers were hurting the game, but it might be beneficial to have “two sexy lesbians” (my quote of ESPN’s quote of Stephenson’s quote there) on the Tour.
If this is a genuine quote, I think Jan has been licking cane toads or something. Brainless!
I think jan was doing a call-out for the Asian women to open up and show a personality, which, like most things, should have been done face to face in private.
As for her comments, they’re simply idiotic. She’s basically arguing that this ludicrous emphasis on skill and ability is hurting the game. I guess the rules should somehow be changed to allow sexier women to play and flirt with sponsors. One stroke penalty for wearing pants, perhaps?
And again I state that, if this is true, then the Women’s golf problem is not about athletes not showing enough tit or kissing enough ass. What Stephenson should be asking is why women golfers have to show tit and kiss ass in order to make it a BIG sport.
To a certain extent I agree with you Biggirl. Why should women have to show more, as you call it, tits and ass? One of the main reason goes to the demographics of who goes to or watched women sports. If it was mostly women then you wouldn’t need to show more. But if it’s men and the reason they are going more is because the women athletes are better looking and they are just enjoying the voyerism then it would help the sport more. Do I think it’s needed?..no.
There has to be a reason womens sports are failing. I don’t claim to know what it is but for some reason they just dont do as well as mens sports.
Right…Pete Sampras…quite possibly the greatest tennis player in the history of the game, got that way because he would “stand on the baseline and win the game by serving really hard”.
Do me a favor The Gasbag…next time you want to waste bandwidth and comment on something that you clearly know next to nothing about…STFU, idiot.
Pete Sampras had perhaps the greatest 2nd serve in the history of tennis. Think that had something to do with it?
He also had…and I’m quoting Rod Laver…“the best 1st volley of all time”. Think that had something to do with it?
Sampras also had the ability to hit a winner from anywhere on the baseline at any given time. Again…data that might be important given the fact that Sampras ONLY SERVED EVERY OTHER GAME.
IANAG (I am not a golfer) but don’t male professional golfers have to play the Pro-AM schmooze game also? A real golf maven can correct me, but it seems to be a basic part of how the sport is structured to garner sponsorship and income. A lot of mid-tier pro golfers might need that Pro-AM income.
What amazes me is that people actually watch golf, whether played by men or women. It’s a fine sport to play, but to watch?
Worse than baseball, I’d say. Over my shoulder while running away.
While I agree with many of astro’s points in this thread, I cannot help but point out a few problems with the later sentences of the quoted statement.
So, by your logic, being a gay woman golfer implies a predisposition to be sturdy, bulky, trundling, powerful perhaps … but not ‘sexy’. What a crock. “Sexy” to whom? Ah yes…a heterosexual man, who thinks his personal views (on one of the most subjective suite of qualities known to the human species) are somehow more signifigant than others’ views.
Even if heterosexual men are the driving metric behind the success or failure of professional women’s golf…at least as a media and sponsorship cash cow…they are not (contrary to the unfortuneate status quo) representative of anyone other than themselves. They just happen to be the statistically flawed sample size of one continuing to be used by the media.
The sport (along with soccer, and any other sport played by women) will continue to be played…at an entertaining, competetive, highly skilled level…whether or not “Professional” is included in the name of the organization, whether or not it is covered by the media, whether or not the players and coaches have the ability to make a living exclusively from the sport, as the men are able to do.
One of these days we’ll figure out how to prioritize atheletics over the money that can be made from them. Untill that day happens…or there is some sort of gender shift in the flow of the money…we’re stuck with professional women’s sports blinking in and out of existence.
I, for one, certainly hope it is the first option, and I’m willing to be patient for that day. Participating in anything less (as a fan or a player) rings hollow in comparison and is a very unfortunate compromise, imho.
I thought it was self evident I was referring to “sexy” in the same context as Jan Stephenson admonition to be more “sexy”, and sexy in this context was heterosexual “sexy”. I don’t disagree with you that a powerful woman can be sexy. As an example Lucy Lawless as “Xena Warrior Princess” was practically a lesbian icon. The point I was making was that I didn’t quite grok Stephenson’s exhortation for the Asians to be more “hetero” sexy, as the existing cohort of white, non-asian female professional golfers weren’t (as a rule) really all that “hetero sexy” to begin with, and with a few notable exceptions, never had been.
