The night when we were randomly picked for our debate topics I was excited to argue in favor for female athletes posing nude or provocatively in the media. I have always been in favor of it because I just took the simple stance that if it makes you happy then do it.
One of the questions that came up during our discussion that really hit home with me was how do athletes feel about other female athletes posing nude. My group didn’t really hit on this point because there wasn’t much dialogue out there on this. However, I found a Q&A article on Candace Parker about her posing nude for the ESPN Body Issue which I found interesting. When asked why she decided to pose nude her response was, “I thought it would be fun...I hope I can send a message that if you work hard, you can come back just as good as before.” From her point of view it was more of an empowerment thing rather than sexually objectifying herself like critics would say. Furthermore, when she was asked what do you want people to know through this shoot she responded by saying, “I think it’s truly special to have a child and to continue to do all things men can do...I feel it makes women strong that we are able to play sports but also create and bring life into this world.” I wasn’t really caught off guard by her response because it’s founded in gender equality and we are all aware of the wide gap between male and female athletes when it comes to equality in sports.
I’ll admit that I struggled with trying to find statistics or research that supported our argument and at the end of the debate my opinion was kind of persuaded to the other side. To be honest, there wasn’t any scientific evidence that helped support our argument. The more this idea of women in sports are being used to “sexually objectify” themselves kept coming up, the more it just rubbed me the wrong way. Ultimately, I think it just comes down to one’s interpretation of the photos and if they were done in a respectful way.
Travis Roberts
LT-24
KIN 577
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