By DIANA NYAD
Diana Nyad holds the world
record for the longest unaided ocean swim in history
for both men and women,
102.5 miles from the
LOS ANGELES
SEVERAL
of the women in this year’s Olympics have posed for magazines like Playboy and FHM, and more than one observer has pointed out that although
showing off their bodies in men’s magazines is nothing new, the photo spreads aren’t
ruffling feathers the way they used to.
Well, call me old
school, but my leathers were plenty ruffled.
I looked at the photo
in FHM’s
“Sexy Olympic Special” of five American athletes who are competing in
Ms. Beard has defended
the sexy shoots as her choice, not exploitation, saying she is the one who is
exploiting her Olympic stature to break into the modeling field.
Fair enough, but there
is no denying that a double standard exists when it comes to male and female
athletes posing for magazines. Derek Jeter can look sexy on the cover of GQ,
but we don’t really see him any differently than we do when he rounds the bases
in Yankee Stadium.
Even Jim Palmer,
stripped down for the old Jockey underwear ads, was still the Orioles pitcher
in his body language and the twinkle in his eye.
But the stream of Anna
Kournikova posters and calendars do not suggest a
world-class tennis player: instead they show a demure, even submissive girl
with a sly, come-hither grin. The feminist interpretation
is surely that this is no longer the athlete Anna Kournikova
-- no longer the strong subject of the photo, but a mere sexual object.
So I was
expecting the worst when I picked up the September issue of Playboy, which features the latest of
these photo spreads. Amy Acuff, a high jumper on the
Olympic team in
The definition of sex
appeal seems to have gone under the knife, and it is athletes – not just plastic
surgeons – who are carving out the new
look. Back in the 1960’s, when I was a swimmer in high school with sizable
shoulders and triceps, wearing a sleeveless blouse inspired unconcealed shock
and dismay. Today, the running-back physique of Serena Williams may be setting
the standard for a new femininity.
While winning
Take a look at the
photo of Logan Tom, the Olympic volleyball player, that
appears on the cover of this section – a photo that was first seen in that
“Sexy Olympic” issue of FHM, as it
happens. If you follow the sport in Athens, you will see Ms. Logan’s flare for
finessing service aces as well as her awesome power as an outside hitter, and
when I looked closely at this picture I saw that it does justice to that
athleticism.
Although the photo is
surely meant to convey sex appeal, it seems to me to make a statement very
similar to the famous beefcake photo of Mark Spitz with his Seven Olympic gold
medals in 1972. Mr. Spitz is proud to the point of defiance, unabashedly
showing every inch of his body that a Speedo loincloth doesn’t cover. Ms. Logan, just as proud, stares at the lens
with self-assured machisma
The male form is
suited to perform “swifter, higher, stronger,” as the
Greeks put it. So it follows that a female form with not much curve to the
hips, not much swell to the breasts, will perform better in the athletic arena.
It’s not that an athlete like the track sprinter Marion Jones looks like a man.
That would be the pre-2lst century interpretation of those deep cuts in her
abdominals. To the modern eye, she looks like an athletic woman. And finally,
she’s allowed to display that look and still qualify as feminine.
And here I am at the newsstand, drawing no attention whatsoever in my sleeveless T-shirt, and finding myself buying Playboy.