When was the last time you saw a close up picture of a male athlete’s bum? Probably not recently; male athletes are acclaimed for their sporting prowess rather than the shape of their bodies.
And what about the male partners of female athletes? Can you recall any honed in photos of their groins or legs?
No, of course not. Because men are not routinely sexualized in our society.
But this week, not one but two females in the sporting world have had pictures of their bums plastered all over the media.
The first was US gymnast Carly Patterson. Fellow Olympian gymnast Louis Smith posted a zoomed in photo of her bottom on his Instagram account with the caption: ‘My sport has its moments’, complete with lurid winking face emoticon. Patterson was sixteen years of age at the time the photo was snapped.
And today, a Fox cameraman honed in on the short skirt of Paulina Gretsky, the fiancée of US Open winner, golfer Dustin Johnson. The cameraman followed Gretsky up the stairs, coming dangerously close to up-skirting her in the process.
WATCH: Paulina Gretzky’s skirt shot divides internet
The sexualization of women in sport is nothing new. Google ‘female athletes’ and the top five search returns will be ‘hottest female athletes’. (Google ‘male athletes’ and only two of the top five relate to looks.) Female athletes are revered for their appearance rather than their sporting abilities – consider tennis player Anna Kournikova, for example, who was the most searched sportswoman in the world, despite never having won a singles title.
And female athletes are treated differently to male athletes by journalists. Men are asked about their performance and strategies. Women are questioned about their weight, their outfits, their love lives, and even their body hair. One tennis player, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, was even famously asked to ‘twirl’ after a match so that the audience could see her dress.
WATCH: If male athletes were interview like females
Many sporting bodies recognize that sex appeal sells, and so it’s inevitable that some women in sport will use this to their advantage. Some, like Ronda Rousey, pose on the cover of magazines in bikinis. Many take sponsorship deals that feed off their sex appeal. Others, such as Paulina Gretsky, manage their own Instagram accounts filled with glamour and lingerie shots.
However, this doesn’t justify their being sexualized by journalists or by other athletes out of the context of a photo shoot. Because with any sort of sexual behavior, and with any sort of sexual image, choice and consent is key.
Carly Patterson did not choose to be sexualized, and she did not consent to a close up picture of her bottom being posted on Instagram with a lascivious comment. Paulina Gretsky did not choose or consent to a camera honing in on her bum whilst she was at a sporting event to support her finance.
If it is not acceptable to photograph a random woman’s backside, it is not acceptable to photograph it simply because she is in the sporting world. And if it is not acceptable to photograph a male athlete’s bum, it is not acceptable to do it just because the athlete is a woman.
It seems astonishing that we need to keep repeating this, but women deserve the same respect and freedom as men. And until female athletes can focus on their sport and not their outfits, until sportswomen are rewarded for achievement rather than looks, and until women in sport can go out without being up-skirted by a cameraman, we still have a long way to go.
Paulina with her husband Dustin and son, Tatum
