Lingerie Superbowl

More ranting at TV from Monkey.

Football. It doesn’t matter which kind – soccer, superbowl, or Aussie rules – it’s jealously guarded as the preserve of males, both to watch and to play. Women – we all know – can’t kick a ball, can’t catch a ball, throw like girls, and don’t know the offside rule. Well, all that has now changed, thanks to the LIngerie Superbowl. As the name suggests, this is football, played by women, dressed in their underwear. Yes, you heard me – gaze at a pitch full of near-naked beauties grappling with a ball. You might even get to see one of the players have her bra ripped off in the struggle, and run down the field, tits a-bounce, to score a topless touchdown. (This happened last week.) Would someone like to tell me when normal telly turned into one long soft porn spectacle aimed at the heterosexual male (or some socially constructed version thereof)? The equation WOMAN = SEX is writ large all across our screens, no matter which channel we turn to. You wanna be a footballer, little girl? Fine, but you’ve got to have model looks, bronzed skin, large breasts, long shiny hair, and you’ve got to play in your undies. You want to be a singer? Ok, but you need to take off most of your clothes and writhe around like a stripper. Want to be a news presenter? Sure – just keep yourself looking young and lovely. No-one wants to see some old hag reading the news. And don’t get me started on ‘Girls Gone Wild’. Hasn’t anyone heard of female talent? – Oh hang on, that means ‘attractive women’ (at least in some parts of the UK). One step forward, two steps backwards, people.

13 thoughts on “Lingerie Superbowl

  1. I heard Mr J gasping in the other room. He was reading this. I have somehow totally missed these developments in television. Yikes. Reading this one, I keep thinking of the 7 year old girl I know who wants to play rugby for England, and feeling sad.

  2. I caught a glimpse of this stuff on a neighbour’s TV about *3 years ago*. Although he had been watching the American Superbowl, he actually turned to the station with the Lingerie Bowl in order to (I don’t know) shock me, or show me he was a real he-man, or make me feel uncomfortable, or something. GROW UP!

  3. Have you looked at the schedules for the women’s TV networks? The movies have titles like “her best friend’s husband,” “video voyeur,” or “she’s too young.” Women’s entertainment makes the bouncing football players seem almost healthy by comparison.

  4. John, don’t think for one moment that the fact that I have criticised a programme aimed at males means that I think those aimed at females are any better. You’re quite right to point out that those shows are pretty disgraceful. And I’ll be exploring mainstream TV in all its horrible incarnations in my ranting at TV blog post series. However, I have to disagree with your claim that the awfulness of TV aimed at women makes the Lingerie Superbowl almost healthy in comparison.

  5. “Would someone like to tell me when normal telly turned into one long soft porn spectacle aimed at the heterosexual male”

    I know this is slightly off topic, but I fail to see how soft porn on the telly is deemed “bad” and mainstream porn is given a pass.

  6. Mary Tracy9 – Sorry but I don’t really understand your comment. I’m complaining about normal telly turning into soft porn. I haven’t said anything about ‘porn’ porn here. Perhaps that’s what you’re asking – why I haven’t complained about porn in general? One reason is that I don’t think porn in general can all be lumped together and addressed as one homogeneous thing – different sorts require different analyses. The other reason is that this blog isn’t supposed to be comprehensive. We’re just a bunch of people interested in feminist philosophy who post about things that strike us as interesting to feminists for one reason or another. I came across the Lingerie Superbowl, was shocked, so posted about it.

  7. The reason this is so offensive to me is precisely because it’s not porn, in the usual sense of the word. This is turning ordinary everyday activities into porn.

  8. When and where was this televised? In the UK and also in the US? On what Network?

    Have any of you communicated your thoughts to the TV Network?

    I would like to communicate mine

  9. Hi Daniela,
    It was televised in the US – I’ve never seen it on UK television. Unfortunately, I’m not sure which network – I just saw it late at night in my hotel room on a recent visit to the US. The show has a website: http://www.lingeriebowl.com/ – but I can’t access it from where I am right now (lack of Adobe Flash).

  10. It’s pretty sad that lingerie is put in that context. But if they do it is because it sells, and if it sells is because people buy. Don’t you think?

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