Jamie Reidy defends Stephanie Rice against criticism for Tweeting a pic of herself in a racy suit.
Yahoo Sports’s Chris Chase reports:
The three-time gold medalist from Australia took the shot of herself wearing a birthday gift from designer Ellie Gonsalves and posted it on Twitter. It made figurative waves one month before she defends her Olympic titles in both individual medleys.
When I first heard of this “controversy,” I thought of the following line: “She wears a swimsuit for a living, so who cares?” Then I read the first sentence of Mr. Chase’s column and saw he’d said it better than I would have:
Swimmer Stephanie Rice, who swims for a living while wearing a swimsuit in a swimming pool…
Personally, I’d like to see Ms. Rice wearing just bikini bottoms and two strategically placed medals.
Who’s with me???
About Jamie Reidy
I’m with you! And in my opinion that’s NOT a racy swimsuit. Its a 2 piece with some straps. Racy swimsuits can be found here: http://wickedweasel.com or here: http://malibustrings.com
Yes, but does anyone know what her motivation was? Do we finally have concrete evidence of a women indulging in a little “hey look at me” ala Anthony Weiner and can finally shed the idea that internet exhibitionism is a uniquely masculine embarrassment; or did she intend to take a picture of a birthday gift and simply happened to be wearing it at the time?
even if she was saying “hey look at me” how is this is in any way comparable to a straight up genital close-up? not judging weiner, btw
I’m actually confused that someone could have ever thought exhibitionism is uniquely masculine at all. If anything, looking around our culture, it seems like there are a lot more women exhibiting their bodies than men. That’s not a judgment call on those women at all–I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Rather, I think male-body exhibitionism is often shamed as gross, and so it happens less often and/or in fewer ways, and thus when it does happen it is considered notable.
I’m still very confused and unaware of what the controversy is.
Ditto; what _WAS_ the criticism, anyway? That her photo lacked professional-level photographic skill?
And the problem is? She is a swimmer, she worked hard for that body, she looks good. This is hardly Anthony Wiener-esque – she is not showing anything we don’t see at the Olympics. Do I think the picture serves any useful purpose? No. Would I, in her position, choose to tweet this? Probably not. Still – her choice and more power to her.
Yeah, the women’s beach volleyball players wear less than this to compete.
If I looked like that I’d wear that bikini everywhere, even to church.
PS Jamie, is this your new dream girl?
Haha, church might be interesting to goto then. True test of faith to deny the lust in the mind?
Genetics plays a lil part too, but yeah she works hard. From what I know they’re training very regularly at the institute of sport facilities in Australia.
If I had a body like that, I’d be dancing around in a swimsuit.
I don’t see the controversy.
She’s wearing more than the male swimmers do at the Olympics, no less – and nobody’s criticizing them. That is an example of the kind of double standards that must be done away with.
It has to be the bottom. It does hang down pretty low, so her pubic region is barely showing. I don’t think it’s too strong to consider that “racy”.
I’m going to pick at you Jamie…because it’s what I do…
Would you be writing this piece if, say, Rice was unattractive or overweight? I mean, yes obviously she wouldn’t be a swimmer if she were overweight…But let’s pretend Queen Latifah or Mo’Nique or whoever posted a pic of themselves in a bikini online and then was criticized for it…would you write an article about it?
I’m not like asking you to defend yourself or anything…I’ve just noticed a lot of your blog articles have been about really attractive women being derided for dancing/taking photos/whatever while in various states of undress.
And hey, the same could be said about my blog articles and gay themes. We’ve all got topics we’re interested in…(frankly I’m quite interested in attractive women in various states of undress too. lol).
I’d like to see an article on the female weightlifter in the olympic team for America. She looks huge (strength wise), It’s quite impressive to see. I’d say she isn’t conventionally attractive (how do you say that without sounding offensive), but I find her intriguing because she’s bigger than most men I know (muscle wise). I wouldn’t want to fuck with her.
There was a great NPR piece on Ms. Mangold.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/education/top-universities-test-the-online-appeal-of-free.html?_r=1&hp
Listen for the snippet where she worries about her makeup being slutty.
HeatherN – No.
Joanna – Yes.
I was a lifeguard & swim instructor for 7+ years. It employed me through HS & college. Among other things, I was paid to supervise a public beach or pool to keep bratty kids from killing themselves because people used a lifeguard-supervised pool or beach as their own babystitting service; or I’d be kicking drunks off the beach so they wouldn’t harass your kids; or I’d be going out to retrieve teenagers who were jumping from the lake dock to try to swim to drunk lake brats in their parents’ motor boat. On off hours we’d be training. I was also on the swimming & diving team. The sun blonded my hair in the summer, & the chlorine occasionally greened it in the winter. I was like friggin’ Pam Anderson w/o the plastic boobs or suit that had sides that went up to my armpits or could be found running in slow motion. Then I finished college to earn a desk job for big bucks in a cubicle farm (snooty design firm) & I got sick & “fat.” I seriously miss those days. What I miss the most was the fitness level I was at. I could do just about anything I wanted. I was so strong that I could pull myself up a rope hand over hand w/o my legs.
I see the photo of this athelete and I have a temporary wave of sadness & shame at my lost youthful strength and beauty. The strange behavior for shaming this woman probably stems from envy or personal body shame. If you’re in a pool for hours nearly every day, you’re going to get one of the most balanced & strong figures for your body type that can be obtained. And being an Olympic athelete, her healthy body in a suit is all over the media anyway. If you’re a famous Olympic Athelete & a designer sends you a gift of a suit made just for you, you bet your ass you say “thank you” by posting a photo, if it pleases you. My god. F*ck them. And this minimal suit looks fantastic, as I mean it looks like it’s going to *stay on.* If you’re a swimmer and you’re going to the beach for fun, you PLAY HARD. A minimal suit that stays on through a set of hard tumbling waves is friggin priceless.
On a side note, I’d frequently run into my adorable young swim students out in the real world, say in the grocery store with their parents. The kids would immediately recognize me & run up excited to me to give me a hug or a high five, but frequently the parent would become quite alarmed because they wouldn’t recognize me *at all.* “Who are you?! Ohhh you’re our swim instructor. Oh_my_gosh. I’m so, so sorry … I didn’t recognize with your clothes on…and, dry. Oh god, how embarassing.”
The rib straps and buckle are totally unnecessary and seem like they would be uncomfortable.
This would be an excellent opportunity for her to remind Australians to use sunscreen. A perfect moment to do some good. I for one am listening to what she has to say….
The aussie sun….is a real…..annoying thing. SLIP, SLOP, SLAP! I wear my Akubra and a long sleeve UV protective shirt + sunscreen usually in the sun, not to forget sunglasses too!
This woman and self control issues. She is an attention seeking exhibitionist and has lost sponsor for gay slurs. Public indecency is no more a woman’s right than it is a male politician’s. Step away from the twitter girlfriend.
You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation however I find this matter to be
really one thing that I believe I might by no means understand.
It kind of feels too complex and very vast for me. I am having a look
forward to your next publish, I’ll attempt to get the dangle of it!
I think the controversy came from the the way she was treated compared to how to male swimmers on the same team were treated for for their photo on facebook.
The male swimmers went on holiday to USA and took a photo of themselves holding guns at a gun shop and posted it as their profile picture on FB. No big deal right? Well they were almost kicked out of the olympic team for it. Now the olypic committee as given them a complete social media ban and after their events in London they have to come straight home, they don’t get to stick around and enjoy the atmosphere.
The female swimmers on the other hand can post what ever photos they want.
Oh, hell………let’s just go with THREE strategically-placed medals!
1) A picture of yourself in a bikini is not the same thing as a picture holding a gun. One is something you find of every young woman on facebook, and the other comes with political baggage. I am not saying anyone should get kicked off the team for a photo, even if they HAD been making a political statement (I believe they were just messing around) but you cannot equate the two.
2) It’s not even a racey swimsuit. The reason it seems that way is because she is built. Period. I bet you it even has a full back, which is more than I can say for 99% of bikinis that you can find at the store.
3) If someone has spent their life working on their athletic skill and physical prowess, they should get to show it off. I’m a 20-something who is not too shabby, and I have never come anywhere NEAR looking that nice because I spend my time at a desk instead of the gym. Some of us spend all day showing off our educations – her current work IS the gym and the pool, she should get to show it off as well. She is a lot more dedicated to it than most people are to their jobs.
I don’t find super athletic women’s bodies very sexy in the way men’s bodies are. Sure, I’m straight, but I know a lot of men who would agree with me. Frankly, she looks like a 12-year-old in racy suit.