Megan Rosker asks: “Could it be that in the 21st century women still thrive on being recognized for flashing their breasts around on the nine yard line?”
When I stumbled on to the Lingerie Football League website the other night, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Women dressed in football pads and lingerie- was this a joke? Writing for The Good Men Project, I often find myself having many theoretical discussion about how things ought to go, how we would all like them to be, how society was in the past and how it might shift in the future, but here in front of me was something very un-theoretical. The LFL is what is happening right now in our culture. It took a moment for my brain to drift down from the place of lofty visions of social equality and realize that despite all our talk, we still have a lot of unraveling to do when it comes to what we understand about our sexuality.
Could it be that in the 21st century women are still thriving on being recognized for flashing their breasts around on the nine yard line? Could it be that while watching this sporting spectacle men still so easily tap into their lust to be the alpha male, that they still fantasize about being the “leader of the pack”? It all sounds barbaric when talked about so bluntly, but perhaps these base instincts are not so far from the surface of our lives.
Whether we like these habits or not, they have been part of our lives for a very long time. Roman women were dressing in scantily clad armor and fighting for largely male audiences in 60 CE. Many of the women that fought were wealthy women. They wanted the approval and the notoriety of fighting and being lusted after, not the money. Sound familiar? As Hugo Schywzer pointed out in the discussion of Tom Matlack’s post about the LFL, these women are being paid peanuts. But they aren’t doing it for the money. Just as the Roman women did it centuries ago, they perform this act for the notoriety, for the feeling of power they experience when they walk into a stadium clouded with lust.
The members of the audience, whether male or female, dominate the athletes with their approval. Unlike a professional female soccer ball player or a member of the WNBA, I hardly think these women would be running about in their lingerie without an audience. The athletes and the audience in this case are completely codependent.
An entity like the LFL exploits these well worn sexual habits between men and women. In order to move past them, we would need to start speaking more honestly about our sexual needs. Instead of mixing sex into sports, why not have a clear conversation about the needs that are being met for men and women during an LFL game? Could we begin to talk about how we feel when want to express our most basic sexual lust?
The LFL allows both men and women to experience the rush of the Roman warrior, the lust of the pack leader and the satisfaction of the conquest, all on a Sunday afternoon.
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I think secretly we all know this is what is at play in a lingerie football game, but it is hard for both men and women to look such animalistic behaviors in the face when we have been breed to be civilized, courteous and polite sexually. The LFL gives men and women a chance to step out of the role of cubicle guy and cubicle girl or manager guy and manger girl. The LFL allows both men and women to experience the rush of the Roman warrior, the lust of the pack leader and the satisfaction of the conquest, all on a Sunday afternoon.
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photo: MTV
Wow. You are not describing me. I’ve watched a little LFL on TV. I admit I enjoy seeing athletic women with little clothing on playing football. I’m more of a legs and butt man than a breast man myself, but certainly breasts are conspicuously on display. The novelty has worn off pretty quickly, though, because it’s actually sort of monotonous. If you are obsessively turned on by that particular body type and that particular scenario, it has a lot to offer, but the players really do look very much alike. I think I’m pretty aware of what I like and… Read more »
Wow. You guys are REALLY overthinking this. You want a blunt answer why the LFL is so popular? Here you go. Novelty and tits. Who usually plays football? Men. Men clad in tons of protective padding. But now you have women playing football, and not only that, but they’re playing in their underwear. Essentially it’s like watching a video of a squirrel waterskiing, only the squirrel has DDs. I know that’s not politically correct or popular, but it’s true. There may be some decent athletes in the LFL but no one is there to witness that. Even the best LFL… Read more »
This is the harm from a woman’s point of view… many times women make a lot more money (I’m not sure if the LFL is providing much money for these women, but it would be frustrating if they do make much money from it) when they show their bodies rather than those of us who go to school and get a degree, including a graduate degree, and make far less money because we’re wearing our clothes. You’re absolutely right, it is all about the women’s bodies, but why can’t women be given attention in a respectful way, instead of there… Read more »
Women have always been cat-called and treated as sexual objects by men. Even women who wear burkas are treated like that. That is not these women’s fault many men are disrespectful beasts. In fact, no woman has any fault (or other men’s fault): the fault lies exclusively on the men acting like that. No excuses.
The same goes for women misreating men. Her fault, 100%.
“No harm, no foul.”
Keep telling youself that if it makes you feel more confortable. Or maybe because you are actually very confortable, in that case… I am sorry for the females in your family.
Exacly, all that LMJ said. You would feel the same if men were in the same situation.
Didn’t an editor write about this very topic when she talked about her obsession with beauty. I believe she stated that she got a charge out of the male attention she received when she focused on her looks. I think that has some explanatory power here as well.
You know I tried to point out to Tom Matlack how women would gladly compete with each other on who could look more emaciated in an organization run by predominantly by women & gay men like the fashion industry.
I guess everything women do for Money, Power and Attention is the result of male oppression.
Budmin your comment “I guess everything women do for money, power and attention is the result of male oppression” appears to be sarcastic, however it is actually true in many ways… you will want to look into these things further and do some research before making a comment that is supposed to be sarcasm, while actually rings very very true.
Exactly. But many, many men arounf here are totally blind to everything about women and their issues.
in fact, I believe many times they actually lie to themselves about not knowing or getting a thing.
Some women would gladly do it. Some men would as well, but for different reasons and with different things by the most part. It does not happen in most organization run predominantly by women or gay men, though
Is it remotely possible that the LFL is a greater Boost to female confidence then say..
Roller Derby Mavins,
Table Dancing,
WWE Divas,
Playboy PlayMates
Ring Card Girls,
Run Way Models,
and the like..
I believe It’s time that we admit that women have their own affinity towards social stratification regardless of Male involvement.
Could somebody/anybody truly tell me WHY IS THIS A MEN’S ISSUE!?
Please…
Because men are involved? These women are there because men want them as well, not only because they want to…
Well said Megan. I guess my real question here is how and why is this sport so popular? You gave a glimpse into some answers to that. But I agree with you that we need to get a lot more honest about sex. I actually think a strip club, for all that may be wrong with it, is a more honest exchange between man and woman where arguably the women is getting the better of the transaction financially. The idea that the LFL is sport and that we as a culture embrace this image of what it means to female,… Read more »
It is noteworthy that these women actually wear MORE clothing that professional wrestlers.