Many posts on this blog have dealt with the omnipresent problem of the objectification of women in our society and around the world. Feminists of all stripes agree that this is a problem, though what exactly constitutes “objectification” and what might be a good solution to this problem are subjects for discussion. Similarly, this issue also suggests a follow-up: what happens when men are objectified?
This issue has come up recently with regard to the World Cup soccer stars, who have spent the last four weeks playing some of the best soccer in the world. They have also come under criticism for their unsportsmanlike antics on the pitch, including the “dives” and strategic “injuries” that often stop the game for minutes at a time. Websites like BuzzFeed.com, Jezebel.com and others have also found another way to look at these male soccer players: through the lens of sexual objectification.
A recent article for Slate.com reviews and analyzes this trend, which often focuses on individual body parts of the players. For many women, this may sound awfully familiar. Instead of “nice tits” or “great ass” it’s “nice quads” and….well…”great ass.” Buzzfeed’s lists included even “best bulges,” which, as anyone watching the World Cup will know, capitalizes on the fact that soccer players do not, in fact, wear a cup to the World Cup.
Slate.com writer Amanda Hess zeroes in on some of the major issues here, pointing out astutely that the sexual objectification of male players is often a tertiary quality when ranking them, as opposed to the sexiness of female athletes, which is often front and center. This issue relates to the larger picture in which female athletics, more generally, are less popular, less attended, and garner much less media attention and sponsorships than male athletics. And few sports fans seem to have a problem with that.
Hess points out, however, that the sexual objectification of male soccer players in some ways queers the sports-viewing experience, as it puts female and gay-male viewers front and center in discussions of the World Cup. While such viewers are still often considered “not true fans” by straight male soccer fans, Hess argues that “unapologetic leering is also an announcement: Hey, we belong in the sports bar as much as straight men do.”
At the same time, though, there are other questions and issues to consider. The larger issue of sexual objectification is one of them. Most adults, at some point in their lives, will be objectified and/or objectify someone else. And enjoy it. Objectification is part of human desire and not always a negative act. Of course, the systematic objectification of women by men, especially when the women already has less privileges and rights than men, is a huge problem. Many people have linked this problem to issues of empathy and the growing need to teach young boys how to empathize with others.
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In fact, empathy might make better soccer and pro athletics in general. How depressing is it to find out that your favorite player, no matter what gender or sport, is abusive and/or violent towards others? How annoying is it to watch grown men on the soccer pitch yell and argue with a referee who is just trying to do his job? And how frustrating, as a feminist and a woman, it is to hear people tell you that “women’s athletics are not as good/interesting/intense as men’s” and I should just accept that fact.
Of course, maybe women’s athletics would not be dismissed by fans, male athletes, spectators and sponsors if men’s and women’s sports competitions were held to the same rules. A recent meme on Facebook posted by Everyday Feminism expresses chagrin at soccer announcer’s pronouncement that Landon Donovan is the “all-time leading US goal-scorer” when that title actually belongs to Abby Wambach. The caption to the cartoon reads, “Women’s Soccer stats are completely ignored during the World Cup although they are the top scorers worldwide.” This is not, however, unusual. Women’s and men’s sports are often thought to be completely different, to the point that in many sports (not soccer, however) there are even different start points, rules, lengths, and ball sizes for women’s and men’s versions.
By building difference into men’s and women’s athletics, they are held to be completely different and separate. When men’s and women’s athletics are held to the same rules, as in soccer, where women play on the same size pitch, with the same size goals, and for the same length of time, their athletics are still considered not as “explosive” or “fast”–even though sometimes a slower game can be more interesting because it is easier to follow and there are more goals.
The difference in objectifying male and female athletes is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to difference in sports. When talking about sports, it almost seems inevitable that we must circle back to the issue of “biological difference” and how it affects the greater issues of fairness in sports, the representation of bodies on screen, and the treatment of male and female athletes. The issues faced by intersex athletes, transgender athletes, and lesbian and gay athletes further complicate this already fraught issue.
What makes the issue of sexual objectification perhaps interesting in its own right is the way that it makes fans a part of the discussion. To say that women or gay men only watch soccer because the sport puts very fit and sometimes good-looking male athletes front and center is to diminish the true interest in the sport that many of these fans have. The humorous aspect of this objectification and the focus on “bulges”–a word that, when used to describe the female body, can have a negative connotation–perhaps highlights the negative objectification felt by many women.
Not long ago, actor Jon Hamm, of Mad Men fame, complained about the media focus on his own prominent bulge, a bulge featured on its own Tumblr site “Jon Hamm’s Wang.” While undue focus on any person in terms of their most prominent bodily feature are unwarranted and demeaning, the discussions that might come from the objectification of male bodies may prove fruitful for women as well as other kinds of physical difference, whether related to race, ability, ethnicity or nationality. Of course, it is problematic in its own way that we respond with more interest and emotion to the objectification of certain men than to the objectification of all women.
