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Golf is Sexy...?
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Carin Koch 31-year-old
Swede, the winner of their sexiest women on the LPGA Internet poll, to
pose in the magazine Sure, she was flattered that 6,854 voters -- 24
percent of the 28,247 total -- found her attractive. "But the biggest
part in my decision [not to pose] is that I'm a role model and a mom," she
says. "I'd like to get more attention for how I play than how I
look."
LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw When the site's editors were putting together the feature, they needed photos of 10 players, including Koch, so they put in a call to Votaw. Did the commissioner worry that his players might be presented in questionable way? Nope -- he just sent the photos.
" They didn't ask us for nude pictures of our players," Votaw says. "They asked for pictures." And he didn't have a problem with the poll. "I thought it was a validation of something I've thought all along, and that is: We have a number of very attractive athletes who play on the LPGA Tour."
Would the same be said if the commissioner was a female? In a male dominated society, it is easy for the commissioner to allow playboy to post pictures of his golfers because he wants to appeal to his male-dominating nature which says “Yes, display these golfers on playboy and the LPGA, and me, will get more exposure and increased revenue”.
Playboy agrees. "There's this perception about women golfers, that they're not attractive, that they're masculine-looking," says Blair Fischer, sports editor of Playboy.com. "We wanted to see if that was the case, and we found that it just wasn't so."
This, of course, is exactly the conclusion Votaw would like the general public to reach about the LPGA. The poll not only garnered the tour a lot of media ink, it re-ignited an age-old debate over whether sex is the best way to sell women's golf.
The topic of sexing up women's golf draws mixed reviews from the pros. The younger generation seems to take the subject of sex and the Playboy.com poll lightly. Rising U.S. star Laura Diaz, 27, stated boldly last year that the LPGA "should market sex. Sex sells."
The younger generation realizes that being conservative will not get you anywhere. In today’s society sex is the dominate force behind…everything. Billboards, movies, music, television, sports, and even in the business world. “sex sells” idea is going to take over the nation, if it hasn't already, but because of this idea people are being more accepting of it and acknowledging that it is out there and to just deal with it. However, is it morally justified that women are being subjectiveived like that and essentially being sold as objects of sex instead of their actual or real talent.
I feel the issue has gotten confused," says Charlie Mechem, who served as commissioner of the LPGA from 1990 to 1995. "People say it's important for women to be marketed as women, and the next thing you know the conversation goes full bore to the other extreme -- you gotta sell sex. It's not accurate and it's not intelligent."
" Taking your clothes off is a desperate act," says tour player Helen Alfredsson. "For me, sexy has nothing to do with having your clothes off. We've gotten stuck. Why is Fred Couples so sexy? We don't ask him to take his clothes off. It has to do with charisma and how you carry yourself, how intriguing you are. Maybe that's what we, as a tour, lack."
Alfredsson seems a bit wary of being expected to have the whole package: "We have to be pretty. We have to be skinny. We have to wear makeup. And we have to hit it 300 yards. Do you know how hard it is to play in something skimpy?"
Donna Lopiano, Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation."When you sell sex, you invite sexism in how you are treated. The question is, do female athletes want to be treated as athletes or as sex objects or decorative objects?"
The story of Jan Stephenson is a perfect example of how sex sells anything.
Random Facts about Women’s Golf.
A DePauw University study conducted on 52 Saturday issues of The New York Times showed that in 1989, women received 2.2 percent of all sports coverage. Ten years later, that number had risen to only 6.7 percent.
Sports Illustrated hasn't had a woman golfer on its cover since 1978.
Original Article
LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw When the site's editors were putting together the feature, they needed photos of 10 players, including Koch, so they put in a call to Votaw. Did the commissioner worry that his players might be presented in questionable way? Nope -- he just sent the photos.
" They didn't ask us for nude pictures of our players," Votaw says. "They asked for pictures." And he didn't have a problem with the poll. "I thought it was a validation of something I've thought all along, and that is: We have a number of very attractive athletes who play on the LPGA Tour."
Would the same be said if the commissioner was a female? In a male dominated society, it is easy for the commissioner to allow playboy to post pictures of his golfers because he wants to appeal to his male-dominating nature which says “Yes, display these golfers on playboy and the LPGA, and me, will get more exposure and increased revenue”.
Playboy agrees. "There's this perception about women golfers, that they're not attractive, that they're masculine-looking," says Blair Fischer, sports editor of Playboy.com. "We wanted to see if that was the case, and we found that it just wasn't so."
This, of course, is exactly the conclusion Votaw would like the general public to reach about the LPGA. The poll not only garnered the tour a lot of media ink, it re-ignited an age-old debate over whether sex is the best way to sell women's golf.
The topic of sexing up women's golf draws mixed reviews from the pros. The younger generation seems to take the subject of sex and the Playboy.com poll lightly. Rising U.S. star Laura Diaz, 27, stated boldly last year that the LPGA "should market sex. Sex sells."
The younger generation realizes that being conservative will not get you anywhere. In today’s society sex is the dominate force behind…everything. Billboards, movies, music, television, sports, and even in the business world. “sex sells” idea is going to take over the nation, if it hasn't already, but because of this idea people are being more accepting of it and acknowledging that it is out there and to just deal with it. However, is it morally justified that women are being subjectiveived like that and essentially being sold as objects of sex instead of their actual or real talent.
I feel the issue has gotten confused," says Charlie Mechem, who served as commissioner of the LPGA from 1990 to 1995. "People say it's important for women to be marketed as women, and the next thing you know the conversation goes full bore to the other extreme -- you gotta sell sex. It's not accurate and it's not intelligent."
" Taking your clothes off is a desperate act," says tour player Helen Alfredsson. "For me, sexy has nothing to do with having your clothes off. We've gotten stuck. Why is Fred Couples so sexy? We don't ask him to take his clothes off. It has to do with charisma and how you carry yourself, how intriguing you are. Maybe that's what we, as a tour, lack."
Alfredsson seems a bit wary of being expected to have the whole package: "We have to be pretty. We have to be skinny. We have to wear makeup. And we have to hit it 300 yards. Do you know how hard it is to play in something skimpy?"
Donna Lopiano, Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation."When you sell sex, you invite sexism in how you are treated. The question is, do female athletes want to be treated as athletes or as sex objects or decorative objects?"
The story of Jan Stephenson is a perfect example of how sex sells anything.
Random Facts about Women’s Golf.
A DePauw University study conducted on 52 Saturday issues of The New York Times showed that in 1989, women received 2.2 percent of all sports coverage. Ten years later, that number had risen to only 6.7 percent.
Sports Illustrated hasn't had a woman golfer on its cover since 1978.
Original Article