My seven-year-old cousin recently became infatuated with tennis, and she declared one day that she was determined to be just like Anna Kournikova. I suggested that she may want to be more like Venus Williams or Lindsay Davenport, women who have major tennis titles under their belts.
My cousin just stared at me quizzically and said, “Why would I want to be like them? Anna Kournikova is prettier.”
And if you ask any young male or female out there about Anna Kournikova, you’ll get a similar answer: She’s hot.
There’s no denying the obvious: sex sells. Calvin Klein plies us to try his latest cologne with statuesque models and ‘barely there’ underwear.
Similarly, in the world of sports, sex and scandal attract fans who would otherwise keep flipping the channel past the robust Kobe Bryant playing basketball. Since sex is everywhere, its effect has become diluted and is thus not as-ahem-potent as it once was; but it still has the power to make us sit up and take notice.
Let’s face it: image is everything and athletic performance is only as important as who’s watching. And it’s mostly young, single men who are tuning in.
Sport advertising targets these young males, since they are the biggest consumers of sports products and spend the most time in front of the tube.
And they’re not the only ones. The typical teenager spends four hours a day in front of the television; and the typical child watches 30,000 commercials every year.
Sports marketers have taken note; they are now tapping into the consumers of tomorrow by linking sports and sex into a packaged deal. And young viewers-male and female alike-are eating it up.
Anna Kournikova, who has yet to win a major tennis open or even rank in the top 10, is actually best known for her spread in Playboy, her lucrative endorsement contracts, and her tumultuous relationships with Pavel Bure and former pop sensation Enrique Iglesias. The tennis is totally beside the point: she could just as easily be a Hollywood starlet or a teenybopper pop idol-her mediocre talent is forgotten because she’ll take her clothes off for money.
So what’s the big deal, you ask? Why wouldn’t young males and young females, like my cousin, want to see Anna Kournikova all over the place? Well, maybe they would, but it’s irrelevant to the sport. Athletics is about “faster, higher, stronger”-not “thinner, taller, bustier.”
It’s disturbing enough that Kournikova makes truckloads of money from lacklustre performances, but it’s even more disturbing that young girls are idolizing her for her bombshell looks, not for her skills.
Sports is a business, and a lucrative one at that. The whole enterprise requires that you fill the stadium with fans so you can charge them for seats, sell them overpriced soft drinks and hot dogs, and sell them souvenirs. The public wants to be entertained; a well-marketed sexy starlet, like Ms. Kournikova is what it takes.
Female athletes regularly encounter the problem of trying to balance sex appeal and athletic prowess. Some are considered less attractive because they are more muscular or not as ‘feminine’ as other women. To combat this, PR executives ensure that female athletes are primped and posed just like models on magazine covers.
Compare marketing for the WNBA with the NBA. I rest my case.
But sexuality can only go so far. Female athletes who pose for Playboy or Penthouse risk losing ‘family-oriented’ corporate sponsorship (which does not stop some of them from taking the leap anyway). The result is that female athletes are often caught in the middle, trying to preserve their dignity as high-level athletes, while also playing the public relations game of sex appeal and the commercial come-on.
Heather Mitts’s case is an example of a woman trying to walk this line and be a family-friendly role model on the one hand, and a marketable sex bomb on the other: it’s an attempt to sell her image to as broad an audience as possible. Recently, the U.S. soccer player turned down the opportunity to pose for a so-called “gentlemen’s” magazine, but instead was recently featured in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. The difference, when it came down to it, was a few square inches of strategically-placed spandex. But the fact remains: in order to get any recognition or sponsorship or fame, she had to make kissy-faces at the camera while wearing a bikini. For female athletes, being good just isn’t good enough-you’re no one until you’ve frolicked on the beach for SI’s cameras.
The careers of Mats Sundin or Joe Sakic don’t depend on them posing in Playgirl or in a few Calvin Klein ads. The same cannot be said of Mitts or any number of female athletes. Why?
This is the first in a series about sex in sports. Read The Varsity next Thurday for Part 2.
