She Sure Knows How To Bounce Those Balls!

Sportswomen have never been paid, respected or supported enough. And it doesn’t appear to be getting any better.

Joining the grossly popular Lingerie Football League comes the Lingerie Basketball League, in which (yep, you guessed it) sportswomen compete in their underwear.

When it comes to prostitutes, strippers, or any other women who use their sexuality as a commodity, there’s always sex liberalists, post modernists and individualists who argue it’s women’s choice; if they choose those careers, and feel empowered by them, other women have no right to condemn them for it.

While that may well apply to some women, there are those playing in the Lingerie Leagues who would prefer to be taken seriously as professional athletes and make a decent living, without having to get their kit off.

Jessica Hopkins, a Lingerie Football League player for the Seattle Storm, says it’s “not fair” that female athletes have to show so much skin to get some attention.

“I’d much prefer to have my skin covered when playing tackle football on hard astroturf, but the lingerie/sexy aspect of our game is what gets people interested,” she said.

It would come as no surprise if the women in the Lingerie Leagues weren’t tackling or diving as much as they would be if they weren’t afraid of being grazed or burnt by course court coverings. Unfortunately this will only serve as fodder for those who say they aren’t sexist, they simply don’t watch women’s sport because it’s “just not as physical as the men’s games.”

Sportswomen have been dealt a number of blows in the past 12 months. They’ve resorted to posing in lads’ mags to pay the rent, they’ve been forced to wear bikinis while playing beach volleyball and mini-skirts on the badminton court.

“It does seem as though the popularity of a particular women’s sport is often unfortunately tied to how attractive its stars are,” former FOX Sports manager Larry Tobin said.

Whether your brand of feminism is sex liberalist, post modernist, individualist, fundamentalist, radical or humanist, at the root of all feminism lies a desire for equality. And clearly there’s no trace of that in the Lingerie Leagues.

Because sportsmen don’t have to choose between their passion and their dignity, their talent and their self-respect. At no point do they have to give up on their dream because the only other option is to do it in a g-string.

If we ever see Tiger teeing off in a thong, Federer serving in ass-less chaps or LeBron slam-dunking in fishnet stockings, maybe then we can have a discussion about women being forced to play sport in push-up bras being okay.

Contact the author here: brianna@morningquickie.com