Academic

Female Olympians, Raise Your Backsides

By Bridget Crawford

Speaking of Olympians, today USA Gymnastics announced the members of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics Team. Coverage here. I find the accompanying team photo (at top, above) quite annoying. Why are the athletes in the front row bending at the knees and lifting up their backsides? Did the photographer ask them to do that? Did they choose to strike that pose?

Would a photographer ever ask a group of male athletes to pose like that? Would male athletes ever pose like that? I doubt it.

Members of men’s team (above), while (or perhaps because) photographed with the victors’ bouquets, mostly adopt the “my-penis-is-too-big-to-close-my-legs” stance.

-Bridget Crawford

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on July 24, 2008 (boomark / email).