One might ask, “why show only Chastain when there were ten other players that helped USA win the cup?” or "why not show the winning penalty shot?" Sports Illustrated is stressing the fact that while Chastain did something great in scoring the game winning shot, her celebration was the real story. In society, men and women are looked at differently, especially in sports. Men are seen as better athletes than women. Men and women are almost never seen as equals in sports. Women sports aren't supposed to be as interesting as men sports. The fact that Sports Illustrated chose this picture over the winning goal is interesting. The image of Chastain without a shirt off is a bigger deal than USA beating China.
Sports Illustrated chose to put the picture of Chastain’s celebration because people were more interested in debating the bra incident rather than the game itself. This picture symbolizes women’s equality in the US. Why can men take off their shirt but not women? Recently in the Euro cup, Mario Ballotelli pulled off his shirt and flexed for the camera. He got a yellow card and the game moved on.
This picture reveals the difficulties men have with accepting women as equals. In today’s society, women are viewed as sex object. This photo was taken in the same year as Rolling Stones’ Britney Spears picture and while the two have bras on, they are not similar. While Spears epitomizes the men’s view on women, Chastain brings something different with her partial nudity. In this picture, Chastain is not sexy. Her face is not lustful. She shows power. Chastain resembles a warrior with abs and muscles. Men rush to say that Chastain taking off her shirt is wrong because it is in public and Chastain did this to pull a publicity stunt. But Sports Illustrated has also had a swimsuit issue (starting from the 80‘s) that reveals much more than Chastain. What does this say about our view of women in our society? Women that look sexy are more accepted than women who show power? Society has not changed much since 1999. Kim Kardashian is a huge celebrity mainly based on her sex appeal. People are more likely to talk about Kim Kardashian or Miley Cyrus than Hilary Clinton or Michelle Obama.
I do like the comparison you brought up about the cover of Britney Spears. You said that the Rolling Stone cover "epitomizes the men's view on women," and I think you are absolutely correct. Britney was a sex icon back when she was in her prime (even though she wasn't even "of age" yet) and that cover was definitely radiating sex appeal. This Sports Illustrated cover, however, is the exact opposite and you made the point that it shows the potential power that women can definitely have and not just men so I think that was also another very valid point. One more point that I also agree with that you made was about Ballotelli's celebration. As a soccer fanatic myself, I do witness all of these crazy celebrations that the players put together. Some line up and dance, some have shirts under the jersey that say different things, and some just run and slide on their stomachs. All of these always result in a yellow card and maybe it will draw some attention of the Sports Center anchors but thats about it. You never see these celebrations on the cover magazines the next day and result in controversy, so I also agreed with you on that point.
ReplyDeleteI really understood and got your point on the fact that men and women are treated so differently in the sports world in this day and age. It seems when a women acts in a certain way that society deems man like, such as ripping off your jersey, there is controversy.Of course the same could be argued about men acting like women, but the fact is that many men in soccer celebrate very elaborately and only get stuck with a yellow card and everything keeps going, but when women do it such as Brandi, people make such a big deal about it. Furthermore, one thing i would like to point out is why Sports Illustrated may have put Brandi on the cover. As it is a known fact that the sports world is dominated by males and female sports are a lot of the time overlooked. Sports Illustrated understood this fact and that is why they place her on the cover. The picture of Brandi's celebration embodies the capitalized words "YES". These words reveal to the viewer at first glance that something important has been accomplished in the entirety of sports. The reader sees that even women sports are seen as important as any accomplishment that a male team could have done. Sports Illustrated may in fact be trying to change this idea that women sports should be overlooked but instead be closely looked as any other popular male sport.
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