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Sport in Society
Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics
Volume 17, 2014 - Issue 6
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Articles

It is okay to play as long as you wear lingerie (or skimpy bikinis): a moral evaluation of the Lingerie Football League and its rebranding

 

Abstract

The Lingerie Football League, now referred to as the Legends Football League (LFL), is morally problematic. The LFL is an all-woman contact football league that originated from a 2004 pay-per-view event during the 2004 Super Bowl's half-time. In 2013, the LFL rebranded the league by modifying the name and uniform requirements. Previously, players wore lingerie-style of uniforms, but now compete in ‘performance wear’. However, the new uniforms involve skimpy bikinis. This paper questions the ethical and moral foundations of the LFL. As women strive for opportunities in sport, the LFL creates an unrealistic and sexist portrayal of women in sport that causes more harm than good. Drawing on some of the common arguments used in the doping and sociocultural-sport literature to ban acts, practices and behaviours in sport, I conclude that the LFL is problematic because the league promotes unfairness and harm, and contradicts the spirit of sport principle.

Acknowledgements

I thank Pam Sailors and the two anonymous reviewers of SIS for their critical comments and helpful suggestions.

Notes

 1. Paul Watcher, ‘The New Skins Game’, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, November 29, 2010, 4206, 91.

 2. Ibid.

 3. Ibid.

 4.CitationKnapp, ‘Garters on the Gridiron’.

 5. The offence consists of one quarterback, two running backs, one down-linewoman and three wide receivers. The defence has two down-linewomen, one linebacker, two cornerbacks and two safeties.

 6. M. Ormsby, ‘Football Pared to Its Bare Essentials: Dreamed Up as a Half-time Distraction, the Lingerie League Is Taking Off’, Toronto Star, December 13, 2009.

 7.CitationKnapp,‘Garters on the Gridiron’, 13.

 8. P. Meiszner, ‘Lingerie Football League Coming to Vancouver in 2012’, Global News, September 28, 2011.

 9. See LFL Canada (http://lflcanada.com/#). In the spring of 2013, the Australian version of the LFL recruited players and organized tryouts (http://www.facebook.com/LFLAustralia).

10. See NFL Ireland, ‘The Complete Resource for Irish Fans of American Football’, http://nfl-ireland.com/top-news/3994-the-lingerie-football-league-rebrands-in-preparation-for-european-expansion/.

11. My inspiration for such an essay design comes from the movie A Time to Kill (1996), directed by Joel Schumacher and based on the story by John Grisham. Near the end of the film, Matthew McConaughey's character, a lead defence lawyer, covers the gruesome details of the rape of young Black girl in his closing argument. At the end of his argument, he asks the jurors to ‘now imagine she's white’. For a transcript of the closing argument, see http://www.monologuedb.com/dramatic-male-monologues/a-time-to-kill-jake-brigance/. We do not always see gender issues as problematic until they are framed differently.

12. See CitationBrown, ‘As American as Gatorade’; John Hoberman, ‘Listening to Steroids’, Wilson Quarterly, Winter 1995, 35–44; CitationSimon. ‘Good Competition’;CitationWaddington, Sport, Health and Drugs; CitationBeamish and Ritchie, Fastest, Highest, Strongest;CitationTodd and Todd, ‘Significant Events in the History’; CitationYesalisand Bahrke, ‘History of Doping’; CitationTamburrini, ‘Are Doping Sanctions Justified?’; CitationMorgan, ‘Fair Is Fair’.

13. See CitationTamburrini, ‘Are Doping Sanctions Justified?’.

14. Sexist comments about women in sport are fairly common in mainstream media. See, for example, Andrew Brown, ‘It's Disturbing to Watch Women Beat Each Other Up’, The Telegraph, August 2, 2012, http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100174361/womens-judo-its-disturbing-to-watch-these-girls-beat-each-other-up/. For a commentary on the extent of sexism surrounding the London 2012 Olympic Games, see http://www.policymic.com/articles/10060/sexism-runs-rampant-at-london-olympics-2012. Sexism also can appear in a blog entry. For example, see ‘Sexism and Sports: Just the Way We Like it’, The Good News Man Project, August 22, 2012, http://goodmenproject.com/sports-2/sexism-and-sports-just-the-way-we-want-it/.

15.CitationDonnelly and Donnelly, The London 2012 Olympics.

16.CitationTännsjö, ‘Against Sexual Discrimination’.

17.CitationKnapp, ‘Garters on the Gridiron’, 1.

18. See CitationBartky, Femininity and Domination; CitationDavis, ‘Sexualization and Sexuality in Sports’; CitationDowling, The Frailty Myth; CitationLenskyj, ‘Sexuality and Femininity in Sport’; CitationMessner, ‘Sport and Male Domination’; CitationMcLeod, ‘Mere and Partial Means’; CitationNussbaum, Sex and Social Justice; CitationBaker, ‘Pricks and Chicks’.

19.CitationYoung, ‘The Exclusion of Women’.

20. Ibid., 15.

21.The Lingerie Football League (LFL) official website (http://www.lflus.com/).

22. M. Thorpe, ‘Necessary Hotness: Move Over, NFL. The Lingerie Football League Is About to Redefine the Glamour of the Gridiron’, Muscle and Fitness, October 2009, http://www.muscleandfitness.com.

23. See The Smoking Gun, ‘Lingerie League Gets Litigious’,December 17, 2009, http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/lingerie-league-gets-litigious:

Player has been advised and hereby acknowledges that Player's participation in the event and the related practice session and Player's services and performances hereunder may involve accidental nudity. In light of the foregoing, Player knowingly and voluntarily agrees to provide Player's services hereunder and has no objection to providing services involving Player's accidental nudity.

24. Catherine Marshall, ‘Lingerie Football's Naked Sexism’, Eurekastreet, June 7, 2012, www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid = 31787.

25.CitationJantzen, Østergaard and Vieira, ‘Becoming a “Woman to the Backbone”’.

26. See CitationAmy-Chinn, ‘This Is Just for Me(n)’.

27. Rick Chandler, ‘Lingerie Football League Changes Uniforms, Name in Re-Branding Effort’ NBC Sports, January 10, 2013, http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2013/01/10/theyve-taken-the-lingerie-out-of-the-lingerie-football-league/.

28. See LFL website, http://www.lflus.com/.

29. See Leah Goldman, ‘The New Uniforms for Legends Football League Are Still Basically Lingerie’, Business Insider, January 24, 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-lingerie-football-league-uniforms-2013-1#ixzz2RIKHrhBd; Rick Chandler, ‘Lingerie Football League Changes Uniforms, Name in Re-Branding Effort’, NBC Sports, January 10, 2013, http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2013/01/10/theyve-taken-the-lingerie-out-of-the-lingerie-football-league/.

30.CitationLoland, ‘Fairness in Sport’, 161.

31. Ibid., 163.

32. I thank one of the reviewers for pointing this important claim out.

33. Nussbaum is a prominent feminist philosopher and her arguments on sexual objectification are widely applied. She has published 15 books and edited 14. Sex and Social Justice won the book award of the North American Society for Social Philosophy in 2000. See CitationNussbaum, Sex andSocialJustice.

34. See Fit and Feminist blog, ‘Ten Reasons Why the LFL Sucks’, November 3, 2011, http://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/ten-reasons-why-the-lingerie-football-league-sucks/.

35. See Dallas Desire Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set = a.92369389815.104569.80314419815&type = .

36.CitationKnapp, ‘Garters on the Gridiron’, 14.

37.The LFL Shop, http://www.lflshop.com/.

38. The 2013 LFL teams in the Eastern division include: Atlanta Steam, Omaha Heat, Philadelphia Passion, Cleveland Crush, Jacksonville Breeze and Baltimore Charm. In the Western division: Chicago Bliss, Minnesota Valkyrie, Los Angeles Temptation, Green Bay Chill, Las Vegas Sin and Seattle Mist.

39.CitationKnapp, ‘Garters on the Gridiron’.

40.CitationBaker, ‘Pricks and Chicks’.

41. Ibid., 260.

42. Wolf, ‘More to the Lingerie Football League than Meets the Eye’, nd, www.9news.com.

43. Rick Chandler, ‘Rick's Cafe: A Disgruntled Lingerie Football League Player Speaks Out’, NBC Sports,April 21, 2011, http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2011/04/21/ricks-cafe-a-disgruntled-lingerie-football-league-player-speaks-out/; ‘LFL Players Should Get Paid’, Abbotsford News, April 25, 2012, http://www.abbynews.com/opinion/letters/148897245.html.

44. See Fit and Feminist blog, ‘Ten Reasons Why the LFL Sucks’, November 3, 2011, http://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/ten-reasons-why-the-lingerie-football-league-sucks/.

45.CitationKnapp, ‘Garters on the Gridiron’, 15.

47.CitationWeaving, ‘Buns of Gold’.

48. Ibid.

49.CitationSailors, Teetzel andWeaving, ‘No Net Gain’. A similar argument could be made for the proposed, then debunked rules suggesting women's badminton and boxing athletes compete in skirts. There is a desire to emphasize a feminine ideal in women's sport.

50. Ibid.

51. M. Thorpe, ‘Necessary Hotness: Move Over, NFL. The Lingerie Football League Is About to Redefine the Glamour of the Gridiron’, Muscle and Fitness, October 2009, http://www.muscleandfitness.com.

52. See official league website: http://www.wfafootball.net/

53.CitationMigliaccio and Berg, ‘Women's Participation in Tackle Football’.

54.CitationBoxill, ‘Football and Feminism’.

55.CitationBurton-Nelson, The Stronger Women Get, 11.

56.CitationGill. ‘Supersexaulize Me!’

57.CitationMill, ‘The Subjectification of Women’.

58. Ibid.

59. Gill. ‘Supersexualize Me!’, 257.

60. During an interview in 2010 with Men's Fitness Magazine for a piece titled ‘She Could Go All the Way’.

61. Ibid.

62.CitationAmerican Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, Report of the APA Task Force. See also CitationDaniels, ‘Sex Objects, Athletes, and Sexy Athletes’.

63. LFL website, http://www.lflus.com/

64. Ibid.

65. C. Vukets, ‘Bikini Basketball Dribbles into Canada’, The Toronto Star, August 9, 2011.

66. Ibid.

67. See Bikini Hockey League webpage, http://bikinihockeyleague.com/index.html.

68. See http://shop.bikinihockeyleague.com/shop/mcdavid-padded-shorts-black/.

69.CitationMurray, Maschke and Wasuna,Performance-Enhancing Technologies, 196.

70.CitationJuengst, ‘Annotating the Moral Map’, 197.

71.CitationMill, ‘The Subjectification of Women’.

72.CitationYoung, ‘The Exclusion of Women’, 17.

73.CitationSailors. ‘Gender Roles Roll’.

74. Ibid, 248.

75. Ibid.

76. See ‘LFL Seattle Mist with John Madden Stripper Commentary’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = AaxUsN_CPu8.

77.Fit and Feminist Blog, ‘Ten Reasons Why the LFL Sucks’, November 3, 2011, http://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/ten-reasons-why-the-lingerie-football-league-sucks/.

78. Courtney, ‘Re: Quick Hits: Lingerie Football League’, Feministing, March 19, 2009, http://feministing.com/2009/03/19/quick_hit_lingerie_football_le.

79. Nicole Lavoie, ‘My Comments on the LFL and League Founder Mortaza’, One Sport Voice, March 25, 2011, http://www.nicolemlavoi.com/my-comments-on-the-lfl.

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