ESPN Body Issue – Does is really celebrate the Athletic form?
Looking at previous research, one article titled, “Form Or Function? an Examination of ESPN Magazine’s “Body Issue’’’, found results that “for the female athletes, the Body Issue frames them in the expected norm: female first, athlete second. It’s not out of character for the female athletes to be framed in ways that highlight their femininity, sexuality, or in a domestic manner because the cultural expectations have made this the ideal for female athletes; their athleticism takes a backseat to their talents as women (Hull, Smith, and Schmittel 2015:114).” Two more articles I researched drew comparisons of the Sports illustrated Swimsuit issue to the ESPN body Issue, even saying that the ESPN body issue was created to compete with the Sports illustrated Swimsuit magazine, while also attempting to present itself about sports and the powerful athletes featured in it (Weaving and Samson 2018). This article by Weaving and Samson (2018) found that the ESPN body issue has little to no association with the sport and doesn’t celebrate the athletes athletic form as the it suggests (Weaving and Samson 2018).
Weaving and Samson (2018) further state
“If ESPN’s mission is to celebrate strong athletic bodies, they failed to do so in this image. Even though the image may not be highly sexually objectified, it is still problematic because of the body positioning (hiding muscularity and looking timid) and location (not on the playing surface, or a picturesque backdrop, instead a backyard deck)
(Weaving and Samson 2018:9).”
Credit: Esther Vergeer, by Finlay Mackay, Year of photoshoot: 2010, Source: ESPN Body Issue
The image that Weaving and Samson (2018) are talking about is pictured above. The athlete is Esther Vergeer, a paraplegic tennis player, depicted with no racket and not even on her sports playing surface.