I just opened my new “electronic edition” of triathlete magazine.
I like the format and find it well layed out and the content , the usual , although as I stated in another recent thread , wish there was more content surrounding training , races , etc.
Anyway in the "mail call " a 40 year old father of 2 little girls and an active IM and is worried about his children seeing a 45 year old athletic woman in a bikini ?
Being Canadian but living overseas am I MISSING SOMETHING ? What the hell is wrong with a stunning female athlete in a bikini ? And apparently this is going to ruin our sports’ integrity ?
The next woman states that images of triathletes in swimwear are “harmful to male subscribers” ?
The human body , when in shape and photographed in athletic attire and as photographed is something to admire and be proud of.
I wish these people would stop worrying so damn much ,about the incredible “psychological damage” that would be done to their child by seeing the human form and start worrying more about noteworthy causes.
She has done more Kona’s that any other person I think.
She is an older woman.
She is fast.
She has an amazing body for her age.
The mail writers need to get a life. I guess they never go to a pool or a beach or watch CSI or the Entourage or basically tely at all or go to the movies or ride behind that hot chick in lycra of a weekend.
The only psychological damage that child will suffer is from having an overprotective prude for a parent. Unfortunately, I’ve seen what happens to far too many overly-protected children once they get to college and no longer have mommy and daddy making all their moral decisions for them. IT AIN’T PRETTY!!!1
The only psychological damage that child will suffer is from having an overprotective prude for a parent. Unfortunately, I’ve seen what happens to far too many overly-protected children once they get to college and no longer have mommy and daddy making all their moral decisions for them. IT AIN’T PRETTY!!!1
Isn’t that the truth!
The tri-mags get tons of complaints everytime they show something remotely racy yet I am sure they sell tons of those issues also. Never underestimate the ignornace of the Prudes
That is weird. Today I was thinking about posting something about this exact thread. Does this guy own a pair? Jeeeeez
I am 44 year old proud dad of 11 YO son, 13 YO daughter. Both competitive year round swimmers. They are both toned & fit.
They have seen the latest 07 swimsuit issue of some tri mag, I cant remember the name? You should see all the swim mags we get mailed to us!
The latest “Splash” mag has Michael Phelps and some of the relay team with their “one piece” speed suits rolled down to the hips!!! OHHHH heaven forbid !!! We practically live in our swim suites so it no big deal. The human body is amazing when its toned and fit. A sculptured work of art.
It’s a result of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. It just boggles my mind when people think the human body can be soooo harmful to look at.
Anyways, enjoy your body you’ve been blessed with
I’m guessing the composers of those letters are from the U.S., right? There’s also a good chance they are Christian or of some other extremely conservative religious group. We are such a strange contradiction of ourselves in this country, anything to do with the female body is completely taboo, yet very young teenage girls walk around in very revealing clothes. I could go on but it’s pointless.
I haven’t seen the picture, but I have seen a woman in a bikini and have lived to tell of it. I’ve never written a letter to anyone complaining about anything, but I do have two small children who I attempt to shield from this sort of thing, within reason…
What is “this sort of thing” you may ask? 99% of the time, an image of a scantily clad woman, whether it be in print, on TV, the computer, etc. - the image is NOT some sort of celebration of the female form, no matter how much we *mens *try to tell ourselves that’s what is is. It’s there to sell advertising. No more, and really no less. It’s called OBJECTIFICATION. Pretty simple really. And we’re pretty simple creatures who fall for it every time.
The world would be a better place without it…and maybe this fellas’ point is just that he has enough “media” to worry about where this sort of thing is rampant, he would hope that at least is triathlon magazine would be “safe.”
You know, except for the bikini she’s wearing, there’s nothing overly sexual or demeaning about the pics of Fernanda Keller. She’s a strong woman celebrating her amazing bod. She’s not grabbing her boobs or gyrating or doing anything that suggests that she’s not totally empowered. In striving to keep women from being exploited we go too far sometimes and forget that we should celebrate the human form.
In reply to :“There’s also a good chance they are Christian or of some other extremely conservative religious group.”
Despite your broad statement, many Christains and even conservative groups aren’t all that hung up on the body, maybe we’re just tired of sex being peddled to us 27/7. That said, when I was in Haiti as a student missionary, several of us would go to the beach on occasion. Invariably there would be topless european women there was well. The president of the mission institute, who had two teenage boys, would tell us before we went: “Remember boys, it’s okay to admire but not desire.” Needless to say, we did a lot of admiring
Thank goodness you did not have a close up of that one!
These mags will continue to sell to people who enjoy objectification and have no criticism of capital’s use of sensuality. Others are going to cancel their subscription because it does not represent their sport, sends a negative message about women in sport (men are generally shown in active/powerful positions and not the same poses as women) and does not help them with their game. In general, I am not sure why a publication would want to exclude people from their potential market by using images that create such a stir (no, this is not about freedom of expression or a singular celebration of form). I guess it is all about the bump in sales for that one issue, and nothing else.
WTF??? Dude…you’re just out of your mind…
The horrible Euros, naked on the beach…oh my god!!! The poor kids having to tolerate this
I never hear anyone calling CNN, NBC, etc to tell them to stop showing images of people dying for real (murders, twin towers, war images, etc…)…
Real violence is fine on US TV, but you say fuck, or shit, and it’s beeped.
Real violence is fine, but heck, don’t go showing a tit or a butt because this will be rated as porn…
"a 40 year old father of 2 little girls and an active IM and is worried about his children seeing a 45 year old athletic woman in a bikini ? "
Good thing he doesn’t have two little boys. Then he could really fret over them being ruined for life. Seriously, I shook my head also when reading that response.
BTW, Fernanda has more than a great body “for her age”. She has a great body. If she wants to flaunt it I’ve got no objections. My wife even agrees.
This is a very typical response to this argument Francois, but I really do’nt see how it’s related.
Violence and sexism/objectification are different, obviously. I also don’t need to tell you what a continuum is.
Start with violence. A small child enthusiastically watches his favorite mutant turtles violently demolish a band of evil ninjas…does this negatively effect the child? Probably not. Will the child emulate the behavior? Maybe, but we’ll worry about that the next time he confronts a band of evil ninjas.
When the child is constantly bombarded with highly-sensualized images (usually of womens), the childs’ opinion/respect of said womens is affected…usually negatively. And not as some higher appreciation of the female form, either.
And this is not a US vs. the rest of the world issue. Objectification is a problem everywhere there are womens.
We discussed this in the LR about a month ago. These people who get upset because their children might see a scantiliy clad woman must spend lots of time censoring everything their children might see. Pictures of women in their underwear are in virtually every major newspaper on a daily basis in ads from major department stores. The only real difference is Fernanda is shown standing next to a bike while the ads have no background. In either instance there is nothing sexual about the photos.
I’m going to guess the writers are triathletes. Do they bring their children to triathlons? They might see far more exposed at a tri than what is seen in the photos of Fernanda. During the years I’ve done tris I have seen numerous occasions of inadvertant brief nudity of one form or another. These children must be damaged for life by the sight of a swimsuit bottom coming down while someone is removing a wetsuit.
Some of the ads that appear regularly in the tri magazines are more sexually overt than the tame photos of Fernanda, yet there doesn’t seem to be much uprorar about them.
I’m talking about real violence…or do you think TMNT exist for real?
Btw, real or not, your argument about confronting a band of evil ninjas doesn’t hold much water…there are quite a few psych. studies showing the negative impacts of, for instance, video games, were you have to kill zombies…and yet again, it’s highly unlikely your kids will be confronted to zombies anytime soon.
Respect of women? Man…this has nothing to do with images…YOU are responsible for that…you’re the parent. I’m not talking about porn here.
