The Lingerie Football League

Lingerie Football League

 If you thought women were not objectified and degraded enough in advertisements and television then I have good news for you. The Lingerie Football League is the perfect, nation-wide, space for the objectification and degradation of athletic women in the sports arena, too. 

I am little late on this story. I just saw a commercial for the league on MTV2 (which will now be airing the games on Fridays) last night but after a quick Internet search I found the league has been around since 2009, stemming from the Lingerie Bowl in 2004, and has been played at various major-league sports arenas around country.

The basic idea of this game is you have attractive women (as this is the first criteria to join a team) dressed in panties and bras running around a field tackling each other. A few are professional athletes but most are actress and model hopefuls. The team names include gems like San Diego Seduction, Philadelphia Passion, Los Angeles Temptations and Chicago Bliss, names, which were obviously meant to help legitimize the teams as serious athletic players.

 Also great, is the women are not only degraded by the objectification of their bodies but financially as well. The players get fined $500 if they try to wear additional clothes, such as any bras or panties, under their official lingerie “uniforms”. The extra layers might interfere with “accidental nudity” that, according to their contract, the players agree to allow during the game.

 Claims from former member charge the players are blocked from getting the promised medical bills taken care by the league or from even being paid the federal minimum wage of eight dollars an hour.  Several ex-players are suing the league for wages, medical bills, bonus, and airfare that was never reimbursed.

 The same-old arguments are being heard from supporters of the league like “no one is making them do it” and “if their willing…” Sound like a Girls Gone Wild press release to me.

 Supporting articles boast that this is a real sport because it is real “brutal” football. I see this brutality not as legitimizing but as part of what makes this so disturbing. We are not talking about women in full football uniforms, pads and the same full-helmets that are typically seen playing a no-holds-bar game of full contact football. These women are tackling each other in underwear. The lack of clothing and equipment not only allows for “accidental” nudity and increases the chance of injury but also makes it so every bruise and cut can be viewed by spectators. A hot woman in lingerie standing bleeding and bruised promotes the idea of violence and pain afflicted on women as being sexy.

 Despite all of this, I think what bothers me the most is it seems like I am the only one bothered. How is it in a country were people are blogging and ranting about everything is no else outraged? What explains the noticeable absence of blogs and news stories by people objecting to this league?

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You can check out the league’s website at www.lflus.com