Female Athletes Posing Nude Sets a Bad Example

Diana Taurasi fans are feuding over whether she's objectifying her body or just being sexy

Photo: Courtesy of ESPN

Diana Taurasi's 'bad example': Top player hits rock bottom with nude ESPN pics

• October 6th, 2010 8:49 am ET
• By Sunny Pepper, Celebrity Fitness and Health Examiner

Pro women's basketball player Diana Taurasi isn't the first female athlete to pose naked and raise the eyebrows of creeping men. While Taurasi's ESPN naked debut is one of dozen athletes featured in the "Body Issue", she may be the one to fall the furthest. 

EX-DIANA FAN: YOUR GIVING YOUNG GIRLS ISSUES

The photos are said to merely, only be "partially nude" but the former UConn star and 28-year-old Phoenix Mercury pro is still young enough to have young fans. Fans, that to Diana, want to be like her, look like her and do what she does to have fame and fortune.

"This makes me sad," says one commenter by the name 'rosemary'. "If I had a young daughter, it would really trouble me. (It does anyway)...kids and young women will see this picture...one way or another and copy what they see," she writes. "I am no prude, but what does this tell them? Look around and see the state of youth and similar publications, tv, movies, etc.. Womens basketball was always a stellar example for youngsters and young women." Adding, "[It's too bad."

EX-DIANA FAN: "YOU JUST SET WOMEN BACK 100 YEARS"

In a sport like women's basketball, teams are often caught straddling the fence between integrity and great marketing. The games have a need to be family-oriented but the need for ticket sales and organization support is what's challenged the WNBA throughout the last decade. Even still, one reader says she doesn't approve.

"Thanks Diana - you have just set women back 100 years, women are more than just sex symbols. What does your naked body have to do with all that you have accomplished on the court? I am a diehard UCONN fan and have been since 1990 but can't get my head around the concept of why you had to pose like this."

ARE AMERICANS TOO PRUDE?

So, she isn't the first to take off her clothes to boost press and business and she's surely not the last (i.e. Lauren Jackson). Even still, for the millions of men who'll drool over her ESPN cover, there are daughters who are looking out only to look back in - Questioning themselves, their bodies and subscribing to their own issues.

The argument that American culture needs to be more accepting of nudity may be one leg to stand on, but the other critical limb is the reality we - Americans - live in. There is a difference between embracing the amazing nature of the human physique and objectifying it for sexual luxury.

Did Diana cross the line?

Here are some more of the pictures from ESPN's Body Issue

ESPN's body issue is a perfect example of how the media portrays female athletes. In class, the three stereotypical ideologies were discussed towards women in sports were; objects of desire, objects of pleasure, and that women are eye candy. After looking at these pictures it is hard to argue against any of those ideologies. These pictures are clearly displaying these female athletes as eye candy. Page 420 of the text mentions because the mid 1990's women's coverage has grown, but is inconsistent. The media coverage is very inconsistent with women's sports. We can watch sportscenter and never see a single highlight of a women's sport. The only thing consistant about the coverage of women's sports is the yearly issue of ESPN the body issue and the sports illustrated swim suite issue. I personally don't even consider these issues as media coverage. The women are being displayed purely as sex symbols and the magazines mention nothing about the women's athletic accomplishments. I do agree with the article above. These pictures do set women's sports back. These pictures just add fuel for peoples' view of women athletes as objects of desire and eye candy. I believe the pictures take away credibility from women's sports. These pictures make people think the only thing female athletes are good for is to look at. Female athletes should strive to be acknowledges for their athletic accomplishments and not thier bodies. In the text on page 404, it says sports depend on the media. So how can you blame these female athletes if sports depend on the media? If this is the only coverage the media is willing to give women's sports, can we really blame them for giving into the pressure. It must be frustrating to be a brilliant athlete, but nobody acknowledges you unless you get nude for a magazine. So maybe we should be placing more blame on the media and less blame on the female athletes.