When I was a kid, you’d be hard pressed to walk into the room of any older brother sort and not see a sports poster of Anna Kournikova, Danica Patrick, or Gabrielle Reece. These women would be staring at you stoically from the unnecessarily scantily clad and highly posed 24 x 36 glossy windows into the women’s sporting world.
Recently, Sport Photo Gallery released a list of their top ten most popular sports poster stars and not one of them was a woman.
While the list was graced with the names of sports legends like Tiger Woods and Cristiano Ronaldo, no ladies were to be found.
Which got us wondering, why is it that women’s sports posters seem to be clearly out of fashion and out of date. Of course, once we took a cursory glance through the tomes of time, it was all so obvious, even us womenfolk could figure it out.
They have nothing to celebrate
Of all the great sporting moments of our time, it’s become pretty clear that women have nothing to celebrate. I mean sure- Billie Jean King may have dominated then male-tennis great, Bobby Riggs in 1973. Or that Hope Solo, of the US Women’s Soccer team, holds the world record for career shutouts at 72. Or Mo’ne Davis and her 70 mph fastball- at the age of 13. Among countless other records and medals held by women globally…
But I mean… they can’t be that good, right?
There’s definitely few, if any, pictures out there that can truly showcase the power and agility that scores of women have brought to sport throughout the ages.
It’s not like they’re even pretty
Honestly, female athletes? Yikes. No one wants to see that. I mean, Sports Illustrated, the inventor of the highly anticipated and regularly sold out Swimsuit Edition, has probably only showcased over 37 of the worlds most jaw-droppingly gorgeous female athletes because they had to.
There’s no way that the svelt stunners of the woman’s athletics world could sell out those magazines all on their own- except that time Serena Williams lit up the newsstands.
Who wants to stare at the impressive and finely toned bodies of these women anyhow? They surely don’t make great role models and fitness idols for other women either.
Who even watches female sports?
No one. Amirite?
Especially not guys.
Except for in 2013, when ESPN reported that 66%of it’s WNBA audience was male. And the fact that in general- men outnumber women viewers of female sports leagues 2 to 1. And 61% of the 13.5 MILLION viewers for the 2011 World Cup were male. Not to mention that there were thirteen point five million viewers.
It probably has nothing to do with the fact that there is fewer media coverage for women’s sports now than there was in 1989. Making it next to impossible to tune in to something that isn’t televised.
Women’s sports are just plain boring.
When Zola Budd busted through apartheid and broke the world record for the women’s 5000 meter, the world was basically asleep. Coupled with the fact that she not only trains, but participates in Olympic long-distance runs completely barefoot, is pretty unlikely to grab anyone’s attention.
Ronda Rousey, the 32-year-old former MMA fighter and the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in Judo is so tired, we’ve already hit snooze twice.
What’s even remotely interesting about watching a gorgeous woman set records in one of the most dedicated and violent sports there is?
Yawn.
Men have obviously just grown up.
While it’s blatantly apparent that women’s sports are just plain boring, obviously overrated, and just overall not worth watching, why would any guy have a female athlete sports poster to begin with?
Well, maybe it was just the schoolboy crush on Danica Patrick that got the ladies up on the wall in the first place. So it stands to reason, that men have just grown up. That they no longer ogle the sexy women of sports past like they used to.
Maybe it’s just clear, that while possibly good looking, the ladies of the sporting world just don’t exude the raw power and impressive strength that’s seen in men’s sport.
Except for that time that Jacie Tonawanda knocked out Larry Romania in the second round for a boxing win.
Or when Carissa Moore won the Quicksilver King of the Groms…
Or that other time when….
