One sport that I think is wild is the Lingerie Football League. It sounds like a joke, but it is a real women’s sport with hard hitting full contact. It is pretty much like the National Football League rules but on a much smaller scale. The games are played indoors on a field half the size of a regulation NFL field. Also, the women have much smaller pads and helmets, as they are required to wear a skimpy bikini as they play. The players are women in their 20s-30s, and their coaches are usually men who get surprisingly very intense. Assumingly, the audience is men ranging in all ages. It definitely speaks to men, as the women are dressed in basically nothing. It is the same rules that are applied in the NFL, which makes it seem pretty non-discriminatory towards women. However, they are forced to dress in bikinis that hardly cover anything. I think it is pretty ridiculous that women are forced to be sexualized even in sport. I believe they should have the option, or maybe even the requirement to wear full pads, helmets, and especially clothes. I wouldn’t say the women in this league hit as hard as the men in the NFL, but they should still have the same protection that NFL players have for their safety. The wildness in this sport in general, minus the fact that they hardly have any clothes on, is how intense the games get. This wildness ranges from fights on the field between the women, to fights in the stands between drunk rowdy fans.
Wow! I had never even heard of this sport – that is insane and incredibly horrible that woman are sexualized like this! It is really unfair that they don’t wear the same amount of protection given how dangerous the sport can be and how they emphasize rowdiness and wildness at games!
This is such an interesting sport that I truly had no idea existed and honestly find to be quite degrading. Players should be properly equipped and protected in every sport, and it’s very alarming that these women do not get that basic safety precaution. I wonder how many of these players get injured each game and how badly these injuries could get. Thank you for sharing this was a great analysis on the gender dynamics of sports.
Upon my initial viewing of the video, my jaw dropped. Having people compete in a game as offense heavy as football with almost no protective gear is one thing, but also having it only serve eye candy for the male gaze seems quite awful. I had wanted more information, and I found that searching up “women’s football league” on Google highlights LBL video clips instead of the Women’s Football Alliance which shocked me.
I never knew this sport existed! It a shame how much women get sexualized in sports and especially in this sport! The fact that most of the audience is men really shows that they are not only interested in the game. Its really unfair how they aren’t able to protect themselves considering how many injuries they can get. They also should be able to cover themselves up more. This really shows the gender dynamics in sports and how wild it can be.
This is a great example of how wild gender dynamics are in some sports. These women should have protective pads knee and thigh pads like in the regular football to make it fair. It’s also wild how smaller the sideline and field is to where they don’t have enough room to stop upon impact. They should really change that adapt to the rules of NFL so these women can be protected in the same way.