Players are now showing increasing amounts of flesh, or dressing in outfits which highlight their bodies.
However, although women are not told by officials to wear more suitable clothing when on court, men in fact are, as evidence by a newspaper article published in The Australian on the 30th of July 2000.
OFFICIALS EXPOSED: Little equality in skimpy attire.
Men and women earn the same prize money but in what they wear on court there is little equality. The skin tight Lycra outfight on women's top seed Serena Williams has been the talk of the tournament. While Williams is allowed to show off her provocative suit, German Tommy Haas cannot where a sleeveless shirt. He was warming up for his first round match when a tournament official ordered him to switch from the sleeveless shirt to a more conventional' one.
Case study Two.
The trend towards highlighting feminine curves is exemplified in beach volleyball. The lithe, tanned and oiled bodies of bikini-cad young women had enabled a formally obscure sport to experience an explosion of media interest. In response to the emergence of this niche-market sport, several sports, including indoor volleyball, netball, softball, basketball and touch football, have adopted a uniform code which includes Lyra uniforms, bodysuits or bikinis.
Defenders of these actions sometimes invoke a homophobic response to criticisms of exploitations, suggesting that "It used to be women's sport and they looked butch . And now, we've got beautiful women playing the sport."" Such sentiments have led to a proliferation of sporting calendars of women posing semi-naked in soft-porn postures, ostensibly created to raise funds or lift the profile of the sport. Concentration on the aesthetic qualities of the bodies of these women, distracts from, or silences, their real achievements as athletes.
Body Image concerns related with sexploitation.
As body image becomes increasingly important there is a growing concern that women athletes are developing eating disorders in an effort to meet unattainable body shape and form standards.
Changing the females uniform was for no reason other than to try and gain viewers through sexploitation. ... Sexploitation applies to forms of marketing, promotions or attempts to gain media coverage which focus attention to the sexual attributes of female athletes, especially the visibility of their bodies. ... To conclude, inequity and sexploitation occurs in beach volleyball. ...
