By Edwina Foster
The fashion industry might lead the way in cashing in on women's bodies, but the sports industry is close behind.
Men's sport has always been taken more seriously and given more attention than women's. But recent efforts to popularise women's sports have focused on sexualising female athletes.
Last year, the International Volleyball Federation instituted a new uniform code for women players which replaced looser uniforms with tight, lycra body-suits. Already, the federation has enforced the code, fining an indoor volleyball team $3000 for choosing looser outfits.
This "sex sells" strategy will not gain more respect for women's sports. Worse, it reinforces stereotypes which have caused women immense physical and emotional damage.
Of all anorexia and bulimia sufferers, 95% are women. According to the 1996 National Women's Health Survey, 82% of females aged 18-22 years were not happy with their body shape. Given the constant pressure applied to women by the media to conform to a very specific, very narrow body image, these statistics are no surprise — but they are horrendous.
Former professional tennis player Bernadette Randall has reported that female athletes at the Australian Institute of Sport are often intimidated by AIS officials about their bodies, and that the toilets are always full of women "purging" their bodies.
According to Dr Margaret Linsay, a lecturer in history and gender at the University of Tasmania: "When women started playing sport late last century, they weren't allowed to be sexy at all. However, when not playing sport they were supposed to be as sexy as possible, but it was supposed to be a weak-sexy, not a powerful and energetic sexy." Looking "sexy and sporty" is empowering, says Lindsay.
But surely the ability to make choices in life, at the very least about what clothes you wear, is more a measure of empowerment than living up to a "sexy" ideal? Women athletes should be free to choose what they wear.
For some, that may mean figure-hugging clothes. Many women beach volleyball players, for example, prefer to compete in bikinis. But making that choice is very different to being required to conform to the new dress code that bikini briefs be no wider than 6cm at the hip.
Such rules degrade women. They have nothing to do with improving the athletes' performances, and they refuse to acknowledge that, like all women, female athletes have different body types and not all will feel comfortable in such clothes.
Men are allowed to wear loose shorts, so why not women? And what about some sportswomen's cultural objections to close-fitting uniforms? — these women are excluded from participating.
The sexualising of women's sport is aimed at increasing television coverage and sponsorship dollars. It is another instance of this huge business putting profits before the health and needs of the athletes. We need a society in which sport is not a commodity, but a form of recreation, fun and fitness accessible to all.