Differential Tie-Breaker
Hundreds of tall teenage girls flocked downtown Saturday to witness a professional volleyball tour. Instead of reveling in feminine accomplishment, they were forced to account for beer-guzzling men leering at nearly naked athletes. If stitched together and stretched, the clothes worn by the female players might cover a small computer screen. (That's why I'm using this deliberately blurred image of local league play.) A lot of dreams and innocence were left behind in the Sprint Center that night.
posted by Happy In Bag @ 9:06 AM
7 Comments:
At 10:00 AM,
the unthinking lemming said…
As if these same young innocents hadn't been watching the same thing on the TV?
At 10:09 AM,
Chimpotle said…
I'm holding out for the sand tour.
At 10:38 AM,
Happy In Bag said…
Partial nudity on Huntington Beach in July and indoors in a Midwesteran arena are two different things. And while television broadcasts certainly don't shy away from flesh, they fail to show male fans a-hootin' and a-hollerin'.
Chimpo- this was the sand tour.
At 2:13 PM,
the unthinking lemming said…
It is Beach Volleyball. What did you expect? Huntington Beach is what they are trying to recreate.
Why should indoors in KC be any different than Huntington Beach. It is still the AVP Tour and the selected attire is their uniform (meal ticket via endorsements.) This is consistent regardless of where I have seen them playing on my TV screen. They may soft pedal the leering, drinking crowd to a certain extent on TV. I might suggest, however, that the party atmosphere is too apparent to ignore. I see lots of young people jammin' to hot sounds, muggin' for the cameras with hand signs and the sort. Hardly the sober admiration of the legitimate art of sport. Add in the plethora of all kinds of hip and youthful product endorsements. How would any salient adult not comprehend and expect the nature of the crowd such a tour will attract. They obviously got the market at which they were aiming.
At 2:34 PM,
Happy In Bag said…
I know you're right, UL.
In fact, the MC was actively encouraging fans to purchase Miller and Jose Cuervo products, two of the tour's sponsors. I don't have any problem with such rowdiness.
It's just that I noticed lots of middle school and high school teams wearing matching sweatshirts at the event. Many of those girls were horrified, and rightly so.
At 3:39 PM,
the unthinking lemming said…
It is too bad that HS & JHS teams were lured in. Let us hope that they viewed the experience as negatively as you and comprehend why without damaging their appreciation of the sport that is being so exploited.
At 7:50 PM,
Shane said…
Why is it too bad that those HS and JHS teams were lured in? There's no reason that they shouldn't have been there...
I think it was a great event - anything that brings more fans to the sport I've loved my whole life is fine by me.
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