Reader reactions to Lingerie League are no surprise

The reactions the Kent Reporter received on their story of ShoWare Center’s booking of Lingerie Football League games was entirely predictable.

I think the point that is overlooked or, being conveniently ignored, is that no one is forcing these women to play lingerie football or, is somehow holding them hostage and making them play as a means of gaining their “freedom.” So, how is this exploiting women? They are doing this willingly and of their own accord!

According to the story, 55 percent of those attending these games are male, so, how does 55 percent equate itself with being a “predominantly male” fan-base? Could that mean that the other 45 percent might be….women? Gee! Go figure!

Personally, I think Lingerie Football is dumb. I would never pay to see scantily-clad women play football any more than I would buy coffee from espresso stands that feature bikini baristas. Again, no one is forcing these bikini baristas to work where they do. What about all the poor men who are being taken advantage of by these women? Where’s the outrage over that?

I just wonder how many of the women who’ve voiced their opposition to Lingerie Football in this column have no problem at all going to the beach in a bikini or, being around other women who are attired in one? Frankly, one is likely to see more female skin at our local beaches in the summer than what one would likely see at ShoWare Center. From the Reporter’s cover picture, these women’s bottoms and breasts are completely covered, something you can’t say the same thing of by going to the beach.

Where was these women’s outrage when the Summer Olympics were on last year, featuring all the bikini-clad beach volleyball athletes? Were all the people watching beach volleyball last summer secretly hoping for a wardrobe malfunction, as one of the Lingerie Football detractors put it? I doubt it. They wanted to see world-class athletes compete!

So, if beach volleyball bikinis had lace and ribbons hanging from them, this is somehow racier than ones that don’t? I fail to see the logic in that. Lingerie football players are wearing helmets, shoulder, knee and elbow pads. About the only real “skin” that shows are bare legs.

All I can say is that I had better not catch any of these women who are so against Lingerie Football buying any of the dozens of magazines geared toward women that have all the scantily clad models or celebrities on the cover.

You know the ones, the ones that feature extremely low-cut dresses or tops that leave very little to one’s imagination.

Where’s the outrage over the exploitation of these women?

Oh, it’s OK, I guess, just so long as the magazines are oriented towards a “predominantly” female audience, huh? Where’s these women’s outrage when these same magazines highlight articles inside on the cover in blazing headlines such as, “How To Be A Tigress in Bed So He’ll Never Want To Leave,” or, “How To Give Your Man Everything He Wants in Bed?”

Frankly, I’m more outraged by all these trashy women’s magazines that are always displayed at all the checkout stands, right at a child’s eye level, where they can easily see them, than I am by what goes on in ShoWare Center where very few, if any, children are ever likely to see what goes on.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis

Patrick A. Nymon

Des Moines