Female Bodies on Display: Attitudes Regarding Female Athlete Photos in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue and espn : The Magazine’s Body Issue

While a male athlete’s athletic prowess is rarely questioned, with accomplishments leading to celebrity status, female athletes seeking the same celebrity status find the publicity avenues to be quite different. Some female athletes are respected as high-achieving athletes, but the majority of female athletes reside at the margins of sports media, causing them to explore other outlets for publicity. Female athletes and hyper-sexuality has been a topic of great debate among researchers, and many believe that sex does not sell women’s sports.