Olympian Beauty

olympian beautyI have really enjoyed watching the Olympians compete, but I have to admit, I  have done an image assessment on every athlete that I saw (I can’t help it). I find it fascinating how “birds of a feather stick together” even in sports. I wanted to blog about each sport’s common Img.IDs and my opinion on the matter. As I began my research to be sure my blog wasn’t just opinion, I started with Google, of course. (Pictures are worth a thousand words, and when it comes to image they are rather important.)

Search: “Olympians of 2014” Results: a tremendous amount of amazing pictures. My focus is women, so I narrowed the search: “female Olympians of 2014.” Results: the “thousand words” were speaking something completely different.

I read twenty-one articles that the pictures represented before my frustration lead me to make a few notes for this blog–which will not be about the styles of women in each sport.

First, allow me to apologize for not giving reference to the articles, but I cannot recommend them. You can easily find them (and the many more that I could not read because they were blocked by my wifi’s parental controls.) in your search engine if you are curious.

  • There was one great article about women rising up as leaders–it was a Canadian newspaper.
  • There were two that weren’t about the sexual appeal of the athlete’s toned bodies, but they were both about their appearance, not their reason for fame.
  • The rest were about the “sexiest” or “hottest” Olympians. And many of the women had posed for the article–in lingerie or less! The same women who stood with poise and pride for the news media were positioned like porn stars for these “other” journalists. I’m sorry, but does this make anyone else angry?

To keep things real, I did search: “Male Olympians of 2014” Results: a few athletes posing with their skis/skates bearing their naked chests, but the majority of them were fully outfitted in their appropriate gear. And of the unblocked articles:

  • Most of them spoke of the men’s achievements.
  • I found one interesting article about why hot male Olympians send a strong gender message, (from August 2012) but its message was that we should allow women to lust after men the way they do after us…

The most startling part  of my research was that the majority of the articles I read were written by a women.

God, help us to keep a proper perspective on the power of feminine beauty. Keep us from falling any deeper into the trap of lust. Untwist the lies that we believe about beauty being our worth. Redeem our shame, and bring us back to your original design for man and woman.

*****

Catrina Welch is an image- and life-coach whose message is not as much “what not to wear” as it is, “Know Who You Are,” which is the title of her book of guidelines for your personal image identity. Catrina has also written a Bible study to help women overcome their confidence conflicts; it is titled Supreme MakeOver: a Rich and Refreshing Devotional Experience. Her other books include Footprints Through the Sand: a Consolidation of Life-altering stories about Loving and Losing our Trisomy-18 Baby and Confident Beauty: Reflecting the One Who Made You with the Images in Your Mirror and Your Soul, which will be available in book stores this spring. All of these books are available now at www.CatrinaWelch.com

 


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