Gladiators: Boob Of Death!
May. 9th, 2008 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andygatesThe new series of Gladiators starts soon and teaser posters are popping up. They're all the same format: one of the new glads looking mean and photoshopped, with the caption "Gladiators Ready". Go on, read it without doing the referee bloke's voice in your head.
What confuses me is that the male glads are generally looking, well, gladiatorial - all muscles and mean stares and the promise that the contenders are going to get a kicking. As you'd expect. But the female glads are done up in statuesque poses that suggest not so much combat readiness as a flexploitation eagerness to bludgeon someone into unconsciousness with their Boobs Of Death.
C'mon marketing guys. Girls can be athletes too, y'know? They can even be athletes and hot, without having to unleash the cheeseball Red Sonja stereotype. There's something about this that suggests that the boys will be playing for real and the girls will be mud-wrestling for the boy's delight, and that doesn't sit comfortably. Female readers: Does this sort of cheese put you off? Or am I just overreacting?
Ah well, it's just the posters. I look forward to the marvellous silliness of the programmes later when they escape Sky 1's orbit.
What confuses me is that the male glads are generally looking, well, gladiatorial - all muscles and mean stares and the promise that the contenders are going to get a kicking. As you'd expect. But the female glads are done up in statuesque poses that suggest not so much combat readiness as a flexploitation eagerness to bludgeon someone into unconsciousness with their Boobs Of Death.
C'mon marketing guys. Girls can be athletes too, y'know? They can even be athletes and hot, without having to unleash the cheeseball Red Sonja stereotype. There's something about this that suggests that the boys will be playing for real and the girls will be mud-wrestling for the boy's delight, and that doesn't sit comfortably. Female readers: Does this sort of cheese put you off? Or am I just overreacting?
Ah well, it's just the posters. I look forward to the marvellous silliness of the programmes later when they escape Sky 1's orbit.
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Oh dude!
Date: 2008-05-09 09:51 am (UTC)You have to go there. Hit the "Gladiators" button. But turn your sound down if you're at work.
Does it annoy me?
Yes. It annoys me the same way that the first superpower anyone ever gets in comics is to get smacked with the preposterously hotulizer. Programmes that depict women like that ignore basic physiological facts and promote a stereotype of the "Amazonian beauty" that cannot be achieved without cosmetic surgery and the constant attention of make-up artists.
The guys are all big, all ripped, and wearing fairly sensible shorts. The girls are all lean-legged with boob jobs and wearing what appears to be lycra bondage gear. In the past the girls at least looked like they might be able to take on an athletic challenge or two -- Sharon Davies was a Gladiator! These ones all look like they'd be knocked unconscious by their own boobs hitting them repeatedly in the face before they'd made it 2km into a 10k.
Oh gods. I'm going to have to go and have a rant now.
Gladweasel
Date: 2008-05-09 11:50 am (UTC)Re: Gladweasel
Date: 2008-05-09 12:18 pm (UTC)