All photos courtesy of Standard News Photos
LONDON — NBC Television pulled its video “Bodies In Motion”, which featured slow motion shots of many of the most attractive female athletes at the Olympics, after many overweight and unattractive women complained.
The video was on the website NBCOlympics.com, but the page now shows the error message “The page was not found or there was an error. You will be redirected in a few seconds to the homepage. Sorry for the inconvenience.” So it is clear that NBC has kowtowed to all the offended women.
Creepy Video?
Many of the news headlines characterized the video as “creepy” or as “softcore porn”. The video showcased the bodies of the athletes, and was made by cutting shots from many different events, including track and field events, tennis, beach volleyball, and field hockey. To compete in these events, female athletes train and have developed excellent bodies that many men and women would find beautiful.
But not everyone appreciates the human form. One blogger at Jezbel, Erin Gloria Ryan, wrote in an article Someone at NBC Apparently Approved This Creepy, Porny Video of Female Olympians
You’d think that something called “Bodies in Motion” wouldn’t be code for “Rejected bumper reel from The Man Show,” but I guess I’m not plugged in to the hip, with it language of the youths nowadays or on board with the notion that Olympic bodies are at their most noteworthy when they’re female, (mostly) white, stereotypically feminine, and thin.
The headline says that the shots of the athletes are creepy and pornographic. Also notice how the author lamely attempts to add racism to the charges by claiming “(mostly) white”. A dozen or more of the athletes shown are non-white, including Serena Williams.
Overweight and Out of Shape
The back story here is that America has a high level of obesity, among both men and women. In 1962, 13% of Americans were obese. In 2010, 35.7% of American adults were obese. And the number who are overweight, but not enough to be considered obese, is even greater. Probably 90% of men and women in the U.S. would be healthier and look better if they lost 5 to 20 kilograms.
So naturally, many of the overweight women in America and elsewhere would be jealous and complain. Especially if they sit behind a computer screen all day and have an outlet to vent their disappointment with their own body image. To them, fit bodies are creepy. Seeing a video on NBC rubs salt in their wounded egos.
Here’s a suggestion: instead of complaining about other women’s fit bodies, why not put down that pint of ice cream and get into shape. Then you wouldn’t feel so jealous.
And a suggestion for NBC: grow a pair and stop kowtowing to angry and jealous people.
Here’s the video, see what you think:
