Restoring Olympic Traditions

Posing nude for the cameras is a trend gaining increasing popularity with athletes. Four German Olympic sportswomen: sailor Petra Niemann, hockey striker Katharina Scholz, canoeist Nicole Reinhardt and judo fighter Romy Tarangul have posed for German Playboy, joining a host of other stars like Amanda Beard using nudity in the name of a cause. British triple jumper Phillips Idowu , British cyclist Rebecca Romero and Scottish swimmer Gregor Tait have also bared all for an advertising promotion. Why shouldn’t they? Their bodies are beautiful and judging by public reaction the majority aren’t complaining. If the Olympic movement can turn it’s back on it’s purist, amateur tradition and go all out for big bucks, why can’t athletes flaunt their sexuality?

Why not then take the whole thing a step further and revive the ancient tradition of staging the entire Olympic games nude? In the ancient Olympics, of course only men competed, but surely that rule could also be relaxed. Nude Olympics would boost television ratings into the squillions and arguments over discrimination with beach volleyball uniforms would be put to bed forever.

In ancient times, the ideal for male athletes was the possession of a small, uncircumcised penis. Circumcised athletes tried to conform to the fashion using the painful procedure of epispasm to restore the foreskin. If this ancient Olympic tradition was restored, this might also be a problem for many male athletes. After all, who wants an unfashionable penis? Circumcision features in this list of the top 10 bizarre surgical procedures.

Debate still rages over the benefits or otherwise of this form of mutilation. Dr Karl Kruszelnicki commented that saying a circumcised penis functioned better was akin to saying an eye functions better without an eyelid. Whatever the health benefits of genital mutilation, one could certainly object on aesthetic grounds.

In your own skin

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Amanda Beard had to launch her naked, anti-fur campaign poster outside the Athletes' Village on Wednesday after Chinese authorities cancelled a planned unveiling, citing safety concerns.In a poster for the animal rights group PETA, the reigning 200-meter breaststroke champion appears naked in front of the U.S. flag and the slogan "Be comfortable in your own skin. Don't wear fur."

Source: Chigago Tribune

A host of other celebrities have protested on behalf of PETA, including Alicia Silverstone. While the motives behind such protests are noble, one has to wonder about the means.

Nudity obviously attracts attention, but does it do anything to convey the message? Are people who view nude images of people like Beard and Silverstone swayed? Are they any less likely to wear fur or eat meat? I would say not. They are much more likely to simply view the images as voyeurs. There is always a large market for celebrity nudes and these images just add to the ever increasing stock available. While any publicity might be good publicity, there might be more effective ways of getting the message across.

Are they becoming meat to protest the eating of meat? Most of the audience these images reach will enjoy looking at them and continue eating their big macs and wearing their fur lined caps. Using nudity to convey this message tends to put these women on the same level of the animals they seek to protect.