Aspects:Dove- athletes and nike.

In some ways, these women are like professional athletes, paid to maintain a fighting weight and a breathtaking physique. Yet no one complains that championship marathoners, tennis stars and volleyball players, with their impossibly taut bodies, dominate the covers of sports magazines, posing a threat to the delicate psyche of weekend athletes everywhere.

It may be that the athletic physique is celebrated because sports is held in high regard. Sports milestones in diversity, for example, are celebrated in history books. The model figure is maligned because the fashion industry could not be perceived as more frivolous and superficial. Cultural breakthroughs are acknowledged with little more than a shrug.

Try, for a moment, to separate the bodies from the business. Marion Jones vs. Naomi Campbell. Maria Sharapova vs. Carolyn Murphy. Is one figure more or less damaging to women's self-image? Certainly all look as though they have the strength and wherewithal to take care of themselves. (The various drugs sometimes called upon in both industries to increase muscle mass, dull the appetite or otherwise lend an artificial edge are part of another discussion.)

The new Nike advertising campaign has been incorrectly lumped into this "real" aesthetic. One ad features a close-up of a woman's thigh in a pair of running shorts. The copy has the owner of that leg proclaiming, "I have thunder thighs. And that is a compliment because they are strong and toned and muscular." Let's be clear. These are not thunder thighs. These are runner's thighs. Biker's legs. They are not "real." And there is nothing average about them. They are spectacular and inspiring. They make one want to rush out and buy a new pair of Nike sneakers, strap on an iPod and start training for next year's Marine Corps Marathon.


I think that the post is confused. That runner/jock girl's legs are "thunder thighs" they are real. Its genetics. I have them. of course they have been produced over years and years of strenuous activity.

The point is not that they don't exist, the point is that those of us with the chiseled legs and bodies are just as self-conscious about our bodies as those twiggy girls. In fact perhaps more so, because we are different. You can't identify a pair of thunder thighs unless you see them naked. without clothing, my thighs are real, giant muscles. However, if you see them with clothes on, they are just big-ole-honkin'-legs.

the point is not that these legs don't exist, its that they do exist and those of us who have them often wish we didn't. I have played volleyball at all levels, from little kid--to-- college, and coached the same. I know that every volleyball player I have ever known grew these thighs, and everyone struggled with them. I have seen girls near-death because of debilitating exercise-bulimia/anorexia. All because of those muscles.

the point is that it is sad that we athletes need someone to tell us that it is okay to have our hulking muscles. That we need to embrace them because they will never go away, even when we have starved ourselves, they will be the last thing to go, just before death.

the point is, nike is doing a good thing. For once.
Don't ever think that women won't feel bad about themselves, or that there aren't those that want to look better, and feel better about how they look in the present.

the point is ... female athletes are people, not an anomaly