While the subject-object distinction is a valuable one, I take a broader view - i.e., Who are the subjects and objects generally in contemporary society? And the reality is that women are the objects and men are usually subjects.

With that in mind, I'll objectify David Beckham all I want. No hypocrisy, no double standards - feminism has enough obstacles without these ridiculous criticisms. WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT THAN MEN, to take a page from Carol Gilligan. Therefore, double standards are a given and not necessarily a bad thing. So objectification of men vs women is like comparing apples and oranges. My objectification of Becks is a completely different power dynamic than his objectification of, say, Posh. So objectify him I will.

That makes you equally guilty, and also hypocritical

OK, so what happened to Salon's coverage of the World Cup? We had one article, and King Kaufman's thinly-veiled scorn, and just this blather about women not going to spas in droves.

A) Part of any partnership is a willingness to indulge your companion in their hobbies, including obsessions with sports. For dog's sake, this only happens once every four years. Let people have their fun.

B) What is going on with Ronaldo? He's past his prime and he knows it; I feel bad for him, that must be an awfully lonely feeling watching the next Hot Young Thing (Ronaldinho) not only come up behind you but surpass you.

C) That second goal by Fred was almost laughable in it's obviousness. I feel sorry for the Aussie goalie, he must feel like kind of a jerk right now.

D) Kaka is my new pretend boyfriend.

Uh, folks who are complaining about this post, please read a little more carefully. The writer didn't leave out the women who are "die-hard soccer fans," and it wasn't she who was asking how women were putting up with the games; she was pointing out that once again, the mainstream media is trying to fit women into their predetermined stereotypes.

Oh, and you guys who are whining about the sexy guys in shorts comment, ya know, a little objectification would be good for you. And if you're feeling insecure about unfair comparisons, all the better.

john-m-stencel - 04:50 am Pacific Time - Jun 18, 2006 - #1550 of 1568:

"On the bright side, once the Republicans make abortion illegal it will be more available than ever because anybody with a coat hanger can perform one. Today's Republican Party: Putting women's medicine back in the closet where it belongs. Literally."

I think if we're going to be supportive of an international obsession with men scoring with their balls, we should demand support in our international obsession with what we do once they've made their goals. Or is there no international obsession with women's rights to their bodies?

I wanted to be a cheerleader when I was a kid, but I was wrong for the job. Used to pretend my name was Laura (I swear) and not the double barrelled immigrant name immortalizing two grandmothers murdered by the Nazis. I did okay, became a poet, journalist, fiction writer and editor, jazz singer, and activist for animal and human rights. In my spare time. My real role, after being a child and a young woman, a lover, a wife, a woman alone, is being a mother, and when I asked what made the World Cup so rivetting, my younger son said it was the spectacle of games without weapons. My older son compared it to the appeal of gladitorial wrestling. Teams of gorgeous chicks vying for the World Bra Cup might engender mass interest, if properly PR'ed.

The tits would have to be real of course so I asked my boys if they thought the games were rigged.

They thought and shrugged and thought some more and said yeah, the players were probably under so much pressure to make it that they'd have to pop or swallow something. And the judges...

But what if the victor, after all the fakes were disqualified, was a natural born great athlete?

What if the judge was fair?

That's the lure of the World Cup (apart from the betting) - the natural yearning for the hero who takes our breath away. For a reason to be proud of qualities such as great sportsmanship.

For an alternative to the news we can't watch any more and the movies we've already seen.

I invite all confident World Cup athletes to voice their support for women out of the closet.

That's no place to bring a child into the world.

This post reads like a snippet from Cosmo, and it cannot be salvaged by a mere few sentences tacked on to the end about how "some" women are fans too. Most of the responses seem to cover the point about how women make up a sizeable portion of soccor fans around the world. This piece is nothing but another sexist, outdated, trashy-magazine-quality cliche of women being widowed to sports, ending with a self-concious backtrack attempt at making a greater point. And frankly, using the example of a woman committing suicide merely to illustrate how frustrated women get at sports is tacky and short-sighted. I read Broadsheet to get more thoughtful and interesting arguments, not read the same offensive drivel found in the rest of the media.

My boyfriend doesn't really like soccer, but he does enjoy his March Madness. Why on earth is this such a problem? If you don't want to watch, go do something else, go shopping, read a book, take a walk. Sheesh!

...But I thought the point of the post was to point out the inherent sexism of the Italian survey, which seems to assume that women's only interaction with the World Cup is to bitch about how their husbands/boyfriends are engrossed in it. I have to agree with the writer on that. She's not saying that the only reason women would watch the cup is to ogle "eye-candy" - the survey is implying that. She's not saying women aren't into sports in their own right - the survey did.

This is just another example of the mainstream media's tendency to marginalize female sports fans. As an ESPN addict, I'm incredibly insulted by the assumption that I only watch sports to A) look at (usually) attractive men, or B) because that's what my boyfriend is doing. Sorry, but in my house during March Madness, it's my boyfriend who has to read a book, take a walk, etc. - because I'M the one glued to the coverage. When I heard about this survey, I just rolled my eyes. As a female sports fan, I'm used to it by now.