Brandi Chastain U.S. Soccer Star out of uniform

A little thickness around the waist and some well-defined thigh muscles have never looked better, thanks to a recent spate of magazine ads, cover pages and television commercials featuring charismatic, powerfully built women athletes like the tennis star Venus Williams and Marion Jones, the 2000 track and field Olympic sensation.

But don't be misled. The efforts of big-time marketers to appeal to the "average woman" by anointing formerly taboo body types with advertising dollars, does not mean the end of the ultra feminine, lithe, white ideal. There may now be some room to affirm more realistic images of a female athlete's body, but so far, not quite enough.

Muscle Mania

The reaction Reith heard from Chastain's admirers after the Women's World Cup was "God she's so buff!"

When asked why Nike-endorsed Chastain has been singled out by publications like Gear and Sports Illustrated, Kathryn Reith, Nike's senior communications manager, cited Chastain's musculature as well as the excitement she helped generate for women's soccer.

And, Reith added, Chastain is a perfect representative of Nike's decision to feature women athletes who are muscular but lean. "We don't want to send the message that you have to be anorexic to be beautiful," Reith said. "I think the fact that we have consistently used women who have muscles and curves has been very positively received."

Reith particularly pointed out how Chastain's body image is admired by so many women. The reaction Reith heard from Chastain's admirers after the Women's World Cup was: "God, she's so buff!"

Reebok, too, over the past several years has employed a similar strategy in its ad campaigns, but has often preferrred everyday women "with different shapes and sizes" over sports stars, according to Sharon Barbano, who heads up marketing for women's sports at the firm.

The strategy does seem to tap into the zeitgeist. If the most requested searches for athletes on the website lycos.com are any indication, the top picks this past January were tennis stars Jennifer Capriati and sisters Serena and Venus Williams. All three have imposing, muscular bodies, not in keeping with the '80s ideal of female athletes - particularly women tennis players of the Chris Evert mold - slim and not noticeably muscular.

Even Playboy.com featured photos of the WNBA's Sheryl Swoopes - fully dressed - for being voted one of the sexiest female athletes. And Swoopes' muscular, 6-foot-1, 145-pound stature is not the standard Playboy shape of choice.

True, women who don't play sports for a living have little chance of toning up to the level of Marion Jones, but, as associate publisher of Esquire, Renee Lewin explained, Jones' body type is one that average women see as more attainable than the long-standing anorexic ideal.

When Esquire featured Olympic swimmers in its July 2000 issue, she said, women readers wrote in to express support, applauding the appearance of bodies not usually photographed for men's magazines. Behind the skimpy towels, the athletes' bodies had imposing upper torsos, rounded waists and muscular thighs. "This was not a cheesy, pin-up show," said Lewin.

Still, there are plenty of "pin-up shows" around. Although Marion Jones, swimmer Megan Quann and a seductively dressed tennis star Anna Kournikova all made the cover of "Sports Illustrated" last year, they were the only three. So far in 2001, prancing swimsuit models have been the only women to make the magazine's cover. Can you guess which issue it was?

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