LFL Canada Adds New Dimension to Women's Sport in Canada

While the introduction of the Canadian division of the Lingerie Football League will augment the usual debate about sexism, exploitation, and degradation, there are many positive aspects to consider.

It is a golden opportunity to provide women with the opportunity to be something they are so rarely accustomed to: athletic heroes. A few months ago, many of these ladies lived in relative anonymity. You might have run into them at the coffee shop, stood in line behind them at the movies, or seen them at the grocery store, and one would have never thought that their lives could change in such a brief time span.

As the role of women in sport continues to grow and evolve, the past stigmas about women’s sport and the role of women in society, are fading fast.  While it would be easy to don a traditional uniform, it takes great courage to wear a sports bra and panties in front of thousands of fans. No professional male football player could summon that type of courage.

The uniform reinforces that female athletes can be beautiful while empowering them to pursue their dreams. Their success on the football field may motivate them to achieve things off of it that they may not have thought possible.

For all of the people that complain about the uniform, where were these grievers during the 2012 London Summer Olympics? Women’s beach volleyball was discussed by male and female sports reporters as being the most popular event of the Games. The sexy (and nearly nothing there) outfits were a key aspect.

During the Games, the online searches for images of the posteriors of athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Lolo Jones were very popular. No one called it sexist or degrading, though. It was considered a celebration of their beauty and an extension of their popularity.

At the 1928 Canadian National Exhibition, there was a women’s marathon event for swimming. Because the swimsuits were made of wool and got very heavy when wet, the female competitors were allowed to remove their swimsuits under water. At the end of the race, many women had emerged from the water topless.

This was 1928. The sky did not fall.

In less than one month, LFL Canada has garnered more media attention than many other women’s sports in Canada, including the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, a league that features many Olympic gold medalists in women’s ice hockey.

Last winter, the Toronto Triumph’s PETA campaign was worldwide news. The public tryouts for prospective LFL Canada players were reminiscent of the public tryouts in the World War II era for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, immortalized in the Penny Marshall film, A League of Their Own. There was a certain innocence and empowerment to the concept of those public tryouts.

LFL Canada should be recognized as a league where strong, proud, real Canadian women work very hard to prove that they can succeed in a male-dominated sport. There is no reason to not mention these athletes in the same breath as other prominent Canadian female athletes that made headlines in 2012: Clara Hughes (cyclist who spoke out on depression), Christine Sinclair (bronze medal in soccer), Caroline Ouellette (hockey), Fannie Desforges (Red Bull Crashed Ice world champion), Ashley Gilbank (inline skated across Canada) and Annaliese Carr (swam across Lake Ontario).