The Arena or the Catwalk – Merchandising and Mercantilism of the Sportsman’ image

Abstract

In the consumers' society the only sellable commodity is the body and these image has become a key concept. Shaping the image and its sale provides sports, treated as the run (mimicry, presentation). It has consequences in the form of a gender change the perception of sportswomen - and sportsmen image. The women’s duty is being beautiful and having the perfect body, among men score still counts, but physical attractiveness is gaining importance. Now existing aesthetic image (nice is what is winning) is replaced by gender, appearance, sexual attractiveness and beauty of the sport so changing the image of (winning is what is nice).

Keywords

• consumer society, visuality, image, sport, media, physical attractiveness, sexuality