There are lessons to be learned from the debacle that is the American Lingerie Football League (LFL), a female gridiron competition that requires its players to wear bras, panties and garters as they come to blows on the field, to potentially forego payment for their efforts, and to sign a contract that requires them to wear clothing that might result in 'accidental nudity'.
The first is that we Australians are a gullible lot. While groups like Collective Shout and some individual columnists have done much to highlight the misogyny that is inherent to this form of entertainment, they have done so against a rousing tide of public support for this seedy American import.
Some 6000 people are reported to have attended the recent exhibition match in Brisbane; hundreds of commentators have clogged internet forums calling the LFL 'harmless fun', and pointing out that 'the players are happy that they're finally getting an audience'. People are flocking like sheep to join the LFL fanclub, insisting all the while that it's 'real sport' rather than female objectification.
It's hard to believe the crowds haven't noticed that the emperor, as it were, isn't wearing any clothes.
But this is just the response the league's founder, Mitchell Mortaza, will have been hoping for: televised LFL games in the US currently attract 40 million viewers; if the league is embraced by Australians, just imagine how much more enlarged his wallet will become .
As international expansion goes, the league's move to Australia has been too easy, with few people bothering to question Mortaza's disingenuousness.
On the one hand, he claims that the LFL is not sexually exploitative ('If we just based this on sex appeal, this sport never would have grown at the pace that it did in the States, because you can get far more sexier content anywhere else,' he told SBS). On the other hand, he implicitly concedes that the only way female athletes can attract attention in a saturated sports market is by taking off their clothes.
'I didn't create that environment,' he adds as if to vindicate himself . But the enthusiasm with which he is promoting his brand — and its 'True Fantasy Football' tagline — implies he's pleased as punch such an environment exists. And Australians, it seems, are happy