Blame the Cowboys for introducing sexing up what was till then a wholesome activity. That triggered a slide toward the present state of affairs were sports are inextricably tied up to sex. You have very few pure sports situations. Every telecast of an NFL, or NBA (and I suppose now NHL) game has one or more shots of cheerleaders doing their thing. Every sports show on radio has to talk about celebrities and models. Even ESPN's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column has segments like "Cheerleader of the week" etc. Don't even get me started on Sports Blogs which have to have shots of beautiful women in revealing clothing every few posts.
Now I am not complaining about this as such. I know the reasons why sex and sports go together, they appeal to the primal part of the male brain, blah blah blah. And I definitely am not averse to looking at beautiful women.
It's just a problem when I'm at work and I go to a sports blog to read up on the latest firing of an NFL coach and there's a picture of Marisa Miller in a bikini right next to the article. And I have to keep looking over my shoulder for someone who might walk by my desk and think I'm ogling the bikini model. To adapt a Homer Simpson quote, I don't mind being accused of leering when I am leering, or am about to leer or have just finished leering, but I don't like being accused of leering when I'm just interesting in knowing the latest talk about where Mike Shanahan might end up.
I wonder if it's harder to explain my way out of it in India or in the US. Atleast in the US, they understand the concept of reading a sports blog and the concept of how these sites use half-naked ladies to promote their sites. But then again, they're a lot more serious about sexual harassment and comfortable work environment over there. So far, thank God, I haven't had to explain any of this to someone walking by my desk. And I hope I don't have to.
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