College athletes who earn millions on social media with sexy photos: a worrying trend in the United States

NEW YORK.- Olivia Dunne is a gymnast on the Louisiana State Women’s Artistic Team. She was an all-american her freshman and made the Southeastern Conference honor roll as a sophomore in interdisciplinary studies.

On the eve of the start of his junior season, Dunne is also at the forefront of a movement that shakes the old foundations of college sports: a student athlete who earns money thanks to the approval in 2021 of new regulations that allow college athletes to sign name, image and likeness agreementso N.I.L.

Dunne, 20, doesn’t want to give details about his earnings, which at least one industry analyst projects will will exceed 2 million dollars during the next year. “Seven figures,” she said. “It’s something I’m proud of. Especially since I’m a woman in college sports.” And she added: “There are no professional leagues for most women’s sports after college.”

Dunne, a blonde with a bright smile and a toned gymnast’s physique, earns a staggering amount posting for her 8 million followers online on Instagram and TikTok, platforms where she intersperses sponsored content modeling American Eagle Outfitters jeans and Vuori sportswear alongside videos of herself performing trendy dances.

For Dunne, and many other athletes of her generation, being candid and flirty and displaying their bodies in ways that emphasize traditional notions of female beauty on social media is empowering. “It’s about showing as much or as little as you want”says Dunne about his image on the Internet.

Compensation and promotion regulations for athletes have changed the rules of the game for college women, particularly those that compete in what are known as nonprofit sports, such as gymnastics.

To be sure, men’s soccer players have earned close to half of global compensation, estimated to be worth at least $500 million. They get paid for everything from T-shirt sales to public appearances.

Women remain more than firm in their income thanks, in large part, to their popularity on social networks. In addition to Dunne, other student athletes have become millionaires thanks to NFL rules, as Haley and Hanna Cavindertwins who play college basketball in Miami; Sunisa LeeAuburn gymnast and Olympic gold medalist at the Tokyo Games, and Paige Bueckers the Azzi Benefitbasketball stars in Connecticut.

But the new rush of money – and the way many female athletes are getting it – upsets some who have fought for equal treatment in women’s sport and say it prizes traditional female desirability over athletic excellence. And although the athletes I spoke with said that consciously decided whether they wanted to enhance or downplay their sexualitysome observers say the market is dictating that choice.

Andrea Geurin, a sports business researcher at Loughborough University in England, studied female athletes trying to make it to the 2016 Rio Olympics, many of them American college students. “One of the big issues that came to light was the pressure they felt to post suggestive or sexy photos of themselves” on social media, Geurin said.

He noted that some of the athletes had decided that such images were not worth making public, while others had found that it was one of the main ways to increase their internet popularity and earning power.

Scrolling through the social media posts of female college athletes across the United Statesit will be found that a significant line in many of the women’s accounts is the well-tested notion that sensuality sells. Posts are doing well, and the market supports it.

Tara VanDerveer, from Stanford, the most successful coach in women’s college basketball, sees the beauty-focused part of the NIL revolution it is regressive for athletes. VanDerveer started training in 1978 and said technology was maintaining old sexist notions. “I guess sometimes we have this swinging pendulum, where we maybe take two steps forward, and then we take one step back. We are fighting for all the opportunities to compete, to play, to have resources, to have facilities, to have coaches and everything that goes into Olympic-caliber athletics.”

“This is a step backwards,” he added.

Race cannot be ignored as part of the dynamic. Most of the most successful women in the world of money are white. Nor can sexual orientation be ignored. Few of the top earners openly identify as gay, and many post suggestive images of themselves that seem to cater to the male gaze.

Aside from massive Internet audiences, none of this is entirely new. The tension between body image, femininity and the desire to be taken seriously as an athlete has been part of the deal for female athletes for generations.

We can go back some 70 years, as an example, to the time of “Gorgeous” tennis player Gussie Moran, who became as famous for her form-fitting suits and lace underwear as she was for her sneakers. Two-time Olympic gold medalist figure skater Katarina Witt was a Playboy cover model in the 1990s, and she’s not the only female athlete to appear in risqué photo essays.

Think of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue or ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue, where witty photos of nude athletes have hooked a largely male audience for years. But those representations also continue to attract female athletes.Who see these photos as an opportunity to promote body positivity, to feel boldly confident in their hard-earned physique, or to challenge norms about femininity.

College athletes are taking advantage of multiple ways to present themselves, but always beware of society’s tendency to objectivity.

Haley Jones, a Stanford All-America and player of the year candidate, said she didn’t want to exaggerate her sex appeal. Her advertising revenue is based on an image on social media that portrays her as a light-hearted student-athlete, without an overtly provocative tone. “I don’t post bikini photos”he said in a recent interview. “Not because I don’t want to show my body. It’s because that’s not the kind of top topic content I want to post, and my audience isn’t looking for that for me.” Welcome to the world of Haley Jones, Inc.

Jones, one of the few black college athletes considered a top earner, has quickly learned to deconstruct the pros and cons of the new age of marketing. She has endorsements with Nike, Beats by Dre, SoFi, and Uncle Funky’s Daughter, a hair care product for women with curly hair, among other companies. Rishi Daulat, her agent, said that Jones had earned more than six figures since the NIL legislation was passed, but refused to give a specific figure.

Jones was quick to point out that female athletes can opt out of social media and miss out on the biggest benefits. Or they can get involved, make money, focus on the fans who support them, and hold their breath with a kind of resignation about the swath of online reactions – often lewd and sexualized comments on their social media platforms – that show just how reifies them.

“You can go out in the street with sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and they will sexualize you. I can be on a podcast, and it can just be my voice, and I’ll face the same thing. So I think it will be there no matter what you do or how you present yourself. This is the society we live in,” Jones added.