Can a gal just get her mud run on in peace?

I wrote this post for another blog that I've been working on for school, but wanted to share it on this blog too. As always, please feel free to comment.

Peace, love, sweat xoxo SR

Does this picture look familiar? If you’re a member of Facebook, then you’ve probably seen it floating around your newsfeed the past few days. It’s the latest promotional photo from the SPARTAN RACE and boy oh boy, it sure has been popular. An ad like this raises some interesting questions. Mainly, is it wrong to oversexualize women when promoting a race? By sexualizing a female racer, does this picture suggest that instead of being strong, tough, and badass, women just look sexy when they roll around in the mud? By using this picture to promote their event, the SPARTAN RACE seems to be suggesting that watching hot girls play in the mud is just one more racing incentive for their male targets. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with that; after all, a race needs to sell entry slots right? However, by portraying women in this way, the race may also be losing another target audience that has been showing up in masses at mud runs- women. Other runs like the Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder have done a good job at showing both genders looking tough, athletic, and, of course, goofy as hell. There’s nothing wrong with posting pictures of a muscular bod kicking butt on an obstacle. However, when the focus of the picture isn’t how tough the subject is, but how attractive they are, the result is, ironically, a turn off.