Sex appeal in chess?My thoughts...
I recently read an article on NYtimes.com about sex appeal in chess. It talks about a chess women's beauty contest and women chess players posing nude for men's magazines and in bikinis next to chess boards in Russia. It talks about a blog that it desperately trying to put some sex appeal in chess (they ran the women's chess beauty contest). I am a middle school girl and personally, chess to me is one place where I can go and not worry about my looks. I can go to chess clubs and tournaments in sweats, hair undone, zits showing and no one would care. (Okay, so maybe I would cover up my zits, but still.)I know there are some adolescent boys who would like to have every girl they play to be showing way to much skin and looking like a model. That's just not going to happen.
Nigel Short was an "arbiter" on the chess beauty blog. "How many women can play chess at a high level?" Short said. "There is precisely one, Judit Polgar. If you want to promote women's chess on its own, then you have to do something like this."
I disagree. It may promote women's chess in men's minds, but not in the right way. They would look at the women as "eye candy" instead of smart. It would not bring many women into the game. How many women do you know would look at a picture of a female chess player in a bikini and start playing competitively? What exactly does Nigel mean by "promote"?This is not going to get men to see women as smart or the least bit competitive on the chess board. It is not going to bring women into the game.
This is not what chess needs. Chess is a safe haven away from being judged by my looks. It's just two people at the board, and the pressure is on to bring it. They can see a pretty girl, or an ugly girl, or whatever they want to see. What matters in the end is who comes out on top.
[This is an article taken from my blog For the Love of the Game and edited to be put on here.]
