FSU Women’s Basketball Team Image Controversy

The National Organization for Women (NOW) recently issued a release from the former NOW president, Patricia Ireland, defending the FSU women’s basketball team. You may be asking yourself what they did…I was. Apparently, there has been some back lash surrounding their team website. The site has a photo gallery for each player. In the gallery there are pictures from games, in jerseys, and the controversial prom dress. The pictures are tasteful and show the players in a different light so to speak, but you won’t see any high heel with these dresses. You will notice each player is still wearing tennis shoes…nice touch.

Some unnamed individuals feel this is portraying the athletes poorly and sending “the wrong message.” It was this type of publicity that had Patricia issuing the passionate release including this excerpt:

“More and more women student athletes have emerged this new millennium as strong young women who are becoming leaders in sports, academics and life – slashing insidious stereotypes that insinuated women who compete in sports somehow forfeit their womanhood,” Patricia was quoted as saying. “This encouraging record of progress is why I am so disappointed that a modern, edgy Web site celebrating the Florida State University women’s basketball team – and their dynamic and diverse lives in the classroom, on the court and in society – has generated shallow, knee-jerk criticism in the mold of Don Imus’s disgusting comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.”