Tourism, culture and the arts minister Kevin Krueger dismissed criticism that Tourism B.C. helped objectify women when it aided producers of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue with a photo shoot in Whistler.
In a Feb. 27 Ottawa Citizen column, author and coach Laura Robinson argued that government tourism agencies had contributed to female athletes being seen as sexual objects.
“There is extraordinary pressure on girls and young women, more than ever, to look like sluts,” she wrote. “All girls and women should be able to be in public spaces without being sexually harassed, and that is one of many reasons why the governments of Canada and British Columbia and the municipality of Whistler should not have orchestrated and funded the bid to have Sports Illustrated shoot its swimsuit issue with members of the American snowboarding and Alpine ski teams at Whistler.”
Even if young skiers want to express the strength of women athletes by posing nearly naked in soft porn, taxpayers shouldn't have to fund the project, Robinson said in the piece titled, “From podium to pinup, on our dime.”
Asked whether B.C. taxpayers contributed to objectifying women, Krueger said, “I don't think a whole lot of people would share that view and I don't.”
He confirmed that Tourism B.C. helped scout locations in Whistler for photo shoots of four female Olympic athletes, including skier Lindsey Vonn, and introduced the people working on the shoot to the property owners. “That's what they do for everybody whose going to do a tourism related piece on B.C.,” he said.
The athletes who posed made their own decisions whether to appear in the magazine, he said. “There are 69 million buyers of that magazine so you can hardly fault anybody for wanting to have her or his picture in there,” said Krueger. “I think its people's own business if they want to model and I think that it's a legitimate publication, so to each his own.”
He said he's not, by the way, a reader of the issue himself. “I have actually never looked at Sports Illustrated, including that edition,” he said. “I have way too much reading material.”
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
11
Login or register to post comments
Ramona777
2 years ago
Tit for Tat
I'm waiting to see Minister Krueger in Playgirl ....
G West
2 years ago
not surprising
That Krueger hasn't got a problem with objectifying women.
He clearly has no idea about the role of government (and Tourism BC is now totally government) in providing leadership in any area except 'cashing' in.
Pretty much par for the course for this guy.
Matt T.
2 years ago
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Always a much heralded and coveted annual edition of SI.
Anyone who refers to this material as "soft porn" is just a prude whose political correctness has run amuck.
This article is not news. Get a life people.
Skywalker
2 years ago
Ramona777
Please, I'm having to poke out my mind's eye!
G West
2 years ago
Matt T
Maybe you should actually 'read' what Laura Robinson had to say in her column before you draw any conclusions. (I'll quote the last paragraphs for you to save you the trouble of clicking on the link and reading the whole thing - I think she has a point)
It would all be laughable if it didn't hurt girls and women. The federal and B.C. governments give little scraps to projects to "build self-esteem in girls through physical activity and sport." The girls I coach, who are First Nations, learn from the mainstream media by the time they are 10 that their hair and skin are the wrong colour. They think they are fat and ugly and tell me so at an alarming rate. There is a six times greater chance that they will be victims of sexual violence. I told them to watch the Olympics because they will see the strongest women in the world. Hopefully this would help them commit to being the strong young women they are capable of becoming.
The federal government puts zero funds into a program such as ours. I interviewed Gary Lunn, minister of sport, at the Olympic aboriginal pavilion during the Games. He kept mentioning "programs for aboriginal youth in sport."
I have been a coach in First Nation communities for over 10 years and the children there have yet to see one federally funded sustained sport program. Too bad it will be next to impossible for them not to see the government-funded swimsuit issue.
Laura Robinson is a former national-level cyclist and rower. She is the author of Black Tights: Women, Sport and Sexuality.
freebear
2 years ago
From podium to pinup...
and also corporate pimp and shill!
DPL
2 years ago
I'm surprised that Kreuger
I'm surprised that Kreuger didn't have a little prayer meeting to show folks that the swimsuit edition was really approved by his supreme being
realisticman
2 years ago
Laura Robinson: "The girls I
Laura Robinson:
"The girls I coach, who are First Nations, learn from the mainstream media by the time they are 10 that their hair and skin are the wrong colour."
And what does Laura tell them? Does she not tell them that 98% of humans have dark hair and only 2% blonde? Does she not also tell them that caucasians are outnumbered on this planet by those that do not have white pigmented skin? What colour skin do they think they have? What MSM are they reading?
G West
2 years ago
You're kidding, right?
And what culture are those girls growing up in?
Those poor outnumbered caucasians - my heart bleeds!
G West
2 years ago
The same main stream media
Which prints lies and foments 'fear' about the state of government spending in this province.
realisticman
2 years ago
Hang in there girls
In twenty years those who identify themselves today as in the minority, will be in the majority.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-changing-face-of-canada-booming-minority-populations-by-2031/article1494651/