> Sarah and Alison, who respectively took Grand Champion and First Place kickboxing titles at their last match, discussed food and body parts for most of our interview.

When asked why they train, Sarah immediately said, "I do it because I want to look good," and Alison agreed, noting that "vanity is high up there." They spoke to me in detail about inner thigh flab, Alison's weight loss, why Sarah will order a salad when her friends go for pizza. Laura told me that performing with an Afro-Brazilian dance troupe was an "emotional rollercoaster" because she "never felt thin enough."

Now, I want to be careful hiking along this slippery slope. Too often in our culture issues are polarized—either these women are "strong" and impervious to body image problems (according to the usual feminist definition) or "sucked into the media's lies" and are actually anorectics masquerading as athletes.

The answer is usually, neither. Or both. America in the late twentieth century has decided that women should look a certain way. We can't untangle the complex web of reasons why women may be serious about exercise and laud some as exemplary, condemn others as harmful. Even if we could understand where one motivation starts and another ends, we simply don't have the right to judge.

Ann Wilson, editor of the highly intelligent webzine Melty writes in "Sports Angst," "I want to be athletic again. I want to feel strong and powerful. I want to be part of a team, surrounded by cool women....And yet I hesitate. I don't let myself go. Why? Because I don't understand or trust my motivations." If she (as a self-identified feminist) is actually working out to look skinny and cute or buying into someone's corporate marketing plan, she muses, perhaps she shouldn't be working out at all. Though with this attitude, she acknowledges, much is lost. Like the opportunity to play sports.

The media doesn't help our confusion. Alison found Nike's ad campaigns to be "inspirational... I want someone to like my legs because they're cut, not skinny." She talks about the desire to be recognized because she's been doing work and likes the fact that her drive and effort have tangible rewards. But for her, the end result remains desirable body parts—often she mentioned arms and thighs as if they were not part of a whole. Yet, the means are the work she does, and she sees this idea in the ads. Laura, though lambasting Nike's corporate policies, also likes their marketing because they "promote images of tough women." Because tough women put in the time, they sweat. Push themselves harder. All the reasons why sports are Good Things.

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