Proposal

Claim: Portraying professional athletes as sex symbols is a distraction from the purity of the sport. Reasons: The media doesn’t focus on the athlete’s performance, but rather on their looks. Fair-weather fans will only watch the game if the athletes are attractive, but don’t actually know what is going on. Warrant: Male and female professional athletes are strong, bad-ass people with amazing talent.

• This deserves attention because it is a growing issue. The more they are seen as models, the less they are seen as real athletes, which doesn’t help their sport.


• I hope this argument reaches the media and those fair-weather fans. Professional athletes are insanely talented and that should be respected.


• The major challenge is the counter argument that sexy athletes bring more fans and attention to their sport.


• My research strategy is to look up the growing attention to lesser known sports in America such as soccer and tennis and at the profiles of famous athletes that play those sports.


• The format I expect to use is an informal research paper. I want it to come across as intelligent, but not overly academic so that anyone can understand my argument. I want it to be similar to something that would appear in ESPN magazine.