Victoria Pendleton

The biggest issue for me is the broader one of why it is that so many female athletes feel there is this need to validate themselves by stripping off for lads' magazines, when male athletes seem to be appreciated purely for their skills or athletic ability. It's the disparity that bothers me - not the fact that she's done it. Very few women are able to stand on their own merits, which is a shame.

Me too. I was flicking through a book about the 1948 Olympics the other day, and found a photo of a British high jumper, jumping over the washing line on which she'd hung out her child's nappies. It was a rather cute photo, but it reminds me of these VP ones, in that it seems to assure the world (men? people?) that no matter what this woman's athletic achievements - don't worry, she's still conventionally feminine (and therefore not a threat to our precious status quo). Which is a shame, because female athletes are in such a good position to extend our ideas of what is 'feminine'. And god, we're in need of that.

(Mind you, I remain unconvinced that we even need the principles of masculine and feminine. Biology aside, can someone tell me why they're so important?)

Oh, and the fact that there are now a few pictures of air-brushed half-naked men knocking around (Beckham et al) doesn't really fill me with hope. For a start, there are far fewer of them. (I keep meaning to count how many scantily-clad women I'm bombarded with every day (adverts, etc.), but suspect it would just depress me.) And it's the wrong sort of equality - surely it would be better to get rid of these things altogether, rather than just trying to increase the number of men who hate their bodies?