the Female Body GOVERNING

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Thus, the NFL’s campaign is designed to stimulate what is understood as
the peculiarly female desire for human interest and personal interaction.
Of course, as this discourse constitutes women—in contrast to men—as
more emotional and more in need of such interaction, it also helps
solidify historically embedded links between women, nurturing, and
benevolence.
Beginning in October 1999, and to coincide with Breast Cancer
Awareness Month, the NFL aired 6 television spots featuring NFL players
to “help raise awareness and encourage fans to join in the fi ght against
breast cancer” (“Real Men,” 1999). 12 The spots, introduced in a news
release headed, “Real Mean Wear Pink,” aired during NFL games and
primetime and daytime programming on ABC, CBS, ESPN, and FOX.
Each spot is tagged with a logo bearing the NFL shield wrapped around
a pink ribbon and a phone number that provides information about
Race for the Cure events. The footage for the spots was fi lmed in July
1999 at the Race for the Cure in Aspen, Colorado.
Like much breast cancer-related marketing, the NFL’s commercials
place breast cancer survivors at the center of their narratives. Each of
the commercials is visually similar: hundreds of middle-aged White
women (along with smaller numbers of White men and children),
wearing pink-and-white athletic apparel, walking and jogging along the
tree-lined streets of Aspen. Interspersed with these images is footage of
the featured players (four of whom are the only people of color visible
in the commercials), erecting banners and signs, handing out water to
participants as they run by, shaking hands with the men, holding hands
with the children, and hugging the women.
In each commercial, the players describe their appreciation and
admiration for the courage and pride of the survivors. These voiceovers
are accompanied by long, lingering close-up shots of the faces of individual
survivors. Jamal Anderson says, “There’s nothing like the look
of the survivor. And you look into their eyes and you can’t help but be
overwhelmed.” “Man, these people are the true warriors,” Tony Gonzales
declares, “Man, they’re out their struggling with life and death. It’s
just . . . it’s an inspiration for me.” While Hardy Nickerson explains:
Once I got to the race and started talking to people and started
hearing their stories, I think that was the most uplifting part about the
whole Race for the Cure. Once you get around the survivors, man they
tell you, “I’ve been a survivor for thirty years.” “I’ve been a survivor
for forty years.” I found myself caught up and just wanting to talk to
everybody and wanting to hear all the stories.