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Olympic Gymnast Cathy Rigby
and Stayfree
menstrual pads
Sports have usually meant
freedom of movement in advertising
for menstrual hygiene, and the
American Olympic gymnast Cathy
Rigby personified that in many ads
for Stayfree pads in the 1980s.
Unlike Lee
Miller, Carol Lynley
and Susan Dey,
but like Mary
Lou Retton, also an Olympic
gymnast, she
was already a famous
person when she made these ads,
which showed her willingness to
take chances.
She showed her boldness (but
read the e-mail toward the
bottom of this page that objects
to my characterization) by
posing nude in a hazy photograph
for an article about her in the 21
August 1972 American Sports
Illustrated magazine (second
photo below), the same year
of her disappointing Olympic
performance; Life magazine put her
on its 6 May 1972 cover, (below),
writing that her coach rated her
as one of the two best women
gymnasts in the world (the other
being Russian Ludmilla
Turistcheva). She had won the
silver medal in balance beam in
the 1970 world championships.
Rigby
contended in the SI article that
two Olympic sports, diving and
gymnastics, should be performed
nude, for esthetic reasons. This
might be the only time SI
published a nude photo of anybody (second
photo below), although the
later swimsuit issues might make
me a liar.
She has had a colorful career,
performing Peter Pan on the stage
this year (1999; see a poster
from 1989, below) and in the
past to rave reviews, marrying a
pro football player (Mary Lou
Retton married a football player,
too), and being famously bulimic,
perhaps an occupational disorder
of gymnasts. (Did she really need a
pad in the ad below? Women with
eating disorders often don't
menstruate.) I have seen her
recently in advertising for
exercise equipment (a danger sign,
I think, for anorectics), and she
has made videos about anorexia.
The title of the Sports
Illustrated article, "Sugar and
Spice - and Iron," still applies!
Another
Cathy Rigby, this one a writer
for Playboy, interviewed me
for that magazine, and told me
she was a high school student
when the Rigby ads appeared, and
suffered from the teasing of her
classmates.
The advertisement is from the
American Parents
magazine, May 1982, 10 years after
her appearance in the
Olympics. Read a joke
(about two-thirds of the way down
the linked page) inspired by this
picture.
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LISTEN
to Ms. Rigby promote
Stayfree pads on the
radio in 1982. I thank
the generous radio man
who sent this:
Mr. Finley--
The Rely radio spot
brought back memories.
I went through my
collection of spots
and found three thirty
seconds radio spots
for Rely. If you would
like to hear them I
can send them to you.
I spent 17 years at a
local AM/FM station
with my major job
assignment was
transferring
commercials onto the
cartridges used in the
air studios. . . .
[He also sent three
ads for Rely
tampons.]
I have been enjoying
your site for years
-- your talents,
time and presentations
are enjoyed by many.
****
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Above:
From May 1982, 10 years after
Rigby's appearance in the
Olympics. Rigby made many ads for
the company. Actually, tampons were made
for this. SEE MORE
RIGBY and
other
Stayfree ads.
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From the 5 May 1972
Life magazine, the year of the
Munich Olympics,
where she finished 10th in the
balance beam - a disappointment.
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First pages of an
article about Rigby by Anita
Verschoth in Sports
Illustrated magazine, 21
August 1972, where she appeared
nude.
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By the way, an
e-mailer sent me the following
message in December 1998:
Just an aside from
someone familiar with Ms. Rigby:
Without putting too fine a point
on it, one might ask, where were
mom and dad during the shooting of
nude photos of a teenage daughter?
($$)
[Another aside
about other women in this Famous
People series: Lee Miller's
father took nude photos of her
when she was a teenager, some of
which appear in biographies of
her. And both Carol Lynley
and Susan Dey,
as adults, posed nude for Playboy
magazine and appeared nude in a
film, respectively.]
The pressures for
her to do this were at once
enormous and beyond humiliating.
Hardly "daring and willing to take
risks," [my words, above] she was
a kid seemingly without choice.
Imagine your daughter sitting
around nude while the
photographer's crew ogled and set
up the next shot with these poses.
She was the object. Abuse was not
a word yet in vogue.
She has come
through this and the eating
disorders and a good many other
difficult things in flying colors,
and is, indeed, a delightful and
gracious human being to know and
talk to.
She deserves all
she can get.
But a writer in
September 2004 pointed out that
she was an adult when the photos
were taken.
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In 2002 an
e-mailer replied to the first
writer:
[I] got curious
about Rigby after seeing her on TV
last night, and found your site
today.
Regarding the
December 1998 e-mail on your Rigby
page, in which the writer states:
"Imagine your
daughter sitting around nude
while the photographer's crew
ogled and set up the next shot
with these poses. She was the
object. Abuse was not a word yet
in vogue."
This is a person
with a political agenda and
unresolved personal issues. This
is also an ignorant person.
As a professional
photographer for over 25 years, I
have shot every subject from
professional sports to major music
festivals. I have also shot nudes.
Based on a quarter century in the
industry, I can virtually
guarantee you there was no
"ogling" going on during the Cathy
Rigby shoot by Sports Illustrated.
As I have explained
many times to wannabe swimsuit
photographers, and others who
think it's great fun to shoot nude
models, it's work! In fact, it's
sometimes exceedingly difficult
work. Photography on this level is
a profession, not a party. You
can't screw up, or around, on this
job any more than you can on any
other. And simply put, if you're
"ogling" the models, you are not
professional; if you are caught
doing anything untoward, you will
likely never work in the business
again.
To my knowledge,
Sports Illustrated has always been
a thoroughly professional
organization. I find it ludicrous
that an anonymous letter writer,
who claims to be "someone familiar
with Ms. Rigby," would insinuate
that an SI photo shoot of a star
athlete is little more than a porn
session. However "familiar" he/she
may be with Ms. Rigby, she is
completely ignorant of
professional photography.
Jef Jaisun
Photographer
Seattle - New
Orleans
"Shooting the
world's best musicians since
before Disco"
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Above, we see a
Gymnastics Sportscaster from 1977.
Rigby's biography appears on the
back.
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Rigby has played
Peter Pan in theaters for years.
This poster, above, is for a
Broadway theater, 1989.
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© 2007 Harry Finley. It is illegal to
reproduce or distribute any of the work on
this Web site in any manner or
medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations
to hfinley@mum.org
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