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Former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne is still not letting The New York Times off the hook for a controversial 2022 story on her that used a headline which included the phrase “Sex Sells.”
The November 2022 article, titled “New Endorsements for College Athletes Resurface an Old Concern: Sex Sells,” described Dunne as “a petite blonde with a bright smile and a gymnast’s toned physique.” The article went on to argue that Name, Image and Likeness business in women’s college sports “rewards traditional feminine desirability over athletic excellence.”
Dunne spoke out against the newspaper in an interview on the “What’s Your Story?” podcast. She recalled the paper’s staffers allegedly telling her to wear the outfit that they ended up putting the infamous headline over.
“They came to our gymnastics facility at LSU, took pictures of me. They said, ‘wear your team-issued attire, put on a leotard,’’ and they took a picture of me standing in front of the beam, like any gymnast would, and then they blew it up on the screen and put the headline, ‘Sex Sells,’” Dunne alleged on the podcast.
“Okay, well, you just came into the facility and took pictures of me in our team-issued attire and blew it up on a screen… So I was like, ‘okay, well, this is crazy.’ And there was obviously a lot of backlash to the New York Times because of that.”
Dunne then recounted how she mocked The New York Times on social media for the design decision, and ended up getting a modeling offer from Sports Illustrated as a result.
“I decided I was going to put that same picture that they posted and captioned ‘sex sells’ on my Instagram story and write ‘at The New York Times, is this too much?’ Because, come on, you know what you’re doing. You just put a picture of me in a leotard for clicks and then caption it ‘sex sells,” Dunne said.
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“And then people loved that. They were like this is so great because no, it’s not too much. You’re in your team-issued attire, which is a leotard for gymnasts. There was a lot of positive feedback from that. So, Sports Illustrated reached out to my agent. I was so excited about that. That was always a dream of mine. There’s some legends and some amazing athletes that have been in Sports Illustrated.”
Dunne has previously spoken out against the newspaper for the piece.
During an appearance on the “Full Send Podcast” in summer 2023, she called the piece “BS,” and claims the reporter asked her “weird” and “odd” questions.
“It was complete BS. I mean, they called me on the phone in November and they told me that they were going to write about my accomplishments and stuff and I was like, ‘OK, for sure. That’s awesome. The New York Times. That’s huge,'” she said.
“The interviewer called me and he was asking me very odd questions. It was worded quite weird,” she explained. “He was like, ‘So, how does it feel to be a small petite blonde gymnast doing so well with NIL.’ I was just like, ‘Why does it matter that I’m petite and blonde.’ You can just ask me about NIL without you having to use these weird ways of saying it.”
Dunne has been one of the most-followed athletes on social media since she joined LSU. She boasts more than 8 million followers on TikTok and another 5.4 million on Instagram. She helped the Tigers to a national championship in 2024, but her final year with LSU was derailed because of an injury.
Since then, she’s been spotted cheering on her boyfriend, Paul Skenes, as he makes waves in MLB with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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