Now that the Olympics has come to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on how things have changed and how unfortunately much they’ve stayed the same.
We women have come a long way since 1900, when we were allowed to compete in only five of the sports offered: tennis, sailing, croquet, golf and horseback riding. Only 22 women participated that year — 2.2% of all the competitors. They also had to compete while wearing ankle-length dresses with long sleeves and high necks.
In Tokyo recently, the genders were fairly evenly represented, but while the men’s clothing choices were selected for comfort and safety with an eye to insuring that some article — such as Nike’s original “Vaporfly” — didn’t offer an unfair advantage; women’s clothing choices are still unfortunately gender-biased.
Obviously, there’s a need for different sports attire due to gender differences; but why is it that beach handball is played while wearing tank tops and shorts if you’re male and in a midriff-baring top and bikini bottoms if you’re female?
Admittedly, beach handball isn’t an Olympic sport, but the penalty imposed on the Norwegian women’s team for competing at a European event in shorts rather than bikini bottoms was my first indication that some female competitors were pushing back against regulations that focused more on how the athletes looked than how well the clothing suited the sport.
Then the German gymnastic team arrived at the Olympics with unitards rather than the bikini-cut leotards that other teams were wearing. They called it a statement against “sexualization.”
The third and largest indication I saw that maybe some long overdue changes were coming for women’s sports attire was seeing the updated “Portrayal Guidelines” the International Olympic Committee issued to broadcasters with instructions that included not to “focus unnecessarily on looks” like makeup, hair, nails, clothing or “intimate body parts” like “crotch shots, cleavage, backsides” and “especially if it does not relate to an athlete’s performance.”
Wow! That seemed a hard slam against what had been going on in essentially all women’s sports in and out of the Olympics since viewership expanded beyond ticketed sales to televised coverage.
Given that sports governing bodies need funding just as much as any nonprofit, it stands to reason that they’d want to expand their fan base to increase revenue and thus be able to offer more resources to their younger athletes and hopeful future Olympians. However, sometimes the attempts of less popular sports to attract a larger fan base seemed like members of their governing bodies decided to livestream “Mad Men’s” early episodes for insight into promotional ideas.
That might explain why someone decided it would be profitable to launch a “Lingerie Football League,” which had women playing football in their underwear. Fortunately, this did NOT become a popular sport, nor did we see youth leagues with little girls running around in Disney princess-themed underwear and football helmets.
However, it sometimes feels like we women have let these sports governing bodies go a little too far in telling us what we and our daughters and granddaughters must wear while competing in our chosen sports.
Is there really any valid reason for female beach handball players to be scantily clothed while the guys are comfortable?
And why is it that when men compete, the sports chatter is about what they do but when women compete, much of the sports chatter is about how they look doing it?
Anna Kournikova did not become wealthy for her tennis-playing skills. She never even won a major tournament. However, she became the world’s most highly paid women’s tennis player of that era through endorsements that emphasized her sex appeal over her athleticism.
This is not the lesson I want either my teenage granddaughter or the toddler one to learn from sports.
I want them to learn about discipline and dedication as well as how to get along with others. I want them to take away from their sports opportunities the lessons of goal-setting, time management, perseverance, grit, resilience and critical thinking skills.
These are attributes that many of us value and want our children to acquire when we encourage them to participate in sports.
Can we please follow through on this movement to “de-sexualize” women’s sports and focus on their skills and abilities rather than their looks?
A lifelong resident of Hancock County, Linda Dunn is an author and retired Department of Defense employee.
