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| UK Olympic hopefuls |
Why is this, I wonder?
But then, quite a few inconsistency around women in sport confuse me.....
So far in the prep for the London Olympics there's been, the women's beach volley ball team having adverts on their arse's. They've become bottom billboards, arse adverts, booty product placements.
Then came the proposal that Women boxer's should have to wear skirts so that they can be 'distinguished' from male boxers.
Then last week Caster Semenya qualified for the London Olympics and it reminded me about the appalling 2009 World Championship debacle involving her.
Caster Semenya, is the South African 800m athlete who won gold with a time of 1:55.45. A time which is really close to the best male speeds for the same distance, in effect she was closing the a male/female speed differential gap.
Because of this, she was forced to take a gender test, because as a female runner she was a deemed ....erm... too FAST!
She did not compete for almost a year until the International Association of Athletics Federations cleared her to run again after accepting the conclusions of an expert medical panel, that she is a woman.
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| Caster Semenya - breaking the world record in 2009 |
And what was it all for?...because she's very good at something she'd worked hard really to achieve. There was never a question of her cheating in anyway, she was just too fast and this it was said 'aroused suspicion' about her gender.
Err hello!!...she's a runner!....oh but wait, she was getting as fast as the men folk and maybe they didn't like it.
You can just imagine the patriarch shitting themselves can't you;
"What, she's really that fast?! Impossible she's a woman and a woman can't be nearly as fast at running as a man. Running fast is what men do, there must be some other explanation. Wait, I know she must have a penis, that's why she can run fast! Otherwise it would literally mean women are catching up with us.....and where would that end!"
Imagine the up roar if that had happened in any other profession -
"Polly solved some really hard mathematical conundrum, but doesn't wear make up....oh it must because she's got a cock!"
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| Caster Semenya - Make over |
I argue with men about this issue all the time and am often surprised by the opinions on woman in sport held by the most open minded, right on men.
The message is Sports and 'the physical' are very much still the male domain.
I'm sure one of the other reasons was also because of Caster's physical appearance. She is deemed to look 'masculine', whatever that may mean.
Again I don't understand this, she is an athlete right?! She's a runner not a lap dancer, she's not supposed to look sexy or feminine, when did those things become intrinsic to one's running ability?
Athlete's train their bodies, that's what they do, they build strength and muscle that's what there supposed to do.
Well neither do the gymnasts wafting their ribbons about, so what's the issue?
Maybe the issue is men don't compete at wafting ribbon's about so the patriarch doesn't care.
Or because gymnast's, are being pretty and feminine skipping around, wearing glitter and make up, they MUST be female, even though they haven't got boobs or hips either.
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| Melanie Adams - Pole Vaulter |
If all I ate was whey protein and trained that much I wouldn't have any boobs either, quick someone check I still have a vagina!
Honestly, I think the kernel of problem was because Caster was closing the speed gap between male and female athletes and that threatens the masculine claim to physical superiority. The impactions of which question why females and males compete in gender specific groups. As if men and women's running speeds are so close, why shouldn't they compete alongside one another?
No apparently, it's not enough as a woman to be a good athlete you've still got to, 'get em out for the boys!' and be and sexy with it.
No-one ever suggests any member of a women's beach volley ball team might be a man.....hmmm funny that.
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| Sophie Horn - Golfer |
Maybe if they were trannies, at half time they could drop there keggs altogether and waggle there willy's about wildly shouting......
"Do you want to put an advert on this boys"!
Oooh that would almost be worth going to the Olympics to see.
Thanks for another post, but I'm going to disagree with a number of issues and points you raise, very sorry.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the way Caster Semenya was treated was awful and ridiculous and should have been handled in a much better way, however, to suggest this was because the 'patriarch' was threatened a woman was closing the gap to men in performance is absolute hogwash. Caster's performance was not actually closing the gap at all. The world record for the 800m for men is 1min 41secs and the world record for women is 1min 53secs and was set nearly 30 years ago. Caster does not even make the top 10 times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/800_metres).
So, it is actually hard to judge the reason why South African Caster was submitted to this treatment and her gender was questioned, but it is not because of a patriarch feeling threatened. I think it is much more to do with the way she looks (some suggest there was racism involved) and whether we like it or agree with it, Caster has a build that is stereotypically considered to be 'masculine' because she is quite, understandably, muscular and not the stereotype 'feminine' build like a gymnast who is more petite.
Secondly, we are well into the 21st century and I think using terms such as patriarch is irrelevant and inappropriate to describe modern society. Yes, I think patriarchal influences have shaped today's society, but I think we are in a much more egalitarian world. There are still inequalities, for both genders, and I think we should strive to end sexism wherever it exists.
Thirdly, I strongly believe that women and men are equal, but they are also different. Men are, on average, taller, stronger and faster than women. This is not sexism or a patriarchal state, this is biology. Men and women get equal opportunities in sports but men tend to fare better, however, the size of the gap varies from sport to sport.
Take one example, tennis, men and women receive the same prize money but do not compete against each other. This is because Tennis experts (regardless of gender) know that if women did compete against men there would be hardly any women in the top 200 and this would have a knock-on negative impact on the number of women competing in the sport. This is a good example of acknowledging the biological difference in performance but treating both genders equally.
Fourthly, the female athletes who appear in these 'sexy' adverts do so of their own free will. They are not being exploited, they are willingly using their sexuality to gain attention to their sport. In actual fact, if I was a male beach volleyball player I might be annoyed that female players are using their looks to get more coverage of them rather than men, instead of using their ability to play the game. I think the truth is that Beach Volleyball is one of those 'odd' Olympic sports that does not get much coverage and they are using a way to get more attention on it to help raise sponsorship, fans and grow their sport.
I must be one of those pervs as I am actually going to the beach volleyball at the Olympics as it was the only ticket I won. Each session has both men and women playing, you cannot just opt for the women. Also, if all women players were actually trannies and flashed their parts during the game this would be hilarious!
Don't be sorry, I always love getting your comments Jake.
Delete#1 - On that list she is 12th of all time and clearly the fastest in a decade erm... I think that counts as contributing towards closing the gender speed gap.. Nor is it hogwash, to query why it happened to her in the first place. You say yourself it was 'awful and ridiculous' and as such I think it's worth questioning the people and motives behind it, be them sexist, racist or because of her appearance non are trivial subjects.
#2 - Interesting you find the term 'patriarch' is 'irrelevant and inappropriate' maybe that's because it doesn't affect you or you don't have cause to use the term in your modern society. The term 'the off side rule' is irrelevant and inappropriate to me because it doesn't apply to anything I have an interest in so I never need to use it. However, I can't assume people at large not use it. Also, you say the term is outmoded in the 21st century, you're obviously not that versed in contemporary women's writing where it's used frequently. Caitlin Moran in her book How to be a Woman likens the use of 'the patriarch' to Jack Black's explanation of 'The Man' in School of Rock, which I think is a good and humorous comparison:)
#3
A) Biology is mutable, FACT - also subject to interpretation due to period and context.
B) There was a time when medical experts claimed that the 'biological differences' between men and women meant that women had smaller brains so could not possibly be intellectually equal to men and thus should not be allowed into education. However, in a few generations given equal access to the same level of academic challenges this was proven to be unfounded, girls on average now outperform boys at school and university. http://www.edexcel.com/iwantto/pages/read-jcq-doc.aspx
C) This binary biological argument always arises when issues surrounding male physical supremacy are challenged, women being included in traditionally male occupations such as the military or the fire service for example. What are the female characteristics differences you refer to? You listed the male's as taller, faster, stronger, but didn't say what womens are?
D) You say women have equal opportunity to sports what are you basing this on? Access to facilities? The concept of 'equality in sports' may exist in theory but I'd question it plays out well in practice. I'd reckon that if you asked most 10 year boys what they wanted to do they'd say to be a football whereas girls would likely say Katie Price. There are many reasons for this some societal, some parental, some cultural, some economical. I am sure male athletes and sportsmen make more money and get more sponsorship deals than sportswomen, the profile of male sportsmen is higher, men's sports get more exposure on T.V. and in the media. I am not aware of aggressive children's academy’s and youth programs in womens football the same as there are in boys, these are just some reasons which could be examined. I think it's unfair to just say 'oh it's all equal so stop complaining'. What's interesting is that in other animals that race competitively together they have parity between sexes, horses, dogs and pigeons all seem to have evolved similar speeds.
I am just fundamentally against systems and thinking that is absolute about the scope of any human potential. I also think biologically as a species we are to evolutionary immature to say without any doubt what limitations on gender differences may or may not be, or that they will remain fixed as environmental and genetic factors evolve.
I still wonder why men have nipples and live in hope that one day you will all start lactating! If that happens it's bound to close that 10 seconds gender speed gap:-)