Sporting events have long been an industry that attempts to reinforce traditional gender roles. Historically men’s sports have promoted qualities of manliness and strength while women’s sports have encouraged a narrative that sexualizes women’s bodies. Women’s sports have been altered via rules, regulations, and uniforms to ensure society that allowing female identifying bodies to participate in the same athletic activities as men would not disrupt traditional gender roles that view male athletes as masculine. When women first entered the Olympic space in the early 1920’s, news outlets and journalists reported on the attractiveness and beauty of the athletes and barely mentioned their impressive athletic abilities. The Washington Post details this further saying:
Such sexualization was not accidental. Editors were trying to sell newspapers. “It is axiomatic that nothing so gladdens the heart of a … Sunday page editor as the picture of a pretty girl or a group of pretty girls in one-piece bathing suits,” explained 1920s sportswriter Paul Gallico. “The newspaper editor and publisher for many years has been aware of the value of s.a. [sex appeal] in his pages as a sales stimulus.
Conversely some female athletes have attempted to embrace society's focus on their sexuality. Many have embraced their beauty and sexuality by posing for magazines such as Olympic Swimmer Amanda Beard. Beard posed for Playboy magazine in 2007 and received backlash from media outlets for using her sexuality as an attempt to attain more fame. While this discourse was taking place, male athletes were not experiencing any conversations about their bodies especially not in a sexual nature. It is extremely concerning that women are neither able to exist without addressing their sexuality or embracing it without commentary from the public eye.
This toxic pattern has continued into today's world of athletics. In the most recent 2022 Tokyo Olympics, the Norwegian women's handball team protested their bikini bottom uniform requirement by wearing spandex length shorts for their competition. As a result they were fined all while the men’s handball teams are required to wear knee length shorts. The reasoning behind the stark differences in uniform requirements between the two sports is unknown but an underlying theme is the fact that requiring a more revealing uniform for the women’s teams creates a space for the sexualization of female athletes.
The contradictory and controlling nature of our society has put female athletes in a lose-lose situation that ultimately distracts from the athletic abilities that they have spent most of their life perfecting. As a society we must stop the double standard of commentary on a woman’s sexuality across the board, but especially when it comes to the female athletes.
Great post, I think that this is an extremely important topic and one that should be discussed more. I think another prime example of this is volleyball - men wear shorts whereas women wear skin tight short shorts. It is a complete double standard and it should not be continued, it unnecessarily sexualizes female athletes who work just as hard, if not harder than male athletes.
This is a very interesting post, I've never really thought in depth about women's uniforms in sports-- mostly because I don't watch sports, but also because women's sports are especially invisible to people who don't actively pursue watching them (which is whole problem in itself). What I also think is interesting is that women's sports are almost made "worth watching" if they wear uniforms that are more revealing. For example, I remember in high school, students preferred to watch women's sports when they wore smaller, tighter clothes, as opposed to longer, bulkier, uniforms.
The double standard in sports is absolutely ridiculous. There is absolutely no reason why women should be wearing a bikini bottom while playing handball. In almost every sport women are forced to wear very tight and short clothing while men are wearing knee length shorts. I also find this so ironic since women are constantly shamed for wearing short shorts and cropped shirts in public yet their required uniform for sports is practically nothing. Women deserve to wear something they are comfortable in.
I think the requirement for women's uniforms is a bit demanding and tough on the female athletes considering that it is necessary that athletes feel comfortable in what they are wearing during these activities. Unlike men's, the uniforms also appear to attract commentary on the female bodies. In this aspect, the regulations on uniforms should be reevaluated to reduce the sexualization of women's bodies.
I would argue this extends well beyond sports, and into most women prominent in the public sphere- their appearance is a point of obsession. I've also noticed that when female athletes underperform or when female writers and thinkers, etc voice a controversial opinion or even just something that somebody doesn't agree with, it's their physical appearance and not their capabilities, opinions, etc that is attacked first. I still remember when I played basketball in high school my coach would make sure to tell us to look "presentable" for big games...