men just love to run their fucking mouth about what women do or do not want without even once considering consulting any actual women on the matter
Nike’s viral track kit is just one part of the story.
(cnn) — When Olympian Tess Howard put on her new uniform for Great Britain’s women’s field hockey team in 2021, she
The Norwegian women’s beach handball team has been fined after players opted to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms during a European cham
Female athletes are breaking with their sports' apparel conventions -- if not regulations -- to prioritize their comfort during competitions
Sports Commentary Historically, women in sports have not garnered the same respect as men, though they perform the same tasks and play the s
Pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw refused to wear the customary bikini bottoms and crop tops favored by the majority of female athletes.
According to Women in Sport, 78 percent of girls avoid participating in sports while on their period. 78 percent. CEO of Women in Sport, St
also this is part of a disturbing but sadly not uncommon attitude that progress = women (specifically women most of the time) showing more skin. because not showing skin is "following irrational religious modesty mandates" like the man on twitter says
somehow being progressive and secular automatically means putting women's bodies on display (although of course these people would shame women showing that much skin because they chose to). gee, I wonder why...
(to be clear, religious concealing clothing should also be respected as long as it's voluntary!)
If it were really about how clothing that is not painted on sparingly is detrimental to athleticism:
Men gymnasts would wear singlets cut up to their hipbones, no shorts (vault and floor) or long pants (rings, pommel horse, high bar, parallel bars).
Men swimmers would wear the same itty-bitty Speedos that the men divers do, instead of the knee-length britches or full-body suits.
Men track and field athletes would wear bikinis instead of shorts and shirts.
Men beach volleyball players would wear banana hammocks.
And, on the flip side, you know when a sport takes its uniforms seriously when the gendered differences actually do something. Fencing kits are designed to protect you from your opponent's sword, so they're pretty standardized. Except: men fencers (should*) wear athletic cups, while women fencers wear body armor that comes in two forms, which all of the clubs that I've ever fenced with called either "Barbie chests" or "Xena pads." (For the record, I preferred the Xena pads.)**
And not only that . . . men fencers also have the choice of wearing body armor on their chests. Not all of them do (certainly not as many as wear cups down below), but when they do, we of course called them "Ken chests."
*Undergraduate men fencers can be as stupid as any other undergraduate. Once the foilists and the épée players realize that the crotch is a legitimate target area in those weapons and that their women opponents might be short enough that landing hits there is very convenient, most of them wise up and submit to the reality of wearing a cup.
**When I fenced in college, meets had officials who were required to "check" the women to see if we were in fact wearing our Barbie chests or our Xena pads. I once got "checked" so thoroughly that I had to tell the official to either back off or buy me dinner first. I don't know if the meets had officials to grope the men to see if they were wearing cups. Since it's ostensibly a safety measure, I'd just call for gender equality here. Either everyone gets groped "for safety" or you trust the fencers and no one gets groped.
