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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Opinion: Skimpy Olympic uniforms for women are an outrage
Opinion by Danielle Campoamor
Updated:
6:23 PM EDT, Tue April 16, 2024
Source: CNN
I am a shameless fan of the Olympics. Every two years — whether
it’s for the Summer or Winter Games — I gleefully tune in to watch
the unimaginable, often gravity- and physics-defying prowess of the
best athletes in the world.
From the parade of nations at the opening ceremonies to the competitive
medal counts, from historic moments of political advocacy by athletes
to actor Leslie Jones’ , I love it all. Even the over-the-top
nationalism moves me — a tall order for someone of a long-established
constitutional right by her government not too long ago and who just
this month paid taxes to that same government.
So, like any avid Olympics viewer, I was looking forward to the reveal
of , only to receive a proverbial slap in the face.
Nike’s new Olympic outfit designs for the US women and men , and
the have rightly been met with intense criticism. Unlike the men’s
uniform — a standard compression tank top and mid-thigh shorts —
the women competitors repping the so-called “land of the free” will
be donning a compression tank top and bikini bottoms with a noticeably
high-cut up the thigh. , who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the
field and track “kits” for the Paris Games feel “like the last
kit just a slightly higher cut.”
In an email response to the online criticism, , Nike said “female
runners are not limited to” the revealing leotard.
“We showcased some of the new Olympic uniforms at the Nike On Air
experience in Paris — but, as we are a few months from the games
and working with limited samples in a limited format presentation, not
all looks and styles were featured.”
The reveal sparked instant backlash, including negative reactions from
former Olympians and current track and field athletes.
“April fools was 10 days ago,” Katelyn Hutchison, a three-time NCAA
All-American track and field competitor at the University of Kentucky,
wrote in the Citius Mag comment section.
“This mannequin is standing still and everything’s showing…
imagine MID FLIGHT,” Jaleen Roberts, a two-time Paralympic silver
medalist in the long jump and 100 meters, commented.
“Professional athletes should be able to compete without dedicating
brain space to constant pube vigilance or the mental gymnastics of
having every vulnerable piece of your body on display,” Lauren
Fleshman, a former professional track and field athlete, .
“Women’s kits should be in service to performance, mentally and
physically. If this outfit was truly beneficial to physical
performance, men would wear it. This is not an elite athletic kit for
track and field. This is a costume born of patriarchal forces that are
no longer welcome or needed to get eyes on women’s sports.”
To the surprise of no one who would rather live in the year 2024 and
not 1864, Fleshman is right. Just look at what Caitlin Clark, Dawn
Staley and this year’s women collegiate basketball players did for
the NCAA. For the first time ever, more people tuned in to watch the
NCAA women’s championship game than they did the men’s — a, to be
exact.
In 2022, t settled their pay gap lawsuit against the US Soccer,
securing a $24 million payout and a guarantee that the organization
would equalize pay between the men’s and women’s national squads.
For the uninitiated, prior to the settlement the women were earning as
little as 40% of what the men were paid, despite winning four World
Cup championships. The men have never been world champions. Not once.
A woman, Simone Biles, is the most decorated gymnast of all time,
winning an astounding 37 World and Olympic medals… and she’s not
done competing.
And still, and despite all the excellence of women’s sports, Team USA
decided to send a resounding message to their athletes, our country and
the world: You are viewed as a woman expected to perform for the male
gaze, not a medal, way before you are viewed as an athlete. You must be
sexy before you can be powerful. You must appear feminine before you
can appear athletic.
I was an athlete in high school and college — not a very good one, to
be frank, but one who competed nonetheless. Admittedly superstitious, I
refused to wash my basketball jerseys unless my team lost — I
didn’t want to “wash off” a win. My non-athletic friends would
turn their noses up — literally and figuratively — at my
irrationality, not just because the smell was far from pleasant after
back-to-back-to-back wins, but because I wasn’t being very
“lady-like.”
“I’m not a lady, I’m an athlete,” was often my go-to response
— a somewhat laughable declaration at an age when women are told we
can “have it all.”
But that’s a lie, isn’t it? We can’t have it all. We can’t
decide if, when and how we have children in this country, unless
we’re privileged enough to live in a certain state or have access to
a certain amount of money. We can’t have mandated maternity leave
after giving birth, or secure equal pay for equal work.
And even if we dominate our respective sport and manage to become the
best of the best athletes in our country, we cannot escape the
pervasive sexism and misogyny that continues to permeate society.
Instead, while male athletes are simply referred to as “athletes,”
we are “women athletes” who must shave and trim, wax and pluck our
way into the hearts and minds of… men.
Go Team USA… I guess.
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