Sexism at the Olympics

[fez]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37037050

Am I just behind the times or are nearly all the examples they give in that article complete rubbish.

When US gymnast Simone Biles gave a storming performance on the uneven bars, an NBC commentator complimented her by saying: "I think she might even go higher than the men."

Men are almost universally more powerful and stronger than women. To be compared to the men in such a sport is a compliment I would think.

Meanwhile American swimmer Katie Ledecky was praised as being the "female Michael Phelps" in the Mail Online. Both women were already world champions so why was there a need to compare them to men?

Michael Phelps is arguably the most dominant and greatest olympian ever so again, you would think it a complement to compare a female swimmer to him.

Another commentator caused outrage on social media when he implied a female athlete was reliant on her husband - after Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu won gold in the 400m individual medley with a new world record, he referred to her partner, who is also her trainer, saying: "This is the man responsible."

So an athletes trainer is being credited with making her the best in her sport. Colour me surprised. Athletes change trainers all the time to try and improve and get that extra few % they need to be the best. There was no implication that the woman wasn't good, wasn't the main reason behind her success.

If you watch any amount of sport you will hear people saying "there is the trainer responsible for making him/her the athlete they are today." Murreys trainer has had that said about him a number of times over the years.

"Many commentators say 'girls' in sport even if they know they should say 'women'. This is because they think it's a trivial issue to do with political correctness and they forget in the heat of competition," says Woodward.

"But when you call a woman a girl you are actually infantilising her. A girl is a child. Women's bodies have long been infantilised in popular culture as youth is seen as attractive."

What a load of rubbish. I have heard a number of female commentators, ex sportswomen and world class athletes talk about "our girls".

Why are we so obsessed with seeing racism, sexism and discrimination where there is none. Fine, call it out when it is obvious but its just become a joke now. You can't say anything that could be negatively interpreted without that suddenly being the only intent you could have possibly had. None of the above issues are issues when it comes to mens sport.

 

[fez]

All of them are complete rubbish apart from the last one, i get the last one.

"What an incredible man, Usain Bolt wins the 100 & 200 metres again"

"What an incredible boy, Usain Bolt wins the 100 & 200 metres again"

It's just weird...

Its weird but the whole sentence is weird. There are also hundreds of girls at the olympics. Some as young as 13. Girls is not a completely age relative term either. You will find 40 year old women saying "out on the town with my girls" etc.

Its all ********.

 

[fez]

Yea, i dunno, if people started calling you boy, "alright boy" i think you'd start to think it was some form of domination, like they are above you.

But, youre probably right, more weird than offensive maybe.



Context would be useful, yea. It's fine calling a 13 year old gymnast a girl but it's a bit weird saying it about ladies in their 20's and 30's

I would say the terms girl and boy are used more affectionately when referring to our athletes. I have certainly heard "our boys" and "the boys" mentioned a number of times.