Women’s track uniforms; men’s track uniform.
Men’s beach volleyball uniforms; women’s beach volleyball…uniforms.
Those are from a photo essay at Hoyden About Town:
Women still the sex class in international elite sports
Also check this one out from a couple of years ago, showing the trend in pornification:
If bare midriffs and short-shorts really made athletes run faster
As a commenter astutely notes, “These uniforms are going to make it very hard to focus on the game, because many players are going to be distracted by thoughts of how they look. And to think, while the men are preparing for their game by stretching, going over their techniques, etc., the women are waxing their bikini lines!”
Exactly. I think that could serve as a pretty damn good working definition of how patriarchy operates: men get to do stuff, women get to worry about their bikini lines.
I recall a study that showed how women’s ability to think clearly and to focus their minds drops dramatically when they’re wearing revealing clothes. The more revealing the clothes, the dumber they get. Test scores plummet, ability to answer questions nose-dives. That’s because they’re so goddamn anxious about how they look and whether their bits are hanging out.
I can attest to that myself; whenever I wore short-shorts or some other such foolishness as a young Sock, I was so flustered I could hardly concentrate. All I could think about was how much of me was showing.
Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not watching the Olympics. I’m insanely swamped with Stuff That Must Be Done, so no Games for me. I did, however, watch the Opening Ceremony, and as soon as I have a chance I shall grace you all with my 10,000 word essay on the subject.
Posted by Violet in Various and Sundry
