OLYMPIC WOMEN: Norwegians & Simone

Olympic Women: Norwegians & Simone PREVIOUS BLOGS: TERRYBAUM.BLOGSPOT.COM PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED. PODCASTS, EVENTS, INFO, POSTERS: LilithTheater.com Dear Bloggelinis: I initially wrote about the Norwegian Women's Handball team, but then the next day decided to add more on the important story of the great gymnast Simone Biles dropping out. July 27, 2021 So the Norwegian Women's Olympic Beach Handball team showed up for a game the weekend before last, at the European Beach Handball Championships in Bulgaria, dressed like this:

The horror! The horror! You see, they were fed up after complaining for fifteen years of being required to dress like this:

According to the New York Times:

The International Handball Federation requires women to wear bikini bottoms "with a close fit and cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg." The sides of the bikini bottoms must be no more than four inches. Men, on the other hand, can wear shorts as long as four inches above their KNEES as long as they are "not too baggy." A spokeswoman for the International Hand ball Federation said on Tuesday that she did not know the reason for the rules. "We're looking into it internally," she said.

Hmmmmm.... Very mysterious, don't you think? Why oh why oh why are the elite women handballers of the world required to wear itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini bottoms?!? I just cannot imagine what the Federation will find when they look internally. Perhaps if they look internally inside the male Federation executives' pants, they will find the ANSWER! Of course we all know very well why these women are required to wear bottoms no more than FOUR INCHES WIDE at the side. It is to increase audiences by pandering to the straight men who enjoy seeing women sexualized. Here we can see the men's and women's teams together:

I have good news for the International Handball Association: If they put all their men in bikini bottoms, they could increase their audience even more! I personally know several men who would pay a LOT more attention to men's handball competitions if that were the case. And there are probably some straight women who feel the same. But for some strange reason, the Federation only sees the male players as fine athletes, rather than fine athletes AND sexy bodies to be exploited. From the NY Times:

Martine Welfler, a Norwegian handball player, said there were players in Norway who did not want to compete at an international level because of uniform requirements. (In domestic tournaments, Norwegian plays can wear shorts.) "That's really sad because maybe the best players won't participate," she said. She also said female players were tired of being scrutinized in skimpy attire. The focus should be on the game, she said.

So this skimpy uniform requirement is actually WEAKENING the Norwegian team. Indeed, if any great handball player is the least bit chubby, she's not going to play internationally because she will certainly be ridiculed. And the uniform requirement precludes any female handball teams from cultures that have a strong tradition of modesty. The Norwegian women were fined 150 euros ($177) each for their violation of the sacred rules of their sport. Fortunately, the pop star Pink was moved by their disobedience:

“I’m VERY proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team FOR PROTESTING THE VERY SEXIST RULES ABOUT THEIR “uniform,” Pink tweeted late Saturday. “The European handball federation SHOULD BE FINED FOR SEXISM. Good on ya, ladies. I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.”

It turns out that women have been speaking out against the double standard in uniforms or decades. This is an issue in track and field, beach volleyball, and tennis. And it's not getting any better. Beginning in 2011, elite female badminton players were required to wear skirts, in a bid to increase interest in women's badminton. I have to say, the high-cut bikini bottom worn by women athletes has always made me uncomfortable ever since it were introduced. I cannot imagine performing athletic feats before audiences if I were dressed like that. It LOOKS uncomfortable. But somehow it never occurred to me that women are FORCED to dress this way. July 28, 2021 Well, that was what I wrote yesterday about the particular pressures that elite women in sports face. Now today I see that the pressure on the woman at the very pinnacle of the Olympics, Simone Biles, turned out to be too much for her to bear. This astonishing gymnast dropped out of the team competition because she was so overwrought she couldn't control her body anymore. It has always seemed to me that being the favorite to win a gold medal is an absolutely horrible position to be in. Even when you do succeed, well, it's only what everyone was expecting anyhow. The only real news is when you fail.  What a drag. And how can it be a FAILURE to win a SILVER MEDAL at the OLYMPICS, as the American women's gymnastic team did WITHOUT their star? The other three young women rallied, took over Biles' performance slots without any time to prepare, vowed to do their best for Simone, and came in second. Isn't THAT a great story? What is it like to be Simone Biles? She was completely stressed out before the Olympics started. In an interview, she said, "I can't wait... for it to be over." The top gymnast in the world, the 24-year-old African-American has been pushing herself -- and being pushed by others -- since 2013, when she won her first World All-Around title at the age of 16.

Besides all the pressure that comes with such extraordinary achievement, Biles also has: Carried American gymnastics through years of scandal about the sexual abuse of young women athletes Acknowledged her own sexual abuse, and.. Embraced being a role model for young women of color in a sport that has been traditionally for white athletes. And all this during a time when everything is heightened by being played out on social media. Not to mention that little ever-present detail, the pandemic. So far, other gymnasts have only expressed sympathy for Biles. They all know one thing that I was not aware of: Gymnastics is a DANGEROUS sport. If you make a mistake, you could break your neck. And Biles was renowned for pushing the boundaries of what was possible for a human body to accomplish. At the same time, she was putting herself out in the world as a spokeswoman for the travails of gymnasts and the hopes of young Black girls. She pushed herself too far. Good for her that she had the courage to realize it and give herself a break, rather than breaking her neck. She said she was inspired by Naomi Osaka, who dropped out of a tennis competition rather than do a press conference that she found too stressful. Bloggelinis, it has seemed to me for a while that Black women are rising to the the top everywhere. I can only say to that, "It's about time!" When I think about Biles & Osaka, I think maybe they are not only leading in achieving extraordinary things, but also leading in saying "Enough! I cannot do this! I am a human being and I have limits." We need to be able to stop when we've pushed ourselves -- or are being pushed -- too far. Terry