The Objectivisation of Women in Sport

 [This article has been published in Women’s Web under the title “2021 Olympics, When Women Athletes Refused To Play By Objectifying Rules Made By Men”]

Think gymnastics, and the first image that comes to mind is of a young woman clad in rhinestone studded leotards performing gravity defying moves. Her make-up is prefect, her hair neatly coiffured, and her leotards cut suggestively to make her look sexually attractive. Think specifically of the male gymnast, and he is either in a full body suit or shorts. When routines are rated entirely on the complexity of the move, and the skill in performing them, why is the female gymnast expected to look pretty and smile, while her male counterpart can get away with just executing the routine.

The rules of the International Gymnastics Federation clearly specify that female gymnasts can wear full body leotards which cover the legs, yet sexy leotards are so normalized that regardless of what they wear while training, every gymnast picks one for competitions. You could argue that she is “choosing to wear” leotards with a racy cut, but the reality is that most people find it hard to go against what has been deemed acceptable traditionally. Recently, the German gymnastics team made headlines when they chose to wear full body suits in competition to unitedly take a stand against the overt sexualisation of the sport. Had only one gymnast attempted to do so, she would have certainly faced a lot of pushback.

Beach handball and beach volleyball, unlike gymnastics, do not even attempt to hide the fact that the female athlete is sexualized. The rules clearly specify that while the can compete in shorts, women are only permitted to do so in bikinis. When the Norwegian beach handball team chose to swap their bikini bottoms for thigh length shorts, they were fined and threatened with expulsion. This despite the fact that many women who play the sport have said that wearing shorts instead of bikinis will permit them to concentrate on the game without worrying about the uniform slipping.

The official stance by the authorities is that the uniform specifications have been framed in order to ensure that the athletes have the full range of motion. But when men can play in loose fitting knee length shorts and tank tops, why can’t the women? Clearly the guidelines on competition wear have been framed presuming that spectators are more interested in watching beautiful women in bikinis than in watching competition level sportswomen in action.

In case we think that beach volleyball and beach handball are the only sports that blatantly sexualize and commodify the bodies of women athletes to boost viewership, think again. In 2011, when professional badminton saw a decline in interest and viewership, the regulators came up with the perfect solution to bring back spectators- show more skin. The Badminton World Federation passed a decree that ‘to create a more ‘attractive presentation,’ women must wear skirts or dresses to play at the elite level.’ This was revoked after major push back from female athletes, especially Muslim athletes who compete in professional badminton in large numbers.

Tennis has similar rules. Many tournaments specify that women should wear skirts or dresses, even though most women tennis players train in shorts. A top ranked player, Eugenie Bouchard, was asked to twirl and describe her outfit after she demolished her opponent in less than an hour; is a male tennis player similarly asked to flex his muscles?

This sexualisation is not only at the elite level. It permeates all the way down. A couple of years back, when I went to the showroom of a popular sports brand to buy running shorts, I was asked to choose between itsy-bitsy ‘barely there’ shorts, and skin tight cycling shorts. The male section had the loose fitting shorts I wanted, and I have stopped even stepping into the ladies section now. Yes, there are women runners who genuinely like the racy shorts and tank tops and believe that they aid their performance, but shouldn’t the women who are not comfortable wearing those clothes be offered a choice without having to sneak clothes out of the men’s section?

The overt sexualization of sportswear is symptomatic of a larger issue. Instead of respecting the talent, hard-work and dedication of the sportsperson, the worth of a woman is reduced to the viewership she can draw on the basis of her physical appearance and her on and off court personality. There has to be a change in how the media portrays womens’ sports- the focus has to shift from overt sexualisation to sporting prowess.

Also, all sports should offer a broader variety of uniforms to choose from, so all sports persons can choose the one they are most comfortable with. This would empower women to choose how they present themselves to the audience.

Can anything justify....

RIP
Reeva Steenkamp

It was hard to process the news that Oscar Pistorius had shot his girlfriend dead on Valentine’s Day. Why would a man at the pinnacle of his success feel the need to do any such thing, I wondered. But his statement that it was a case of mistaken identity was even more disturbing.

Yes, breaking in and entering is a crime. Yes, a burglar must be punished. And if the system has broken down, it is cause for concern. But can anything justify taking a man’s life, merely because he is stealing your material possessions? Have we sunk so low?
______
A Drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.

The wonder is that they started

When it comes to trying something new, most of us can think of a dozen reasons not to. When things get difficult, we often choose to give up, instead of seeing it through to the finish. It doesn’t make us lesser people- there is only so much energy we have, and often there isn’t enough left over for non-essentials.

Which is why it is so inspirational to read about the people participating in the Paralympic Games. The wonder is not that many of them perform better than able bodied people like you and me; the wonder is that they started.

______

London 2012 Paralympics

August 29 to September 9, 2012

It needs to change

“What would you like to change about woman’s boxing?”, an Indian boxer was asked.

“Nothing”, she replied. “It is society that I would like to change.” Her comment was as spot on as her punches.

An organization puts up posters threatening to throw acid on the face of women who dare wear jeans, and the police doesn’t take any action against them. A woman is raped in board daylight on a busy street- a cameraman shoots it live and broadcasts it on TV, but does nothing to prevent the crime.

Any society that treats women so, does need to change.

Orders of magnitude

“It’s so easy. I can easily lift that”, boasted my son while watching weightlifting on TV.

While I loved his optimism, I wanted him to appreciate the magnitude of what the athletes were actually doing. “Do you know how heavy 150 kilograms is?”, I asked him. “Your little brother weights a little over 16 kilograms. Nine of him will just about make up 150 kilograms.”

“But I can easily lift my brother.”

“One of him, yes. But can you lift nine of him at the same time?”

He agreed that he couldn’t. But his imagination could capture it for posterity.

And be Inspired

Citius, Altius, Fortius.

Men and women who go beyond the realm of imagination. Who push themselves to the limit. Who prove that impossible is only just a word.

Talent yes. But years of hard-work. Of persistence. Of single minded dedication. Of dreaming a dream, and making it come true- or not.

Whether they win medals or our hearts, or both, the Olympians are a special breed. They are heros, and teach us that we can be too.

I no longer let my kids watch television, but the Olympics is another thing. They can watch all they want. And be inspired.

The tool-box of a champion

Every-time we Indians sit down to analyse yet our dismal showing in the Olympics, we conclude by saying that Indians lack the “killer instinct”. Why else do our athletes “choke” in tight situations? Why else are they never able to put in that final race-winning effort?

But could an athlete who has fought an apathetic sports system, limited access to professional coaching, lack of equipment and nutrition, to make it to the world stage, have done it if they were mentally fragile?

It is their spirit that’s got them this far. What they lack is the tool-box of a champion.

Delicious Happiness

Today, while throwing out the garbage that routinely accumulates over the weekend, I came across what looked like a Coke bottle with lettering in a script I have never encountered. ‘In Mandarin, Coca-cola means “Delicious Happiness”’, went the tagline and the coloured rings looping around the lettering could either have been the Olympic rings, or the number 08-08-08. You didn’t have to read the Olympic trivia, or turn the bottle to catch the Olympic logo to deduce that must have been a part of a commemorative mega branding exercise for the cola giant.

Was I impressed by the strategy? Strangely, no. For me, the brand identify of Coca-Cola has been intimately linked to the logo. Some people swear by the patented hourglass shape of the Coke bottle, others recall the red and white colours – but for me, it has always been the logo. And the logo in Mandarin, looks nothing like the English one!

Even so, my obvious distaste for the commemorative packaging was slightly inexplicable – I normally enjoy the novelty of such experiments, even if I do not particularly take to the idea. Why then this revulsion to this the Olympic logo?

Perhaps it has something to do with the way people all over Mumbai are being forced to defile their shopfronts by adding the name in Marathi. I have nothing against signboards that are bilingual because the owners choose to have it that way. I personally like some of the more aesthatically executed bilingual signboards – the signs announcing the names of the stations on the Western line immediately spring to mind. What I object to people being forced to adopt bilingual signboards to avoid mob violence.

I was at the Food Court of a suburban mall the day the stalls were adding names in Marathi to the existing signboards. The operation took less than five minutes per stall – a man climbed onto a stool, took measurements, placed a sticker, checked the alignment and peeled the backing paper – voilá, another signboard defaced!

Café Coffe Day, Salsa, Subway – they all got the treatment in front of my eyes, and the logos looked equally stupid in Marathi. Even the Marathi logo of Kailash Parbat looked weird – maybe because we associate the logo more with the font of the letters than with what it spells out.

I do not like what the Marathi brigade is doing to my adopted city, and that resentment must be spilling over to the Coke logo in Mandarin. After all, though the logo in Mandarin looks nothing like what I am used to, the flow of the characters retains the flavour of the original. And, it is a limited edition commemorative packaging after all – the first time something like this has been attempted in 150 countries globally.

The magpie in me had prevented the bottle from being chucked into the garbage can – I think I will keep it with me a bit longer. After all, it is not often that bilingualism spells ‘Delicious Happiness’ in Mumbai.

Of Kids with Guns

My two and a half year old is fascinated by guns. His elder brother likes the idea of possessing guns too, but he is just not in the same league as the younger one.
The younger one has just to see anything even faintly resembling a gun, for his face to light up like a mall at Christmas time. “Gaan” was one of the first words he learnt, and he played with the water pistol I brought him for Holi long after the cylinder that holds the water broke off and was swept up with the trash.
Often, he strides up with all sorts of things in his hands, points them at you and says “dishum, dishum.” Few thing have escaped being converted into guns – bananas, pencils, water bottles, even his Noddy toy – they have all done time as his “guns”.
I wouldn’t call him particularly violent or blood thirsty, and when he gets into a fight, it is his fists he prefers to use, or his legs. In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen him aiming his gun at anyone, though he does often use it as a hammer to bang the TV when he wants the channel changed.
But as a pacifist at heart, despite all the shouting I do, I just did not approve of his taste. With so many things to choose from, why did he have to settle for guns? Couldn’t he have chosen engines, or construction material to obsess about? I secretly blamed myself for all the television I allowed them to watch just because I did not have the energy to say “no”. How long would guns continue to appeal to him, and will he ever outgrow this attraction?
And then I read about how even five year olds in Chandigarh want air guns so they can emulate the latest national hero. Suddenly, guns don’t seem so bad to me anymore. Why do I have to assume he will want to hurt anyone with them. Maybe he too would want to make a career with drilling holes in black paper!

How well those girls performed!!!

I really cannot understand the controversy surrounding the fact that the girl who appeared to be singing at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was in fact only lip syncing to a song sung by another girl.

Apparently the Chinese authorities had decided that seven year old Yang Peiyim, who's golden voice held us mesmerised, was not pretty enough to symbolise the Motherland. So, wide eyed Lin Miaoke was made to get into that red frock and lip sync the song.

The Chinese authorities have been made out to be some kind of authoritarian devils who are breaking the morale of a talented girl by calling her ugly. Utter nonsense, I feel. Nobody called her ugly - they just said she was not the most beautiful schoolgirl in China, a fact that she would already be aware of. By using her voice, the authorities are actually conferring a great honour on her - that of being adjusted the best singer in the country. Why then, should she also be led to believe she is also attractive. Till the media focussed on her, I am sure the thought of being unattractive never even entered her mind - she would have merely known that she was not the most attractive child in the block. Wonder how she will now cope with being branded unattractive by the world media?

And what about the other girl - the wide eyed girl who's performance was nothing short of remarkable even if all she did was lip sync. To face a live audience of about a hundred thousand people, with billions more watching on television, and put up a flawless performance is truly commendable. Whether or not the voice was hers, her poise and her confidence cannot be underestimated. And to club her as an dumb bimbette merely because she happens to be pretty is to do her great injustice.

As a mother, I cannot but be impressed by the performance of both the girls, and hope that neither is adversely affected by the current controversy.

And as a viewer, I totally understand the organisers (I don't want to call them authorities) wanting to combine the best of two girls to achieve the best result.

At the end of the day, the Opening Ceremony is a show that is put on to wow the World, and I see nothing unethical in a bit of harmless lip syncing, specially since the combined performance was nothing short of Wow.

The Gold... finally

Like every other Indian, I am proud of what Abinav Bindra achieved in Beijing yesterday. Winning an individual gold medal in the Olympics is the ultimate sporting achievement – you just cannot get better than that. Abhinav Bindra is the best in the world at the discipline he has chosen.

For as long as I can remember, the Indian contingent went to the Olympics with a team full of medal hopefuls, and returned with kitbags full of excuses. “Something went wrong with my rifle”, “the other guy took me by surprise”, “the noise distracted me”, “I could not cope with the humidity” – after a few Olympics, I started tuning it all out.
There was a rare Anju Bobby George who produced her personal best – I cheered her, even if her best was not good enough. But the athletes who turned in sub-par performances, I could never understand. These were the Olympics, you were supposed to die for them – why then could our athletes not even do as well as they themselves had in the past?
We as a nation just don’t have it in us to win, I concluded a long time back. Our athletes may be physically able to be the best in the world, but they did not have that extra something that marked a champion from an also ran.

Abhinav Bindra has made me rethink that cynical attitude of mine. When he could have been basking in the media attention and soaking in all that adulation, he chose to focus on the athletes who did not win. “All of us compete to win”, he said. “Just that we had not managed an individual gold so far.” Just in case you missed his point, he reiterated, “It is a great honour that I have won an Olympic gold. But it should not take away from the fact that all of us try equally hard. Sometimes we win, sometimes we don’t.”
Bindra knows what he is talking about – he had missed a medal at Athens, and I must have mentally filed away his excuse of a faulty floor with all the other excuses that all the other athletes have made through the years. With a gold medal around his neck, Bindra can afford to question our attitude towards the excuses athletes make.

Nobody wants not to win. If you miss your chance at the Olympics, you may never get another one. There is just too much at stake for you to not give your best. These are the Olympics – you do die for them. Problem is that the other guy is also willing to die for them.
The next time I hear an excuse from an athlete, I will not pass a value judgment on the athlete as I did till I read what Abhinav Bindra had to say. I will accept the excuse for the statement that it is, and hope that the person is able to come back after four years for another stab at the medal.

Thank you, Abhinav Bindra for bringing home the gold. And thank you for doing your bit to make us more supportive of our sporting heros when they fail to deliver what we feel they should.

Why do we keep letting ourselves down?

At the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games yesterday, the Indian team looked much better than it has looked in a very long time. The male athletes carried off the off-white sherwanis and orange-red stoles much better than do the average Indian male. The heart soared to see such a well-dressed squad.
Then the discordant note – Sania Mirza’s black trousers! Sania often wears Indian clothes in real life and carries them off with much more grace than does the average Bollywood actress. Why then was she in pants and a sweatshirt?
To make matters more intriguing, there were a couple of saree-clad women in the contingent – the green of their sarees picking out the third colour of the national flag. It was quite obviously what the female contenders were supposed to wear at the flag-march - why then were two of the five women not in their proper costume?
One paper today had the answer – apparently, Sania Mirza and the other lady contender needed help with draping the saree, and since the officials couldn’t find anyone to help, they were given permission to show up in their competition uniforms.
Shameful, is the only word to describe it – was there not a single Indian woman in the entire city who could be co-opted to help the two ladies with their sarees? No female Embassy staff, or wives of Embassy staff? No female reporters, or female officials in the contingent? Had they really wanted to, I am sure they could have found someone who could have helped.
But why blame the officials in Beijing? Why did anybody, Sania included, not think of the problem before they left India? The clothes that the men wore fitted them too well for them to have not been custom made. Presumably, the same was done for the women – why then did anyone not think to find out if the contestants knew how to drape a saree, and send pre-draped sarees for the ones who were not confident of being able to do so. Any why have sarees at all – could not some other dress have been found that represented Indian culture as well as the saree did.
Do we not, as a nation, realize that by not presenting ourselves well in the flag-march we are letting ourselves down in full view of the entire world? It is bad enough that a nation of over a billion people has such low expectations on the medals front – do we have to compound that by proving how hopelessly disorganize we are?

Light a Candle

Yesterday, I lit a Candle for Tibet.
Today, I am glued to the TV, watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics Games.

Conventional wisdom would have me believe there is a disconnect between the two. How can I at the same time expound the cause of Tibet and support the dictatorial regime in China?
I can’t, and I don’t.
I am all for Tibetian independence, or at least for Tibetians being allowed to live their lives in their homeland in the manner in which they want it without undue interference. I do not support the Chinese human rights violations in Tibet, any more than I condone their efforts to wipe out the entire Tibetian population systematically and scientifically.

BUT, the Olympic Games is not about China, or the regime that happens to be ruling China today.

The Olympic Games is about the people who participate in the Games - the men and women (and often children) who train so hard for what is considered the ultimate glory.
The Olympic Games is about the people who stand on the victory podium – that metal disc on a piece of ribbon making meaningful all the sweat and blood.
The Olympic Games is about the people who turn in their personal best – winning is important, but more important is being the best you can possibly be.
The Olympic Games is about the people who overcome pain to finish – the marathon runner with a sprained ankle straggling in half an hour after the last contestant, the gymnast who climbs back onto the balance beam to finish the routine after falling off it twice.
The Olympic Games is about the people who struggle to make it, but can’t – the thousands who’s fastest times and heaviest weights are just not good enough to let them be Olympians.

The Olympic Games is about the triumph of the human spirit as much as it is about the triumph of the human body. The Olympic Games is beyond politics – why else in ancient Greece were wars put on hold so the Games could go on?

When I lit a candle for Tibet, perhaps I was also lighting a candle for bringing back the ethos of the Games.