I am not a big fan of the Olympics. Not that I have anything specific against the Olympics, it’s just that I find that nation-based sports are usually less about sport and more about nationalistic fervor. That said, the Olympics is a mega stage on which people can make bold statements that reach far and wide.
The German gymnastic team took one such stand when they decided to wear unitards instead of the bikini-cut leotards that women gymnasts usually wear. This was their way of pushing back against what they call “sexualization of women in gymnastics”.
This is a problem in modern sports. Many sports have different outfits for women and men. More often than not, the men’s outfits are designed with performance and comfort as the main goals. On the other hand, women’s outfits are designed to make the women appealing to the gaze of men.
Shortly before the Olympics, the Norwegian women’s beach handball team played their semi-final game in thigh-length spandex shorts rather than the skimpy bikini shorts that is mandated by the European Handball Association. Out of the 13 members in the EHF Executive Committee, only two are women. Just saying. One look at the picture of the men’s and women’s beach handball teams speaks volumes.
In 2019, France became the first country to bans burqas. They claimed that burqas are prisons for women. In 2016, France banned burkinis. Women protested this move as an infringement on their personal space.
Cutback a few decades when women were fighting to be allowed to wear two-piece bikinis and short skirts.
I hear people ask the question, “What do women want?” or “Why do women always want the other to what they have?”
The thing is women don’t want to be fully covered or put themselves on display. They just want agency to live life on their terms. They don’t want others telling them what they can and cannot wear. What a woman chooses to wear is nobody’s business but hers.
Going back to the discussion about what shorts women beach handball players should wear, there are many women players who say that the bikini-cut shorts are definitely more comfortable given that they are playing on sand. But in the same breath, they also say that they stand by the choice made by the Norwegian players. Why? Because it is not about the shorts at all, silly.
Bucketing this as a fight to wear skimpy clothes or conservative clothes is to miss the point completely.
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