Women first, Athletes Second: Female Competitors in the Olympics
Division is something that the United States of America knows all too well. From politics to religion, education to the arts, the people of this country find a way to be at odds constantly. For a country that claims freedom and peace, there is none. It’s truly disheartening that as a country we can’t escape all this disunity, and I fear for my generation and generations to come, that a unified nation just isn’t in the cards. While we may never ever be able to achieve complete harmony with our neighbors, there are a few blissful moments when we, as a country, can set aside our differences, or at least forget them, if even for a few short moments and come together on a unified front. One of those moments is the Olympics. I’m not sure about anyone else, but it’s almost as like when the Olympics comes around, this weird switch flips; and everyone develops the slightest bit of patriotism and an incredible amount of athletic expertise. Everyone is shouting U-S-A, hyping up Sean White for his 360-backside triple cork-quadruple backflip-dragon-parrot-1620 cheese wheel and making fun of other countries’ figure skating outfits; and Pyeong Chang 2018 is no different. In all seriousness though, events like this, and others that require global competition are a truly interesting phenomenon. During the Olympics, we’re all on the same team — literally and figuratively — at least for a while anyway. But what is even more incredible than the unified patriotism of one country, is that even rival countries set aside differences to congregate in the same place with the same goals in mind. It’s as if the Olympics provide this unique opportunity to be a part of this global shared experience and coexist with people of other races, genders, religions, ethnicities and political beliefs. If you think about it, it’s really beautiful, actually.
But of course, as with everything, no matter how much progress has been made to include, diversify and embrace the strengths of every unique individual, someone always gets left out. Some are saying that in the 2018 Winter Olympics, this is women. While I’m well aware that there are so many others who see unfair or inadequate representation during, analysts are drawing special attention to the latent sexism woven into narrative of the winter games. That being said, this week, I chose to share my thoughts on an article published by Jessica Luther in the Huffington Post this week. The foucs of the article stated the injustices of female athletes in the Olympics, recognizing that many of the problems faced by female athletes stem from a mixture of 1) policies and rules developed decades ago and 2) the immunity that society has developed to recognizing the warning signs of sexism. The fact of the matter is, many times, these injustices are not intentional or even obvious to the average eye trained to the social norm, but intentional or not, they are still very real. Right off the bat, the article commended this year’s winter games for showcasing a record percentage of women athletes (48%), but also pointed out that though women appear to have equal representation in the games, “they have six fewer medal events than men do” (2018). In addition, the events that they do have are altered or modified — fewer team members, smaller jumps, shorter trails — to fit women’s supposed capabilities, reflecting rules and policies created by a predominately male board and “old ideas about what women can physically endure” (2018).
But aside from the actual competitions themselves, a huge part of the women’s representation in the Olympic games has nothing to do with whether or not women are competing (because they most definitely are) but how much media coverage these female athletes actually get, and how positive that media attention actually is. It appears that even though women in the twenty-first century have made leaps and bounds to get to where they are today, there are still miles to go in the oppression of sexism and the abundance of degrading comments from male commentators and radio hosts during this year’s games has proven just that. Women in nearly every event have been exploited publically for physical features, wardrobes, and even their family life. According to a recent study, “the number of micro aggressions against female athletes in the media increased by a staggering 40 percent from the 2012 to the 2016 games” (2018). While commentators focus on men’s athletic ability and performance at the games, women athletes are spotlighted for their personal lives. As writer Jessica Luther (2018) stated,
“In short, female athletes are women first, to be desired and lusted after, and athletes second.”
While these are disappointing truths surrounding the Olympics and overall, female athletes in general, I think it tells us a few things. First of all, I think it shows that just like Susan Douglas told us earlier in the semester, Enlightened Sexism has really taken a hole on women of this generation, and despite what we think, we have a long way to go regarding females in athletic events and society as a whole. BUT I also think it tells us a lot about our role as spectators of female athletes and the Olympic events. I think it shows how important it is to participate in watching these events and also how cautious we must be in how we respond to their performances and dialogue about these women. Only then will these incredibly talented and capable women get the attention and respect they deserve.
