Positives and negatives of the Olympics.

[kickassangel]

Hopefully a fairly light hearted thread but thought we could keep a tally of the plus and minus sides of the Olympics.

Plus
Women from Saudi, and more women from other Middle Eastern States.
Women included in the military flag bearers
Future sports people fairly even m/f balance (and their sponsors)

Minus
Still more events for men than women
Still more men taking part, and given better status/accommodations etc
Women carrying the country names, and the bowl things during the parade.
Mainly women nurses with the children on beds.
Paul McCartney getting the 'men' to sing first and the 'girls' to have a go second.

I was hoping that I'd noticed some more positives, but apparently not.

What did other people notice?

[PiousPrat]

Every single country participating has fielded female athletes this year for the first time ever. That is pretty damn big.

The BBC acknowledged that and mentioned it several times, reinforcing that it was both important and a step in the right direction.

[messyisthenewtidy]

Yeah I'm feeling pretty happy about the whole thing at the moment. It was lovely to see so many people, both men and women, cheer Lizzie Armitstead on.

Agree re the lack of female singers at the opening ceremony though. It's not like we don't have some fantastic female singers. But compared to normal there was quite a lot of female involvement.

On the whole though I think the Olympics has been very encouraging so far, though I'll see how the volleyball goes!

[CaseyShraeger]

Are there more male events? (genuine question; I thought now they'd introduced boxing it was even)

The nurses were real nurses so if real nurses are still mostly female you'd expect the volunteer dancing nurses to be mostly female.

Plus: suffragettes acknowledged in the opening ceremony (with real Pankhursts, too, which was a nice touch)

[DorisIsWaiting]

What really got me (possibly irrationally) was the outfits of the althetes parading. Some countries did a really good job with similar (if not the same) others took at as an opportunity to get women in short tight dresses. Even Germany modern western etc etc had men in green (iirc) and women in PINK I think their was possibly the most obvious!

With the nurses thing historically there are and have been more nurses in the nhs and traditional unifiorms would lend themselves on a larger stage to the female role (1950's style male uniform's were not neally as obvious).

[Margerykemp]

There is a distinct lack of female body hair and breasts.

[DorisIsWaiting]

margery I think that's mostly down to the training with the breasts, these are athletes that do everything to maximise their capacity to win, which obviously includes diet.

I worked alongside someone who was in training for the RM commando course by the end of it she had very little fat anywhere including the breast.

The body hair for swimmers is shaved for men and women, even the hat seem super shiney now for less drag.

[messyisthenewtidy]

I liked that they had so many female nurses because it gives credit where credit is due. I think they should have included the slave trade as part of the history lesson though because to bang on about the gloriousness of the empire whilst ignoring its dark side was a bit .

[DilysPrice]

Sportswomen get far more coverage at the Games than they do at any other time. Teams like the England Women footballers normally get virtually no coverage however well they do, whilst at the Olympics all the Team GB competitors are seen as part of the communal effort to rack up the medals, and that's really heartening.

Dressage and handball also feature mixed teams which makes a nice change.

I think that we as licence fee payers and viewers need to keep up the pressure for (especially) the BBC to capitalise on the Olympics effect and show a better balance of female sports once the Games are over.

Realistically that probably includes greater publicity for sports women outside their sport - presenting them as personalities in the national celeb soap opera (not clothes horses or pinups, interesting, quirky people, like Paula Radcliffe or Ellen McArthur (sp?)).

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Not my point, but someone pointed out that Caliban's speech is the speech of a would-be rapist, although it's also got positive post-colonial implications. I thought that was maybe interesting, hadn't thought of it before.

I agree with comments about the ceremony, and was sad they didn't have more female writers like Austen or the Brontes - having JRK reading someone else's work was a bit poor.

The singer of Abide with Me was lovely, though, and it was so good to see women in all the teams. The look in the Saudi woman's eyes when she was marching was amazing.

I also like that there seems to be a lot of emphasis on and interest in female competitors, which I don't remember so much from previous years.

I am currently watching women's judo with DH and it is amazing to see these women and how they're doing! Great stuff!

A 'what about the menz' thing that stood out for me was, watching men's extra lightweight judo yesterday, seeing the winner dash up and give his (male) coach a huge body-blow of a hug, because it was so different from what we see as 'normal' male/male interaction. I guess that's low-level but it was good to see IMO.

[DilysPrice]

A bit picky about the writers I think. We had Shakespeare, Barrie and Fleming for the men vs Rowling, Travers and Smith for the women, unless I've missed someone? I don't think Rowling was undersold.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, I'm totally being picky about the writers!

I just feel that Austen (especially) is someone so famous - I was surprised she didn't make it. Dunno.

Was also sad not to see a female comedian as well as Mr Bean.

Of course all of this eventually gets into 'well we can't have everything' territory, I know.

[DilysPrice]

There were a little group of Regency girls right at the start who I think might have been meant to be the Bennett sisters - not sure.

[CaseyShraeger]

Don't forget Evelyn Glennie, either.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Ahhh, I didn't see that dilys! Oh, that's lovely.

[FallenCaryatid]

'Caliban's speech is the speech of a would-be rapist'
Who was caught and punished for his intentions.

[EdithWeston]

Big minus: commentators still referring to "girls and men"

Also, the Benny Hill theme tune at the beach volleyball (yes, it has different connotations beyond UK, but not what I'd expected to hear here).

[EdithWeston]

And a plus: the participation of the (possibly) most pregnant competitor: Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi of Malaysia (8months+).

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, that's true fallen. Still!

As I say, it wasn't my point, but one that interested me.

edith - oh, yes, she's awesome! 'Quiet baby, mummy's shooting'.

[ziptoes]

Benny Hill being played at the beach volleyball was a definite downer www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jul/28/london-2012-beach-volleyball-horse-guards?intcmp=239

And it does have the same connotations elsewhere, at least it does in parts of the US, where Benny Hill is huge

[CaseyShraeger]

I did think: WHY? Why, when you're making the point that you are playing a serious sport that isn't just about jiggling in bikinis, would you play a piece of music that is associated with scantily-clad, large-breasted women running around to be ogled? Although I suppose they could be trying to reclaim it, à la 'Slutwalk'.

[kickassangel]

have just looked at the website - there are def. more male than female events in many of the sports.

[messyisthenewtidy]

Plus: Women's archery was awesome (loving the big glasses look), as was Beth Tweddle on the bars. Those things scare the life out of me, I keep expecting a gymnast to come off flying twirling across the hall...

Minus: Women's beach volleyball. Yeah complicated I know as they chose to get their kit off, but depressing nonetheless that they feel the need to do it. However on the plus side they did win.

[Trills]

I saw the Regency girls and thought they were very Jane Austen-ish :)

I like seeing all the muscular thighs and general strongness of the female competitors. Strength and fitness vs just thin-ness.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

True, I'm just watching the gymnastics and it's amazing.

I liked how one of the commentators has just said 'she's enjoying this', which just seemed lovely too.

Not sure what I make of the fuck-off heavy eye-makeup though ... I mean, each to their own but it's a strange look IMO. Surely if you sweat it runs into your eyes?

[Trills]

Or maybe they have super waterproof eyeliner - can we get them onto S&B to tell us what they use?