Why do women athletes compete in clothing so skimpy it could be underwear?

I meant 'masturbating ourselves to a standstill' and 'bashing the bishop'.

I am trying to be a bit light here, but seriously, that's nasty language to read when you're describing watching olympians playing sport. Couldn't you just say you don't personally find them a turn-on, or you don't think their clothes are sexy, without putting those images in people's minds?

Oh, shit, sorry!

I was being colloquial. I somehow got to the end of that sentence without realizing what it read as.

Please don't confuse it with an insult, I just meant, literally, you can't blame me the silly misreading cos you were yourself, erm, bigging up the act of masturbating rather enthusiastically!

And if you can quote me any of the lengthy graphic descriptions of wanking, I would be most grateful.

Ooh, now that isn't nice.

The quote should have been 'can resist the urge', not can't. I am seeing Freudian slips here. Are you projecting on to me?

*primitive human, sorry, that must be a sexist slip of the tongue, or something.

Well, anecdote isn't really demonstrating much, is it?

To make an analogy (unrelated to the thread of course), it's like the way I'm sure we can all think of individuals who would seem to fly in the face of the theory of evolution from primitive man, but that doesn't prove the theory of evolution is wrong, only that there are sometimes anomalies. One or two examples don't prove one way or another.

As to 'can't resist the urge' - um, that's rubbish, and I really, really did not need that much personal information about you.

I was replying to SQ, LRD, and I was using the royal 'we'. The inference was that men have been letching over volleyball players. I said we aren't all doing that. I suppose it is anecdotal, but what is wrong with that? I think you are reading something odd into my comments.

Oh and since when did not doing something count as inappropriate sharing?? I thought you would be pleased that we aren't all bashing the bishop every time we see a bit of bare flesh. Some of us can resist the urge.

"We all know that the Olympics is about supreme skill and achievement, not about pervery."

That's what we want it to be about but in the case of the beach volleyball i think the Benny Hill theme tune would disagree with you.

Are you the borg for the patriarchy, namechange?

Or if not, how come your rather anecdotal experience should, um, matter at all?

Always pleased to hear details of someone else's sex life shared inappropriately on the net, though.

SQ, the few comments I have heard about the beach volleyball have not referred to the women's overt sexiness or desirability. Sorry to disappoint. I heard far more nudge-nudge comments prior to the start of the competition, but now that it is happening we simply are not masturbating ourselves to a standstill over the players. Sorry to disappoint again. What would you ask a player if you had the chance to interview her, and she had chosen a bikini over shorts and shirt? Would you listen to what she had to say? If you could insist that she wears shorts and shirt, would you? Genuine question, not rhetorical.

"I believe girls didn't used to be allowed knickers under ballet leotards. It's recently they have rebelled.

Likewise, I think it's new that girls have taken to putting shorts over their leotards for training."

And yet, the top athletes are out there in "clothing so skimpy it could be underwear". Kind of a disconnect between ordinary people and the ones on TV! My explanation is that nobody can be innocent any more. Little girls didn't worry about showing their knickers, and now they do worry or their mothers worry for them. Athletes can do as they please, but they know perfectly well what the audience is seeing. Recall those managers who decreed that women should do boxing and badminton in skirts, though those efforts failed--sex it all up and you'll pull in the audience.

Of course "fashion" is very important. And for young women at least, it's a slow steady move to more sexualized display. Even at the Olympics! But at the same time, making us all think about the show we're putting on, like the kids in leotards.

Oh, I sound like Mary Whitehouse. But it's true.

The worst thing about this waxing malarkey is it fucking hurts. Well I've only ever had my eyebrows done so my best guess is that having pubes pulled out with wax would absolutely kill like a total bastard!

Why on earth do we have a society where having excrutiating pain inflicted on your genital region is considered necessary - from puberty in some cases? It's really disturbing when you stop to think about it.

That's a very unsavoury implication to be making, acelt. Trust me, there are some posters in this section who are frankly creepy. But none of them are feminists.

My take - it's very obviously about fashion. I don't think arguments otherwise make any sense, really. I mean, erm, we don't grow bald naturally down there!

It does seem to be a big issue with teens. Like SGM (or, presumably, most of us?) I have actual real family members who also manage to be teenage girls, so I've heard the same things.

Sadly, though, in my case it's my little cousin and I am having to see her getting sucked deeper and deeper into this horrible world of being judged on how she looks, how primped she is, and - yes - how carefully she's removed all hair. This has become so normal that they talk about booking waxes on facebook as a standard part of 'grooming' and something you 'have' to do.

Maybe she HAS a teenage daughter! Females know this stuff about each other, you know! They talk about it!

And yes of course it's about fashion. The higher leg line on women's gymnastics gear over the years, the knee high socks.

Men's fashion in sporting attire changes over the years too - look at men's football shorts over the years. Sportspeople are not immune to fashion etc.

There is so much strange about your post namechangeguy I don't know where to start!

Do you really think men only like looking at women who have had surgical enhancements? That the women playing beach volleyball are not attractive enough for men to look at in that way? Have you actually ever met any men? Fit strong women in bikinis = nothing to see here.... Really? Or do you just mean that you don't think there is anything to "perve over" in the women's beach volleyball.

Also you should read the links about women having to fight so as not to have ridiculous garb dictated by the sporting bodies responsible for the rules.

Overweight older men wearing overpriced cycling gear on a sunday morning are the worst - bodies totally covered, nothing left to the imagination - silly old farts :o

Thanks, namechange and FakePlasticTrees!

if you go along to park run (free 5k races around the country) on any saturday morning you'll notice that the front runners who are quite serious club runners will wear VERY short shorts and vests, always, men and women.
some women will show their tummies, some not, but both sexes will show a LOT of skin... i can only believe this is more comfortable, certainly nobody is making these amateurs do this, and many are in their 40s, 50s and older so it's not a modern or new-fashion thing.

at the back of the pack where i am we tend to cover up our thighs and stomachs but then my thighs would chafe in short shorts whereas the 6% bodyfat whippets at the front won't have that problem.

It's all a bit sad really. Someone poses the question, someone else says 'here's what an elite athlete I know thinks about all this', and still there has to be suspicion and innuendo. It is all about choice. Unless someone forces a woman to wear something that she objects to, then who are we to question her? Why do people insist on forcing their sensibilities onto others?

And as far as beach volleyball players are concerned, I have not seen one participant showing off her huge surgically enhanced buttocks or tits. They look like what they are - hard-bodied athletes, not page 3 girls. There is nothing to perve over. And they have a choice (there's that awful word again). This is all getting a bit Taleban-ish.