That having a bikini wax shouldn't be a necessary part of any job?

[ThatsWotSheSaid]

I've been watching the amazing gymnastics at the olympics and every time I can't help but wonder if they are all happy to have such revealing gym costumes. I would hate to have a camera doing a slow mo when I'm legs akimbo in the air wearing so little even if the camera angles seem to be discrete.

I have tried to look up if there is a rule about the cut and if they wanted could they wear little shorts but I can't find anything. I did read if they remove a wedgie they get marked down?!

AIBU to think that in this day and age it seems a bit odd that these elite athletes need to be so scantily clad and that they probably have more to worry about than waxing, ingrowing hairs and itchiness in the run up to the games?

But bert there are loads of clubs where girls can wear whatever they like to train and even for competition. It's only at a higher level they need to start wearing leotards.
So I'm not clear what the issue is and yes I've been reading. You don't need a full face of make up to do gym, any more than for any other job. You don't have to wax to wear a leotard but women do for the same reason as they do going to the pool. I'm struggling to separate out the valid point about societies perception of acceptable female grooming from the imo unfair scapegoating of Gymnastics for making girls feel unconfident.
There is also a weird air of almost body shaming, in that it's ok to shave legs and wear short shorts but not ok to shave bikinI line and wear leotards.
I'm struggling to see the logic.

It is the fact that (as you have stated earlier) it isn't actually a choice that is the problem. Can you not see that?

"Absolutely. Completely free choice. Wax. Or have your pubes plastered all over the worlds press and the Internet."

You might find this choice a horrific and traumatising moral dilemma, but why should everyone else have to have this view?

And why is it so hard to understand that so many people don't?

There is no logic Felascloak.

I'm just going to repeat your earlier comment for the umpteenth time:

"Look. They have a choice. Wear the selected kit, or don't play."

If you wear the kit, you have to shave. Okay, you could choose not to but you'd be body shamed across world media (remember Julia Roberts and her underarms?).

It's not about a 'horrific and traumatising moral dilemma' MrsLion, it's about athletes being able to make a free choice.

I'm done now. I'm fed up with arguing with people who are being willfully obtuse. It's boring.

I know you are going lynda but why is it the fault of the sport that women feel they have to shave to wear appropriate kit? In the scenario you outline, I put the blame squarely on the body shaming media, not the sport.

As far as the US beach volleyball athletes go, they wear that kit when they are in regular training. I've seen them at the OTC. When they can wear what they like...

As for shaving/waxing. Any grown women who has ever got pubes caught and ripped out in the leg elastic of underwear, swimsuit or leotard should surely understand why you might not want to somersault that way.

Oh good grief.

Volleyballmum, surely you must know that the alternative clothing options seen at Rio for beach vb teams are new? Some were only introduced in 2012.

Why were they introduced, I hear you ask? Because some countries weren't fielding teams on account of the uniform.

Richard Baker, the federation spokesman, said that "many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements so the uniform needed to be more flexible".

As for this "bikinis are traditional" argument. Pah! It's a very... er... recent tradition. I can't call the preceding ban on leggings or tights/non-swimwear 'traditional', when it only happened in 1999.

edition.cnn.com/STYLE/9901/13/vollyball.bikini/

NOBODY. IS.PUTTING.THE. BLAME.ON.THE. ATHLETES.

But they do and can make a choice?
Just like millions of other women do when they wear shorts, bikinis and short sleeved tops?
Why is sport so different in your eyes?

I'm saying, stop revising history.

"Look. They have a choice. Wear the selected kit, or don't play."

You can keep quoting that out of full context. It won't be a 'choice'. The gymnast/sportsperson will have competed in similar attire since their early childhood. It will be nothing out of the ordinary or different to what they're used to wearing. In gym they wear less to train! Comp clothing has stricter requirements.

They don't have to shave either. A few girls, especially the younger, don't seem to bother to shave legs/arms, they're not asked to by the coaches and it isn't requested in pre comp advice letters (mostly concerned with tracksuits and hair and healthy eating).

I've read the whole thread, and nowhere has anyone 'put the blame on the athletes'. Nowhere.

Some of you are struggling to understand what Bertrand and others are saying.

Look at it this way. Women are constantly scrutinised for their appearance. Body hair is seen as unacceptable on women.

High level sports are a place where women can be celebrated for what their bodies can do. But it's dangerous ground because people get distracted by what women's bodies look like. This happens a lot to women and relatively little to men.

It would just be nice to think that those who run (not play) the high level sports could be more sensitive to this. To make it easier, not harder, for our fucked up medium and society to focus on the sport not the body.

Tiny little outfits don't help. That's all.

I know you are going lynda but why is it the fault of the sport that women feel they have to shave to wear appropriate kit? In the scenario you outline, I put the blame squarely on the body shaming media, not the sport.

Quite right. And under the spotlight of the cameras, and millions of people, as in the Olympics, I can imagine the pressure to conform then is immense.

No. You haven't got it right. But I just haven't got the strength to explain it again.