Olympic gymnastics humiliates and infantilises grown adult women

[Thebellofstclements]

The ridiculous leotards, the twee hairstyles. Having to do the ridiculous flicky "dance" moves (artistic expression, ha!) and grinning inanely (insanely) in between moves and when presenting...
Arguably the best athletes in the world but these grown adult women have to present themselves in a ridiculous, almost grotesquely infantile manner, looking fairy cheap and tacky.
The men do not.
My family argues that the gymnasts choose to do this.
We know that historically female gymnasts have been abused with no voice, so I'm not convinced this is all what they would necessarily choose given the option. AIBU?

Apologies, it was the diving I was watching. The point is still relevant.

@Pluvia "The first time any woman was officially allowed to participate in a marathon was 1967"

You mean the first time any woman was officially allowed to participate in the Boston Marathon was 1967.

Women have long been running marathons before Switzer - Violet Piercey set a 3:40 WR in 1926 which stood until 1963. And Dale Grieg set a 3:27 at the Ryde marathon in 1964. Both Brits so obviously they don't count as far as the Americans are concerned.

"baggy"

You’ve already head replies above that make gymnasts do not compete in ‘baggy joggers’. They have long trousers for certain events which have to be close fitting enough that the shape of their legs can be judged. No one wants to see an errant testicle, so they wear trousers/ shorts over the top.

The men's diving costume is way more revealing than the women's! They are the teeniest of speedos and barechested.

Men wear leotards with shorts or stirrup trousers over. What male gymnast would want to have to worry about their junk falling out of the leotard? And who would want to see it?

I do wish they would wear shorts though. Everybody is just drawn to the crotch wondering who will be the first to fall out of their miniscule leotard. I just cannot watch it.

I don't mind about the glitter and I can see that the dance moves are often transitional in the routines. But I do generally agree about women's costumes (across many sports) being unnecessarily revealing. Take tennis for example, even as a child I was miffed that it was the norm for women to wear big frilly knickers under their skirts, whilst men just wore shorts (albeit of varying lengths over the years). I'm pleased that women tennis players now wear functional skorts, which can still be as glam or as plain as they choose.
I think that in general, you have to be at the top of your sport or part of a critical mass before you can start to bring about any change, so I suspect many female athletes accept the sports existing dress codes in order to compete.
And let's not forget that so called "professional" sports commentators still feel the need to comment on female athletes' looks and whether they're wearing make up.
The Olympics also welcomes men who have raped 12 year old girls. Does every female athlete in the Olympics agree with this? Of course not but they're not going to sacrifice a lifetime's work to be the one who takes a stand. Is it not possible they feel the same about a revealing leotard?

Are they? I’ve never seen anyone fall out of leotard before, or heard anyone voice a fear it might happen.

I suspect that if a change is to happen it'll have to go from the bottom up. People have said on this thread that children have not been allowed to wear shorts to compete and we know that many teenage girls drop out of sport and once again said on this thread this has happened due to the leotards.

If it's encouraged that the girls can easily (without fuss from coaches) be more covered if they wish from an early age then by the time they reach 16 they'll feel happy making an informed choice about what they wear without any pressures. If that's a leotard then great but I suspect that if the whole culture changes some will wear shorts as well.

are they? I'm certainly not.

Different attire is expected for different apparatus for men. And a key reason for this is showing off lines, which is crucial for judging purposes. For example, the men have those weird white trousers for pommels/rings, which are designed to highlight leg lines.

For women, back flexibility in particular is a much more important part of the sport so a fitted one piece is much more practical. Otherwise there's too much potential for tops to be dislodged or bunched when bending through the back. The only options that would be practical at that level would be leos, unitards or maybe a leo with very fitted shorts.

Me either and I've been a fan of this sport for 30 years

I work on the Worlds every time, closely with the gymnasts. Most of them get a lot of say into what they want to wear, what their "theme" is, how they're presented.

I'm sure there are cases of women who wish for more coverage, a different cut, etc, but certainly most of them - and I talk to them all - at least present as happy, and it's not the type of environment where they'd need to hold their opinions with me. Infact, many do the opposite, it's the only opportunity a lot of them get to talk with the "media rules" applying, and dictate some of the topics, etc.

There's almost definitely an angle that a woman who would hate that type of outfit would self-remove themselves before it happened, though.

I really have never give any thought to it.

I can't speak for all men, but my eye is definitely not drawn to anyone's crotch and I am not wondering who is going to fall out of their leotard. I've never heard of anyone falling out of their leotard.

What about the arse? Why can't the female costume cover their buttocks? What's to be gained by not covering the buttocks in the way that men's trunks cover their buttocks?

Quote Aiko Sugihara who campaigned to wear a leotard with shorts as opposed to high cut:

“When I competed in a high-cut outfit, I was under stress, unrelated to the competition, about whether my underwear was showing,” she said. “With that anxiety gone, I can now concentrate on the competition.”

I did gymnastics as a teenager and I was constantly worried about what was on show when doing things like straddle splits. It is a very real concern for girls in the sport.

You are thinking of some other sport. Or some other species, perhaps

This doesn't happen, and I don't see how it would. Leotards are sportswear well designed for their purpose.

I have seen clothing malfunctions in swimming, athletics, football. The world kept turning without anyone feeling the need to try to stop women from wearing clothes designed for sports.

National and local sports do impose their own rules, and I agree they should be challenged where necessary.

Elite gymnastics specifies leotard or unitard, "modest" - a word I could do without but which has some use for safeguarding.

But if we are pushing for change it must be for adult athletes to choose, and this means stepping back from calling their clothing choices tacky, silly etc. Safety and autonomy are two things that matter. Not makeup and sparkles and hairstyles.

Mostly it does. But there's more freedom of movement and less bunching at the sides when you don't go full granny pants. Agree the cut should be in the athlete's comfort zone, of course.

I'm sorry you had that worry. I think clothing standards are higher for elite performance, presumably partly because of TV exposure.

If OP had been raising this sort of concern I would have more sympathy, but it was all about style and taste. I didn't see any leotard or unitard that looked inappropriate in any pose yesterday. I would absolutely support holding local and national clubs to that standard and to the unitard option.

Underwear showing is not the same thing as crotches 'falling out'. As it happens I've never seen any underwear showing either as presumably care is taken in the cut if the Leo to prevent. Having said that I'm glad there are more choices for women now if they feel uncomfortable.

These women are incredible athlete. Why not watch Murder She Wrote instead?

Its not a case of its not her cup of tea - the male gymnastics isn't "twee" so that is her cup of tea

why shouldn't female gymnastics be able to omit the twee parts of the sport, without being penalised on points for doing so?