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?

Maybe we should start complaining about that?

I do, when DS15 doesn't clear up his hair from the shower!
nb. he's not an Olympian.

There’s no advantage to being hair free in gymnastics. That’s purely aesthetic.

And women cyclists famously don’t remove their public hair because it makes riding so much more uncomfortable.

How many young women don’t remove at least pant line hair? Wearing the leotard is an advantage (or they’d all wear unitards) the hair removal is their personal choice in relation to that. They wouldn't be scored down if they didn’t.

Leotards? Do you also have a problem with swimming togs? The men wear tights/leggings and a vest.

Twee hairstyles? Buns? Plaits? Anything that keeps the hair back of their face? Have you watched female boxing? French plaits all round. I dare you to call one of the infantilised and Twee!

Flicky dance moves? Have you tried to execute any of those moves? What's wrong with adults dancing? I wasn't aware there was age limit on certain moves.

Grinning insanely? Depending on the routine they haven't time to grin as they're concentrating (on the flicky dance moves!) and often the smile is because they are delighted to have executed a technically difficult move - again, have you tried any of the moves?

Lots of women prefer being hairless as a matter of course.

I’m torn on this because I reckon it’s mostly (not exclusively) driven by the kind of expectations on women people are complaining about (inaccurately) here. But it’s not driven by expectations based on their sport, so not really part of this discussion.

All around now.

Watching the all rounder finals

Still not seeing drag queen make up or twee hairstyles

At least one gymnast is wearing unitard

No inane grins on the floor, looks of concentration and then grins of joy and delight over their successes

Watching the all round. Presenters n advance were saying it's one of the most popular sports for spectators in Olympics/hardest to get tickets for. I guess that's all the men in beige macs, is it,?

Probably the incredible skills and exciting competition. That's why I love it. Not sure what you're implying.

Given her previous posts on this thread, I think Obelix was being sarcastic

Oops, not good at sarcasm!

I hate the male floor, it's just so clunky and ungainly and they look twits in their shorts. Tumble from one end to the other, do a silly leg thing then up the other end. The womens floor flows naturally and is beautiful still showing the power of their tumbles. Just go watch Biles recent floor, incredible but enjoyable to watch - the mens floor just bores me

The trousers the men wear for the rings and the pommel also look ridiculous. It looks like they are wearing large babygrows I think the men would look better in unitards

Just my opinion

Agreed

The men's leggings are far more "infantile" than anything the women wear or do

The gymnastics tonight was incredible & they looked beautiful. I loved their routines & colourful sparkly leotards 💖

I watched the gymnastics with my 3 DDs tonight, one of whom competed at a competitive level for a few years so understands how difficult the moves are. The other 2 were talking about the leotards and saying that they must be a choice as you can wear a unitard if you wish. These are 2 girls who dress in baggy clothes, don’t wear make-up aren’t glam girls. We then watched the walking where the women had on sports bras and pants walking about the streets of Paris. The leotards had nothing on them.

I don’t think there’s anything twee about gymnastics, it’s incredibly difficult, you have to push and push your body through pain and at Olympic level the strength and flexibility is amazing.

Yes, sorry, it was sarcasm

I think the dance moves look a bit silly and infantile. I don't know why but I don't like the dancing.

There was an interesting aside about the British gymnasts' choice of leotard last night - their new red ones had just arrived because Becky Downie really wanted that colour for her bars final, so she put pressure on the manufacturers to send a new batch over.

On the subject of choice, just turned on and there’s some beach volleyball. Of the Swiss pai, one is wearing bikini bottoms and a loose t shirt, the other is in long leggings and a sports bra type top. Suggests there’s a fairly wide choice of kit available and women are choosing…

Now they might be allowed to wear what they want but a few years ago the side seam on the briefs was no more than 7cm and the top wasn't much different

And that was highly publicised and discussed which led to a change...

Which shows progress

This ^^

Now, that's ludicrous! 😂

I think, the coaches, and physios, etc, should all be women.