Why do female gymnasts always look like that?

[LovelyBitOfHam]

I’m sure you know what I mean.

Hair tied back in a big scrunchie - the kind of scrunchie you last wore when you were 9 years old.

Glittery make up.

Plaits, braids and hair clips.

I understand a lot of sports have a uniform but ultimately, if you take a track and field athlete, a swimmer and a tennis player just before they perform, you wouldn’t really be able to tell which sport they play just by looking at them. But you can identify the gymnasts from a mile away.

It isn’t just at Olympic level either. Even the little girls in weekend gymnastic clubs have the same sort of style.

Is it some kind of male gaze thing? Or is there a “type” of girl who grows up wanting to be a gymnast? I’ve always associated gymnasts with the sort of girls who didn’t really grow up, but I’ve now realised just how wrong that is.

I think what they can do is incredible, and Simone Biles is great. But there’s something about the “look” of gymnastics that’s always bothered me, and I can’t put my finger on what it is. Anyone else?

God what a disgusting thread to start. I am ashamed of women who promote this kind of toxic feminism which involves belittling anybody who wears glitter or likes traditionally feminine things. Vile. Immature. Unfathomably stupid and ill informed.

Mary Lou Retton had her hair cut short it didn't seem to affect her career as a gymnast.
The scraped back style looks very harsh on a lot of girls/women, some even look like they have receding hairline when done so tight especially if they are blond.

I’ve been watching the Olympics and thinking how much women’s gymnastics has been changed by Simone Biles. I see a move to more muscular bodies, compared to the waif-like young girls of the past.

Ex-competitive gymnast here, admittedly from the 80’s. The whole fancy hair tie and make up bs had started even then, though thankfully not the extremes of glitter. Got around it by having extremely short hair as a teen, which made me deeply unpopular with my coach. I was definitely more punk than Barbie.

Most gymnasts are a million miles away from the look that is promoted anyway, they’re athletes ffs and - generalising here from my own experience - hard as nails. Smiles were strictly for the judges and camera, it was ruthless and I find the way they look a complete juxtaposition and also it distracts from their skill.

There’s far more discussion of what they are wearing rather than their achievements. Opinions of course may differ.

Another thing that really irritates me... nurses wearing scrubs. I mean, what is all that about? It's like they've been told all their lives to hide their individuality and just be objects. Or is it to appeal to the male gaze, as the sick perverts just think about "sponge baths" and latex gloves?! Glad I never grew up to be one.

Maybe, just maybe, they tie their hair up to get it out of their face and wear minimal clothing to feel comfortable in their own body while they’re doing incredible, physical things?

Are you a potential Olympic athlete?
No?
Thought not.

When you are, feel free to come back and tell us all how you feel.

Scrunchies were very popular in gymnastics in the 1990s. They were everywhere. Less so now. Tying up your hair - if long - is pretty important.

Gymnasts actually gave quite a range of looks. Some or no makeup. Some or no sparkles. Long or short hair. Short is not as popular as it used to be in young women but that's the case outside gymnastics too, isn't it?

if you take a track and field athlete, a swimmer and a tennis player just before they perform, you wouldn’t really be able to tell which sport they play just by looking at them

I’m not sure that’s true: I think you could have a pretty good guess from body shape.

Yes, the old 'Croydon facelift'

I’m not infantilising anyone for liking something. I was wondering why it was so prevalent in gymnastics. Clearly another thread discussed the same thing so I’m not the only one who thought it.

And there have been some genuine answers on this thread.

I thought of that when I was typing but I was getting at the hair and makeup more than anything else.

So did Comaneci, Szabo, Silivas, Shushunova etc in the 1980s, because many girls wore their hair short in the 1980s. Most young women now wear it long, and if they are gymnasts, that means tied up. Fashions come and go.

I haven’t seen Young/teen competitive gymnasts in the UK wearing glittery makeup at any comps I’ve been too. Hair has to be out of face so they can see what they’re doing!

You’re not as clever as you think you are.

I think it's a remnant of Soviet aesthetics

So that's the insult you throw at these incredible women? The 'Croydon face lift'?

Neither are you.

Yes! This is exactly what I was trying to touch upon when I created this thread. The juxtaposition of the sickly sweet smiles and the toughness of the women and girls who must have abs of steel and an ability to perform flawlessly under pressure.

It just doesn’t seem right. It would be like expecting female tennis players to serve with their little finger poking out.

Not all of them wear visible makeup, but I think most women performing on live TV would.

Gymnastics events are short. Longest are 90 seconds. So while you need your hair restrained, you can apply makeup without fearing you'll sweat and smear it all off. I presume that's harder on TV.

Older women are more involved now, and top gymnasts are Black and Hispanic. Colour palettes chosen by some athletes are probably different in light of these facts from the days when most gymnasts were white or Asian and sometimes trying to look young and childlike.

No

I am just amazed by what these amazing athletes can do. How do they manage to move from back flips to twists in the air it’s incredible

Simone Biles is just phenomenal all have been amazingly impressive

May I take issue with the Scrunchie?

They're everywhere and everyone wears them - at least around their wrist for later (where I live anyway)
including me in my 50's 😃

You couldn’t get sparkles and make up for love no money in the Soviets. Unless you are referring to the 90s when the iron curtain lifted and post-soviet Russian gymnasts had access to the western items like scrunchies for the first time.

Incredibly condescending to suggest it's to attract the "male gaze"(!) or just some kind of childish fashion.

There aren't actually many Olympic gymnasts wearing glittery or even particularly noticeable make up? Rebecca Andrade does because that is her personal style. None of the British gymnasts do. Simone Biles doesn't. In fact I actually can't think of any others at all?

Why do ballet dancers wear buns? I don't belive they have buns for the male gaze. My dd has to have her hair in a bun. It's got to be pinned flat to her head and low. Same way she has to wear ballet shoes, character shoes and the weird ribbon ginormous skirt.

At gymnastics she do as she pleases with hair and clothes. But having it down is not a sensible choice.

They don't have to smile and they actually don't smile much if you watch live. I think the press must favour pictures of them smiling if people are going away with that impression.

There are also people (not just gymnasts) who smile readily and have whatever the opposite of resting bitch face is. Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade both have very ready and vibrant smiles. But that's how they are on and off the podium. It's not a requirement - and even they aren't usually smiling while performing.