Skorts

[Mannatan]

Ive just seen a lot of Irish women make videos about this issue on tiktok

. Skorts are the tiny skirts that women have to wear when they play camogie in ireland. its mandatory to wear them

A lot of women are protesting that they dont want to wear skorts when they play camogie, as they are uncomfortable and too revealing

One county team asked could they stop wearing them. It was refused by the county board.

There are loads of videos online where women are saying that skorts are uncomfortable, and that they dont want to play a sport in a mini skirt.

Why on earth arent they being listened to by the GAA/county boards?

Thanks for pointing this out honeyrider.

The Camogie Association was founded in 1904 and has always been fiercely independent, at a time when women playing any sport in any kit was seen as problematic and they didn't think they'd get much support in the GAA.

Camogie resembled hockey - in fact the old sticks looked very much like hockey sticks, they didn't have the large 'bas' the modern hurleys have [less control of the ball in the air, the sliotar stayed mostly on the ground, as in hockey].

So it's no surprise that the kit worn by camogie players has echoed that of hockey players through the years. I don't think it was a manifestation of misogyny, any more than what women hockey players or cricket players wore in the past. It was just the traditional outfit worn in that particular sport, and the GAA had nothing to do with it.

Women's Gaelic football - or 'ladies', as they insist on calling it - any chance of updating that?🙄- wasn't established until 1974, so it had no tradition behind it, and the movements of football aren't suited to skirts or skorts, so shorts were a no-brainer form the start.

Women' hockey in the UK also insisted on skorts not shorts until very recently - the year before last I think - and now players may choose for themselves.

Camogie will follow suit ASAP I reckon.

Reading the sports pages of the local paper I was very struck by the photographs of the camogie teams, the front row effectively a line-up of pubises (pubes?) highlighted by an elastic bandage. Women in athletic 'shorts' or swimwear wouldn't look as 'on display'. Admittedly there were also some fairly grim photos of the young men's hurling teams with their camáns propped against their crotches. Really, if local sports photographers are going to be so blind to the potential effect of the images they produce, don't add to it by making the players wear horrible garments.

That said, I agree that the ongoing issue with the LGFA expecting women to play in teams that include male players is a disgrace and an ongoing danger.

There's a photo in this week's local newspaper of two camogie players from opposing teams in action and one is turning and about to hit the sliotar but the angle of the photo shows the woman who's about to hit the sliotar with her legs apart and her skort looks like tight knickers and not shorts underneath the top bit of the skort.

The photo was taken last week before the skort controversy but it's very unflattering for the camogie player. It takes from the players ability.

The local paper ones (different teams) are all knicker-type. Very unflattering, and evidently if the non-knicker bit is long enough to provide coverage it is too long to allow players to run and move freely. Madness.

The Cork v Waterford match scheduled for tomorrow night has been deferred in the best interests of the officials and players.

I heard a player interviewed and she made a really good point. The skorts are not even traditional, the players played with the long skirts and then fought and fought for them to be modernised over the years to more practice al levels, they have definitely always been contentious.

If they are not a result of external misogyny then they definitely have some internalised misogyny going on from women constantly fighting to maintain them when there has been a long standing battle from players to get them updated.

My husband coaches my daughter’s team and my husband’s personal view was the girls never ever wear skorts during training so why do they need a uniform just for matches. He cannot understand it.

I am really annoyed about this. They should have relaxed the rule like Dublin has done.

Brenda Power was interviewed by Anton Savage earlier this morning and she brought up that point about the LGFA having no problem with men playing in women's gaelic football.

I gave parental feedback when they were seeking it out about the amalgamation of the three Associations about my concerns around male born players completing in football. I think given most insurers in the Irish market are underwritten by the UK under insurers that this issue will disappear with the UK Supreme Court ruling because god knows an insurance company likes an opportunity to mitigate a risk. Once the UK sports fall the Irish ones will be forced to follow.

Thats stupid. Why was it deferred.

Just let them wear shorts now. Its not hard!

The women said they would refuse to play this match if they couldnt wear shorts.

Instead of letting them wear shorts, they've deferred the match

It was going to put the referee in an impossible position but the unwillingness to relax the rule is an issue it comes off as controlling.

It's not in the players best interests.

The players didn't want this to happen.

The players have released a statement.

"It shows scant regard for the preparation of players both physically and mentally to be ready for a provincial showpiece, to make this decision just 16 hours before the scheduled throw-in.
"Anyone with an understanding of what it takes to compete in elite sport knows that this could never be in the best interests of players.
"We feel completely let down. Both panels had meticulously planned to peak for today. Training schedules and workload will now have to be readjusted, while not even knowing when the game will take place.
"There was an opportunity to take a step forward from the recent controversy. Instead, a provincial final has been postponed because we took control of what we would wear.
"To us, that feels like a massive step backwards."

The decision being made by the people who are going to look at the women playing sport rather than by the women who are going to play the sport seems rooted in something very dodgy.

Yeah it really is showing that the players are not respected and have no voice at all in the sport

The officials have all the voice

I believe the camogie players should have a choice.
The player herself can decide whether she would prefer shorts or a skort.

I mean thats what any sane person should think.

I dont knkw why officials are always telling women what to wear

All sports have rules about the official uniform - netball players wear skirts, basketball players wear shorts, until very recently women hockey players had to wear skorts. You'll get ordered off the court if you appear in something other than all whites at Wimbledon.

The Camogie Association re-stated their rule about skorts at the last annual congress. The delegates were, I'm sure, mostly women, and many ex or indeed current players. The majority - not just the officials - voted to keep the skort. Why they didn't represent the feelings of the players says a lot about how delegates can get distanced from the grassroots they are supposed to represent.

When this player revolt about shorts blew up, I can't see what had the Association to lose by declaring that although anybody refusing to wear the official kit was technically breaking the Association's rules, that they would not take any action against them, nor should referees, and they would regularise the situation by calling an EGM at the earliest possible date [as they have done]. to write shorts into the rules as an optional uniform (hockey allows a choice of skort or shorts).

They've just dug their heels in and made themselves look completely out of touch and over-officious - I don't go along with the Taliban/misogyny line, the Camogie Association is overwhelmingly female, and the skort has been the chosen uniform for historical reasons, as it was in hockey.

I think they are just being officious sticklers for outdated rules and regulations.

On a lighter note - what about the hurlers donning skorts as a gesture of solidarity?😂😂😂😂
Now there's an image!😃

All sports have rules about uniform, but many sports have OPTIONS withib those rules.

For example in women's gymnastics women have the option to wear a leotard or a unitard.

The rules on what to wear in sports were also predominantly set by males a long time ago

This is why wr have heard about women in gymnastics, volleyball and now camogie, protesting about their clothes being too skimpy and sexualised.

We have never had any male sports teams protest about their clothes being too skimpy, as their clothes were always appropriately long. Or they have always had options

Its about sexual abuse of women. Its disgusting .

And dont get me started on cheerleading in America. I was watching a documentary about it. Its disgusting. The boys can wear long tracksuits. The teenage girls have to wear what is basically a bra and panties. Why not let the girls wear tracksuits?

@Mannatan I dont know why officials are always telling women what to wear

? Because they are men, committed to maximising their opportunities to view the sparsely-covered pudenda of women they know, work with, live near.

It is grim.

I read elsewhere that 2/3's of the delegates were women 1/3 male and that a large proportion of the female delegates were two generations older than the players so it could be internalised misogyny at play. I don't know if that's true or not but I could well imagine it being so.

I think it’s sad that my first exposure to camogie (as a UK based hockey player) has been through this argument. Skorts are hideous, uncomfortable and also don’t functionally fit all shapes. Thank god hockey gives the option here.

I have to say though that the sport looks amazing. In another life I would have loved to have played it (in shorts!).

Who got to decide it was skorts not shorts ?

Shorts were suggested at the annual conference last year, but the motion was defeated by a majority of the delegates - representatives of the clubs and regions and a majority of them women.

The camogie delegates were probably clinging to the traditional type of uniform which has been in place since 1904, but player-power is challenging tradition, and the sooner the rules are changed, the better!

Camogie players have always worn some form of skirt since the sport was established in 1904 - my mother wore a gymslip to play, I wore a divided skirt, and then the skort was introduced.
It is the same as hockey in this respect - UK Hockey only allowed shorts until very recently, the traditional uniform for women's hockey was also some form of skirt/skort.

The sexualising clothes women are forced to wear in some sports are shocking - skimpy bikinis in beach volleyball until very recently , and in gymnastics men wear shorts, but women have to wear tightly-fitting clothes. Some national bodies are now allowing women to wear the same kind of loose shorts as the men, but the official kit is those skimpy leotards which barely cover a woman's lower body.

With the ex-players, it could also be an attitude of, "I wasn't given a choice over skorts and I managed, so these girls can manage too."

Ireland as a society doesn't like 'uppity' females.