Women's gymnastics at Olympics

[purplesequins]

Tokyo Olympics: German women's gymnastics team wears full-body suits

well done them. they look great!
I really hope other countries follow suit. and soon. and also on county level.

I had a friend who was a ballerina and also took part in various modern competitions. A different thing to gymnastics, but with an equally exposing leotard.

She had surgery on her labia, as she was concerned about her (perfectly normal, but not perfect for a leotard) inner labia showing during performance and competion.

I fully support anything that allows women to compete and work at high levels in dance and sport that stops young women feeling like my friend did.

@user16395699

But I think it's unnecessary for people to (for example) accuse a 16-year-old (that's how old the Gadirova twins are) of "lap dancing" merely for fulfilling the requirements of her sport effectively.

Why are those the requirements of her sport? And not her male peers' sport?

You are spectacularly missing the point (or deliberately constructing a strawman). The gymnast is not being criticised. The sport that imposes sexist requirements on women is being criticised.

If artistic gymnastics is not a historical, sexist relic, then why is there not a men's artistic gymnastics event?

Hahaha

Tell me you know nothing about gymnastics without telling me you know nothing about gymnastics

(There is a MAG event...in fact, six events. Learn about the sport before making such superficial comments.)

@toastofthetown Exactly! It's 100% okay to criticise the CoP, and I support that wholeheartedly. There are many, many criticisms I agree with. But when people literally do not understand the sport, then there is no meaningful basis to the criticism.

Also, part of the reason for the difference between WAG and MAG (and I'm not referring to dance here, which is legitimately controversial) is... wait for it... sex-based. Hardly something I'd expect to need to defend in these parts. MAG and WAG cannot be identical for very good sex-based reasons, which I would expect the majority here to have some basic grasp of. (Again, I'm not saying there isn't sexism in the code, because there very clearly is.)

What I don't understand is why the music is even there because they don't dance in time with it. So what's the point?

Wow @ the tumbling event!

To the outsider - Gymnastics looks incredibly sexist - wouldn’t let my DC do it for that reason.

You shouldn't have to completely understand a sport to have an opinion on it!

Not many people completely understand dressage but they still enjoy watching

And I felt sick seeing 6 year olds done up like Jon benet ramsay at our local gym so steered my dds away from it.

I love the choreography in women's gymnastics. The men's is boring in comparison. I competed as a young girl but would have been horrified to wear a leotard as a teen. It creeps up and when their buttock hangs out, they get points deducted if they adjust it. Then they have to jump and split their legs and hope they're covered, and still photographs are often taken of them like that. At least ballerinas can wear tights to cover themselves.

I think the German team look fabulous in their unitards and I hope more women and girls will follow.

It's so bizarrely that arms are covered to the wrist but legs must be exposed virtually to the hip bone. And some pp are saying that a unitard would be too hot???

These super high cut leotards look so uncomfortable. It really wasn't that many years ago that buttocks were fully covered.

@KittenKong

*knickers! Although I did have big Knockers too!

"Knickers, knackers, knockers..." as Les Dawson used to say! (in more un-PC times).

I agree about the unitards being a step forward and it is important for all athletes to have a choice.

I do go back to the point I made before though. There are several sports where men wear considerably less than women. Look at Diving (they are almost naked), swimming (not allowed to cover their tops) and Water Polo (almost naked too) whereas their female counterparts wear much more.

Outfits have evolved differently for different sports but it doesn't mean for sexist reasons necessarily. I'm all for choice but I would ask you to consider that boys /men actually receive a much rougher end of the stick than the media would have us all believe.

I'm all for choice but I would ask you to consider that boys /men actually receive a much rougher end of the stick than the media would have us all believe.

Hmmm. Are male gymnasts required to smile/ pout/ simper while wearing little more than a g-string to perform acrobatics? Nope. Not seen it so far

Mean and boys do not have a harder time in sport than women. Full stop.

@Bryonyshcmyony

Mean and boys do not have a harder time in sport than women. Full stop.

Not what I said though

There are several sports where men wear considerably less than women. Look at Diving (they are almost naked), swimming (not allowed to cover their tops) and Water Polo (almost naked too) whereas their female counterparts wear much more.

That's because women have breasts and are required to cover them up in these sports.

By the same argument that's why men wear more on the lower half of the body

For the few that actually care about the sport rather than policing what women should or should not be allowed to do - the Team GB women have just won an Olympic bronze medal. A minor achievement, but I thought a few might enjoy the news.

That's a really unfair comment
It's perfectly possible to enjoy a sport and also discuss whether the presentation of it could do better.

Yes! Bronze!
Amazing!

@JurgenKloppsCat

For the few that actually care about the sport rather than policing what women should or should not be allowed to do - the Team GB women have just won an Olympic bronze medal. A minor achievement, but I thought a few might enjoy the news.

Thank you for actually uplifting the gymnasts and not distorting what they do in this incredibly difficult and dangerous sport! So proud of Team GB for medalling - for those unfamiliar, this is a huge upset and exceeds all expectations of them. Amazing gymnastics today

There's an Olympics thread where we have been very excited about team gbs medal. This is feminism chat so 🙄

@Bryonyshcmyony

That's a really unfair comment It's perfectly possible to enjoy a sport and also discuss whether the presentation of it could do better.

I agree - or at least, it should be. I just don't see any enjoyment of women's sports or sporting achievements on this or any other thread on this board. We are well into the first week on the biggest multi-sport event on the planet. Can you find any threads celebrating Team GB, or the events in general? The brilliance of the football team, the divers, the taekwondo, the dressage, the triathlete? All medal winners or finalists.

Has anyone taken 30 seconds to type 'well done, fantastic achievement!'?

What @Bryonyshcmyony said...

My view is:

• both men & women should do the dance to music to even things up

• they should all be able to wear clothes that cover the bums ffs -this is 2021!

• Bin off the winking nonsense unless the grading scheme applies equally to men and women

Is it any wonder there is so much pressure on gymnasts in an industry with such a bad rep for abuse!?

@Bryonyshcmyony

There's an Olympics thread where we have been very excited about team gbs medal. This is feminism chat so 🙄

So what? Accentuate the negative? Is that all there is? What a miserable outlook.

It's here Olympics thread