Women badminton players may be forced to wear skirts to "boost flagging audiences"

[JessinAvalon]

I have no words.....

www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-olympics/article-23946465-plans-for-skimpy-skirts-for-2012-womens-badminton-get-short-shrift.do

aaargh.

Apart from "aargghh!!!"

What are they thinking???

If they want to boost the numbers watching, why not make the men play topless so that we can admire their chests?

I'd love to say unbelievable but unfortunately I can believe it. Good old marketing companies. What would we do without them?

I was going to get some Olympic tickets for the women's badminton too. Wish I had now. (Not because of the skirts, obviously, but to help boost their "flagging" sales). Can they really not think of any other way to increase sales? Really?

blimey i used to play alot and wore a fred perry skirt with towelling knickers

That is horrifying. Even if it is stopped by the player-protests it is still horrifying that it could have been thought of in the first place. The poor players must feel like meat.

FFS they are athletes not fracking porn models.

Sorry, but I can't even begin to go into it - It's like I wake up and we've gone back another few years.

All together now..." women do NOT = "sex""

OK, so teh olympic committee is run by men who hold women athletes in complete contempt.

I want my money back. I don't want to go to the fucking Olympics anymore

If you want to send them an e-mail asking if this is a late April Fool.

www.olympics.org.uk/contact-us/

[email protected]

Durrr....it's not the BOA, it's this moron that we need to contact:

www.bwfbadminton.org/page.aspx?id=14897

[email protected]

Well good for the Olympics minister anyway, at least someone is in the 21st century.

From the comments page

*Badminton is the ideal sport for girls and more would be attractd to the game by the decision to wear skimpy skirts. Shorts are not feminine enough; look at tennis; the most attractive players to watch are those wearing skimpy skirts. The same goes for table tennis. More girls should be getting into sport.

• dhan raj, basildon, 04/05/2011 13:06*

What a twunt!

Unbelievable. Why not just hire billboards saying "Women: you are the sex class. Basically, you are just walking c*nts to us so shut up and get your bits out."

I emailed Darren and got a long reply at 2.30am. I haven't had time to digest it properly yet.

Here it is:
"I can totally confirm that there is no intention of having ?skimpy? skirts for women. This is an exaggeration by the media to generate controversy.

There is a regulation proposed for women to wear ?Skorts? which are skirts over shorts and regularly worn by many women Badminton players, but not all. Also players from religious or ethnic backgrounds who require their legs to be covered can wear track suit pants or leggings and a skirt over the top of them. A far cry from insisting all women players wear ?skimpy? skirts. Some players currently wear shorts and some women players have justifiably argued that they should have the choice. However every sport has clothing regulations and players in every sport do not have totally free choice in what they wear, men for example have to wear shorts and could argue that their freedom of choice is being curtailed. Just as in Cricket they have to wear white clothing for Test Matches and in American Football have to wear helmets. It is perfectly normal to limit players choice in sport ? people can?t serve overarm, they can?t stand where they like when they serve etc. However that at least is a debate we can have.

The proposals came from the Women in Badminton and Clothing Regulations group to BWF Council lead by a female ex World Champion with the intention of improving the presentation of the Sport and boosting Women in the Sport ? this has been cruelly changed by the media to meaning ?sexed up?. There is a big and subtle difference here. We are in a commercial world and we have to fight to improve the sport presentation so we can get our share of crucial TV times. To be honest we have done a lot of things in many areas over the last year including court specific lighting for television at tournaments, more music, more show lights, more use of pre finals entertainment, more thought as to how the court looks on television to some quite detailed points, all to upgrade the presentation of the Sport. Clothing for players is an area which also being looked at as part of this overall upgrade of the Sport?s presentation but of course this has been what the media has focused on. There is no doubt that the design of Badminton clothing lags far behind Tennis in aesthetic appeal ? probably because of the lack of giants such as addidas and Nike in the Sport.

Badminton has made huge strides with equal prize money for men and women and equal scoring systems and equal representation all only coming in the last ten years.

I hope this answers your question to some extent."

Ah, as usual media distortion. Skorts are fine (AFAIK they are what schoolgirls prefer for sports), though I don't really get why they need rules on what players need to wear in any sport (other than ensuring basic decency, team colours, and protective gear - helmets are clearly not analagous).

If 'tennis clothing' is so much better than 'badminton clothing' why on earth can't badminton players just wear that?

Oh wow, not another sport.

It reminds me of the idea suggested several years ago by football's governing body that female football players should wear "sexy, tighter" shorts.

I recall that they attempted to deflect criticism of their proposal by saying their idea "was not meant to be offensive".

Also the fact that they have the hotties play on Centre Court at Wimbledon. In actual fact.

Thanks, Jess. That did seem like a sincere answer from Darren. Really pleased to learn that (hopefully) it was a media distortion. God, why am I so easily suckered into believing the tripe they make up.

It's not much of a distortion though - they're still making the women wear skirts/skorts, even those who wear track pants have to wear a skirt over the top (wtf?) with no explanation as to how exactly this is going to 'improve the presentation of the sport'. If skirts really do improve 'presentation' so much, why are the men not required/allowed to wear them?

From Jess's reply "every sport has clothing regulations". Most sports do not specifically differentiate between men's and women's clothing though, which badminton (and tennis) do. The example of Cricket that was given, may require whites (in certain matches) but men and women wear pretty much the same kit - trousers, shirts, protective gear.

And I don't think Tennis is a paragon of anti-sexism and should be a sport whose clothing should be aspired to!

Yes, you are right I think, that it is still a little bit iffy. I imagine that if there was a clothes retailer wanting to market some invented item like 'skorts' and offering to put money into the sport in conjunction with the requirement to wear that product, the regulatory body would be quite quick to let commercial interests dominate the requirements they place on the players. It is a bit seedy.

If they're willing to permit, or require, skirts-over-shorts for women then the question doesn't seem to be getting the naughty bits, or semi-naughty underclothes, on display (though perhaps they'd love to do it, same as the beach volleyball, were this not the 21st century). I wonder if they want to emphasize that they've got real live women out there. Not just more, uh, athletes running around in shorts. Because if they didn't care about demonstrating something, what would be wrong with plain old shorts?

That's what I'm struggling to understand - why exactly is it so important for the women to wear skirts? Quite possibly it's not about sexiness/flashing their knickers etc, but they haven't as yet offered any alternative reasoning, except by saying that it 'improves presentation' in some undefined way.