Positives and negatives of the Olympics.

[kickassangel]

Hopefully a fairly light hearted thread but thought we could keep a tally of the plus and minus sides of the Olympics.

Plus
Women from Saudi, and more women from other Middle Eastern States.
Women included in the military flag bearers
Future sports people fairly even m/f balance (and their sponsors)

Minus
Still more events for men than women
Still more men taking part, and given better status/accommodations etc
Women carrying the country names, and the bowl things during the parade.
Mainly women nurses with the children on beds.
Paul McCartney getting the 'men' to sing first and the 'girls' to have a go second.

I was hoping that I'd noticed some more positives, but apparently not.

What did other people notice?

Another positive....seeing Iram Khan one time and Lennox Lewis last night on Gabby Logan's show saying it was great and quite right that women's boxing should be in the Olympics - and these guys should know! Can't remember if it was Imran or Lennox who said that seeing them in the ring and because of their headgear etc. you couldn't tell if they were male or female and simply thought of them as boxers because the standards were so high.

So to both of you.

That's great that Amir Khan (I guess that's who you meant?) and Lennox Lewis said that, nice to see blokes getting behind the cause.

Always have mixed feelings about women who are covered, especially since for some it is a choice. It's just good to see females competing but yeah, obviously being covered isn't ideal for sport. On the other hand, some have been complaining that the women in athletics aren't wearing enough. It seems we just can't help scrutinising what women wear. I haven't heard anything about what the men are wearing, apart from in comparison with women.

I read an interesting interview with Fatima Whitbread today, I didn't realise she'd had such a tough life (grew up in care, shunted about loads.)

yellowraincoat. I was thinking the same thing. It's sooo tiring. I just want women to wear what they want to wear because they want to wear it and not be judged for it.

Anyhow, I watched Sara Attar finish her race and the crowd cheering her on - I don't think I can take many more of these emotional Olympic moments

messy I think I have sobbed more in the last 10 days than I have in a long time. Olympics makes me an emotional mess, especially when someone a. overcomes adversity b. is smiling madly (like when Kelly Holmes won in 2004) c. weeps at their defeat or d. weeps at their victory.

good to know I'm not the only one then - I was beginning to think I was slightly unhinged!

There were female judges for the men's boxing earlier.

(talking of Amir Khan, I wish he had floored DC this afternoon instead of schmoozing him )

Negative - Giles Coren's opinion piece in the Times today about women's hockey - at least half of which is about his opinions on which teams he fancies.

Giles Coren is a nob.

Indeed he is.

Yes yellow - Amir of course. Had a bad senior moment then!

Negative - Giles Coren's opinion piece in the Times today about women's hockey - at least half of which is about his opinions on which teams he fancies.

Someone should tell Giles that he is supposed to use his brain to think - not his genitals.

Giles Coren is indeed, a knob. It's not ironic or satirical, it's knobbishness, pure and simple.

Giles Coren is a total knobhead, hate him.

Nice and humorous column by Mark Steel in i today (by "i" I mean the stupidly-titled Independent off-shoot) about women, immigrants and Andy Murray at the Olympics. Mark Steel

If Giles Coren is such a knob then why is Sue Perkins his friend?

Either he is not really as knobbish as all that or she has much worse taste than I think she does.

Oh he IS that knobbish, didn't you ever read that horrible letter he wrote to the Guardian calling one of the sub-editors a cunt because they changed something in his copy?

Nice people can have knobbish friends, there are people who I really like whose friends I can't stand.

Is she really his friend outside of filming?

Giles Coren Nosh rant

x-post with yrc!

Oh it was to the Times.

What a fucking entitled twat he sounds in that letter. It is par for the course for journalists to have stuff changed. Just accept it with a shrug, maybe a polite "oh I would rather you hadn't changed that".

Reacting like that is a guaranteed way of getting your stuff subbed to shit forever more.

Another thing.

While it is super that women are now able to compete in all sports, I think we will truly know equality when it is seen as acceptable for men to be engaged in "girly" sports like synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics.

Why don't we see men in a sparkly get-up doing twirls and stuff? Why is that still so abhorrent to us as a society? It's really ridiculous and limiting.

Apparently men used to do synchronised swimming!

www.london2012.com/synchronized-swimming/about/

" Synchronised Swimming began as a sport for men in the 1800s. It is now one of two disciplines on today?s Olympic programme to be contested only by women. The other is Rhythmic Gymnastics."

Is anyone watching Adams right now? Awesome.

Good letter from Jo Swinson in the Standard today asking for more coverage of women's sport - fir every 53 articles about men's sport there is one about women's, apparently.

Off to follow her on Twitter!

Adams was brilliant - and put her opponent on the canvas. Taylor's was a great win too after a tough bout. Such skilful boxing to watch. I was quite tearful watching Adams win the first ever women's boxing medal.

Me too. It was awesome. Nicola Adams seems such a lovely person too. It was great to see Amir Khan enthusing about her brilliance.

I reckon we need a mass tweet or email bombardment to the Beeb asking to keep up the coverage.. Surely they will want to capitalise on the newly addicted fanbase.