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?

Yes - and they way women atheletes have become so normal to see on TV, that has been amazing.

I am wondering if it'll carry on, and if we'll find there's a demand to show more of women's sports after the olympics too? I hope so.

I hope so too, LRD. I can actually feel myself being less pissed off about my own body and less (internally) critical of other women because I've hardly read any horrible comments about other women and have heard loads of positives.

I would love to see more women's (and men's) cycling and athletics on TV. All we ever get is men's football with the occasional bit of rugby chucked in. It's boring and it's all about men.

Roll on the Commonwealth Games!

Yes, it's fascinating - I think just seeing such a range of healthy women's bodies has a genuine, low-level effect, doesn't it?

OTOH it makes me notice how much otherwise we see men as default.

I would like to see more women in things like panel shows - other areas where women aren't represented so much. I've got used to there being one women, maybe once in a blue moon two - I'd love to see something where there's a 50/50 distribution, or more, just happening without a lot of comment.

LRD, here's something on that:

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/12/olympic-legacy-labour-burnham

Thanks! I will go look.

That is a worry generally, not just with women, that the good intentions towards promoting sport will wither away.

I hope not LeeCoakley. I am starting teacher training this year (Primary) and I am intending to get much more into sport so that I can do well in this aspect. I want to encourage people, but especially young girls, to get into sport.

Andy Burnham is a good egg. I think he's spoken out in favour of feminist issues in sport before.

The South Korean fencer. That was an utter shambles and I felt so desperately sorry for her. The committee then said they'd give her a special medal. Still didn't say sorry though.

Positive: all the Daily Telegraph's sports writers (a paper not known for feminist credentials!) when asked who the best BBC commentator/presenter was, said Clare Balding.

Negative: v male dominated closing ceremony...and women obviously over-rep'd in the flesh department - yawn...

Negative: ENTIRE CLOSING CEREMONY...

Oh really? :( Haven't seen it yet. That's a real pity, it's not something I noticed in the Opening Ceremony.

Jessie J dressed like a vajazzle

I agree with him actually.....

The closing ceremony was, in feminist terms, indeed a complete volte face of Danny Boyle's opener, which was a shame. Very "male gaze" orientated. Things which I noticed included...

A high number of male dominated acts compared to female ones
A large chunk (though not ALL) of the female acts/backing singers and dancers that we did have being pretty scantily clad (most noticeable in Jessie J standing in a nude leotard next to Taio Cruz and Tinie Tempah in suits, and again, when she sang with Brian May, in a DIFFERENT outfit that made her look prety much naked)
That we only had female angels in their underwear with burgeoning cleavage for Eric idle's number
An entire section devoted to fashion, with numerous female supermodels in dresses, with one token bloke (again, in a suit!) thrown in - a totally different physical "ideal" than the one promoted and welcomed throughout the Games

There's probably more, but i've blanked it :)

Know that Mr Boyle had nothing to do with this one, but I would love to know who decided on all this...

I agree - a complete contrast to the tone of the preceding two weeks. It's as though it was decided "Ok women, you've had your empowering fun, now you remember your real place please. You are ornaments, not sporting achievers."

I thought the Brazilian bit was the worst...one step forward, 2 back.

Brazil is an INCREDIBLY macho society.

the next Olympics will be interesting. Hopefully they will do good for the women of Brazil.

Am glad that others agree with me. Just when you get your hopes up then it just goes back to more of the same .....

I mean, how can anyone watch Jessie J in a nude leotard with heels she has to toddle around on next to 2 fully clothed men and not notice something is wrong...

Ariel, I hope you're right re. Brazil although I'm not so sure. From what I've been told by my Brazilian friends the idea that a woman gets her power from her sexual attractiveness is pretty entrenched.

I have been to Rio, and other places in Brazil, and as a youngish woman (even a slightly dishevelled looking backpacker) you are apt to get catcalled in Portuguese/wolfwhistled on a regular basis, unlike in the UK. The way females are portrayed in the media will make you want to bang your head against the wall, though that is in no way singular to Brazil! Macho is the word, and behaviour like this almost suggests that some women have chosen to welcome it (as you say, proof of sexual attractiveness as being power) rather than look for recognition elsewhere, though again, this is not just a Brazilian thing. Odd, though perhaps not wholly unexpected, in such a supposedly Catholic society.

I am also curious to see how it all pans out in 2016. Perhaps this time, we'll have a Carnaval that involves scantily clad men to go with the women, and said women will be a slightly more diverse range of shapes and sizes - if that somehow counts as progress to the patriarchs?!

How can I MAKE my (D)H agree with me on on this! He really doesn't seem to see a problem!

On the whole the olympic games were great, but the closing ceremony was dire, for all the reasons everyone has stated.

I thought it was really striking that the volunteers who were honoured were all different ages, sizes, ethnic backgrounds, sexes, but the flag carriers (at the opening and closing) all had to be decorative looking young women, who looked like they'd been sourced from a model agency.

I think it is fair enough if most of the nurses dancing in the GOSH section were women, as that is representative of nursing. But why could they not have had an equal opportunity approach to the flag carriers and escorts as being all kinds of people - not women chosen for their decorativeness.

I noticed that about the flag/sign bearers that accompanied each country too - though, for what it's worth, they seemed to be slightly more "respectably" dressed in the opening ceremony.

I have nothing against having attractive people on TV. Note the word "people". If whoever produced it had chosen to have conventionally beautiful people only in this role (which is a whole other argument in itself), why on earth no men? If they had, for example, had no non-white people there, there would have been an outcry.