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?

Dammit all this working for a living is interfering with my Olympic enjoyment. Can't wait to get home and catchup!

Gutted Jess and VP out. Well harsh Vicky being very philosophical about it but I bet she's gutted inside.

I feel sorry for them. Pendleton has apologised and after watching the documentary about her...I don't know, she kept saying how she just wants to make people happy and she feels so bad and guilty if she loses. So she must be gutted, how horrible for her.

They were doing so well too.

Oooh, I've been burning to come on this thread and have had to avoid it until now! I don't have TV so have to watch on the catch-up later ... I was really enjoying the Judo.

Of course it was lovely to see Gemma Gibbons win - and to hear about her mum supporting her so much (esp. since it's not a typically 'feminine' sport, you know?).

And I agree last and yellow, I was a little teary about Kayla Harrison, coming through all that to get gold! She truly deserved it.

I also really liked that of the women who were losing, Joo fought and won a match despite being injured, and I thought the women she beat was very honourable and really deserved a lot of respect, since it was clear she didn't want to kick at the other woman's injured leg. I thought that was very praiseworthy. And I thought the French woman who fought again after such a short time, and who was then so upset - I felt for her, but she really showed how much endurance there was in her body.

So overall I thought it was wonderful to watch and really showed what women can do.

And I loved the hug between the two finalists - nice gesture!

(Oh, and if we have to have negatives, again, what on earth is with the commentator repeatedly referring to 'girls'? I bet any one of those 'girls' could smash him onto the mat within a second!)

What a palava in the cycling, eh? I felt so sorry for the Chinese pair. I mean it was so marginal the overlap, I could barely see it...

LRD make sure you catch up on the individual female gymnast. It was just unbelievable and a real nail-biter at the end. The right person won, IMO, she was pretty flawless.

Oh, just reading about Kayla Harrison's past. I'm so glad then that she came through all that crap to win gold and that there are actually decent people like the Pedros who gave her the support she needed.

I've not seen the cycling ... DH is just home to watch the judo (and, erm, his president ... apparently, Boris Johnson wishes Putin to strip off and join in, which I can only describe as a thoroughly feminist-friendly statement of acceptance of homoeroticism tutored in our finest public schools ...).

But I will certainly watch the gymnasts ... I have a sense of who I think will win but I'm keeping off media as much as I can - I only sneaked back on MN because I was so excited about so many great women in the judo.

Cross posted, but yes, Pedros sounds like a very big positive, she credited him with saving her life, which suggests he is a pretty great person.

Those costumes worn by the volleyball players--it was reported that the women don't have to play in bikinis, and they have the option of more coverage. So what have the players actually been wearing?

I thought this posting about costumes worn by Australians was interesting:
hoydenabouttown.com/20120728.12078/london-olympics-2012-how-have-mens-and-womens-uniforms-changed/

Knee-length shorts seem unnecessarily modest, though. The basketball clothing isn't much improvement versus the older painted-on style.

And a negative: blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100174361/womens-judo-its-disturbing-to-watch-these-girls-beat-each-other-up/

Clue: if you realize something might sound appallingly sexist, it probably is. So you should probably shut up.

LRD, that is a horrible article. What the HELL?

Oh won't someone stop them battering each others soft limbs?!

SOFT LIMBS? What the hell? Last time I checked my (relatively puny) limbs were pretty stable, not made of jelly.

To counter the Telegraph, a lovely article about Clare Balding in the Guardian that focuses solely on her skills and not the fact that she's a woman.

I saw that - lovely article!

yellow, have you seen annie's thread on this in discussions of the day?

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but I noticed the other day that of the two commentators, there was a young, conventionally good looking bloke who had his top few buttons done up on his shirt, and a woman who was not unattractive, but not overly "sexy", a little bit older, dressed more conservatively, etc. (Apologies as I don't know the names!)

A minor thing but nice to see the usual trope reversed!

Anyone else see Newsnight tonight? Chris Boardman was on and he and Emily Maitliss were discussing how the balance in track cycling has been better at this Games than any previously, in terms of the number of different events for men and for women. He pointed out that road cycling is some way behind both in terms of variety of events for women (far fewer than men) and in terms of distances covered, the women's races tend to be much shorter.

I thought it was really positive to see that a) this games is an improvement, and also b) good to see the issue being raised in a mainstream discussion about cycling rather than as done kind of niche issue.

Wouldn't have been aware of shitty shabby Telegraph article if it wasn't for MN - but am delighted with vitriol and scorn deservingly poured upon it by trustee MNers and hope Telegraph eds take note... and to you Annie - and you and you and yoo-hoou FWR MNers

Another thing I thought of this morning. Seeing all sports being referred to as gendered.

Men's football, women's football, women's 200m, men's 200m.

So often we see "rugby" and "women's rugby" for example. It's good to see equal opportunities naming!

What was Kayla Harrison's story? I had tears in my eyes when I saw Gemma Gibbons look up to heaven and say "Thank you mum".

I came back on to the thread just to say "Claire Balding!!" but notice that it's already been said. I love that she's able to be herself - enthusiastic, knowledgeable and articulate - without having to conform to any female stereotypes in appearance or behaviour. She gets much better mileage out of Ian Thorpe (another star) than Gary Lineker does.

Actually - GL is a bit of a negative. He does the larky laddish thing that he does on MOTD with the other pundits, and it just doesn't play well. He started off by treating the whole thing as a complete joke which undermines the massive efforts that all the athletes are making. Trouble is, he only presents the football normally, so I imagine it's quite easy to be cynical about sportsmen if that's all you know. I think he's improving as time goes on though.

But some of the other male presenters are good - I like Jake Humphries and Matt Baker at the gymnastics - they're much less likely (as someone said) to make distinctions between the achievements of the women and those of the men. Could be a generational thing - I hope so.

treats - as I understand it, Kayla's first coach sexually abused her. He went to prison for ten years. They said she thought about suicide, but she claims her current coach saved her life and he seemed very proud of her. I think she must be incredibly strong.

yellow - good point, I'd not registered that!

I'd noticed that too yellow and they are very consistent about it too.

I've heard a few commentators refer to "gymnastics" and then "women's gymnastics" (for example) but it's certainly getting better re awareness that there are actually two equal genders competing in most events.

DD1 is 4 and really into the Olympics - she's much more interested in women's events than the men's, and it's wonderful that there is always something relevant to show her. Mind you she has a very fat lip today after hitting her mouth on her knee doing some daring jump (gymnastics inspired) at the South Bank yesterday.

Such an uplifting story about Kayla Harrison - amazing inspirational person.

Excited to see how today will unfold.

Hurray for Katherine Grainger! And brilliant the amount of fuss they have made about her - definitely no sidelining of the women in the rowing.

Good to see Jess Ennis getting of to a good start. Is it traditional that heptatlon starts first? Either way it is nice to see women starting the athletics off.

That was a fantastic story, wasn't it? How many athletes compete in 4 successive Olympics?

(apart from Sir Steve with his 5 golds from 5 games, of course)

That's awful about Kayla Harrison - I'm so glad she got her gold medal.....

Me too treats. I couldn't help rooting for her (well, both of them if that's not a contradiction).

I have just realized that Wojdan Shaherkani, the Saudi competitor in Judo, is only 16. Wow! Lots of courage, there.