Sportswear..question on behalf of dh

[MIdgebabe]

Why do female athletes wear crop tops and extra short shorts? Surely if there was a performance issue, men would dress the same. Is it just to encourage Male fans to ogle women’s bodies? How does that help teach men to respect them for their athletic capability?

Dunno and I have two elite female athletes in my family!

I recall that Kelly Holmes said, during (or just after) Athens 2004 that she couldn't be doing with the tiny knickers and asked for proper shorts.

Kind of agree. The only equivalent is diving and there at least one is looking at form.

Women, on average, run with more hip abduction and internal rotation so fabric over the outside of the upper leg would generate more friction than in men (it could be made looser but that would be less aerodynamic). The pelvis also rotates and translates more than men so a top that ends lower down on the body would be more challenging to engineer to maintain its tension without rubbing or increasing effort. It could perhaps be brought down to just above the navel but that design seems a little strange to me.

Annoyingly, the above factors also constitute part of why women are more susceptible to injury during running.

Your husband asked you or he asked you to ask a group of fe,minist about athletes "trying to be sexy"?

Being the furthest thing from an athlete I would hazard a guess that a shirt that was designed to accommodate breasts would be loose and annoying on the rest of the body of a woman with basically 0 percent fat.

I don't think there is anything sexy about male or female athletes at the top engaged in their sports. Covered in sweat, gurning.

ALSO thigh gap is less to do with fat than to do with women's physical bodies. I'm not sure that wearing loose shorts would work the same on a woman's frame .

I wear my cropped top/sports bra in the gym simply because when working at a high intensity I get incredibly hot and keeping a t-shirt on slows me down. I've also run half-marathons and with the wrong shorts you get a lot of chafing. That said, why shouldn't they show off their physiques if they want to? It doesn't have to be sexual or to attract men, it's showing the results of all their hard work. The last thing I want to do when I'm lifting weights is be followed around and perved at, which does happen, but I'll wear what feels most comfortable for the task at hand.

Because they want to? Why not? They have any bits that might be deemed as inappropriate covered.

They get to choose what they wear in championships, for example Holly Bradshaw tends to wear cycling shorts and vest as did Goldie Sayers when she was throwing. I think Eilidh Doyle usually wears cycling shorts as well. They get to choose between vest, cropped top, knicker shorts, short cycling shorts, long cycling shorts or the baggy 'running' shorts. They used to offer the Lycra all in one (ones like a swimming costume Sally Gunnell used to wear and ones with longer shorts) but unsure if they still have those.

I can't believe you'd actually ask this question, I can assure you any woman who had trained her whole life to get to the top of her game doesn't give a f* about men ogling her, it will be the last thing she is thinking about when competing, and if anything it's a massive annoyance.

Maybe in the case of the shorts it's more that blokes really need a bit more coverage, 'budgie smugglers' wouldn't be a good look on track or field.

Beach volleyball though...

I'll give you beach volleyball. But that is more explicit and you'd get them advertising beer and stuff back in the day. It's very much a sport in the way pole dancing is a sport.

An athletic woman will still have around 10% more body fat than an athletic man, fat is insulating, different anatomy also means different clothing needs. I'm really f*ing annoyed at this question, I'm a gym regular but I get ogled as though I'm putting on some sort of pornified performance rather than lifting as heavy as I can and doing something empowering for myself after a long day at work, men really think it's all about them, don't they?

It's very much a sport in the way pole dancing is a sport.

That seems very dismissive to the athletes who work very hard to compete. The use of a sand court adds a unique dynamic to the game, allowing for more aggressive dives as well as reducing the competitive edge offered by raw speed.

Gronky I agree, and I imagine getting sand down your top/shorts would be completely impractical.

That seems very dismissive to the athletes who work very hard to compete.

Pole dancing is also physically quite demanding, I assume I've got the grace and coordination of a drunk hippo but it doesn't' change the fact that it has been sexualised for men.

I thought I remembered right that Jon Brown had a cropped vest at the Sydney and Athens Olympics. Didn't catch on though.

If I were younger I’d do the crop top thing. My running bra has 2 layers of man made fabric and it doesn’t half get hot in the summer... just running in the bra would be more comfortable. And I read Paula Radcliffe saying she had a poo in her knickers during one race and from the discussions she had it wasn’t obvious to others. Maybe tight elastic pants have better poo holding properties!

dangermouseisace you should do the crop top thing anyway, f* anyone else.

Getting caught short is a real concern for serious runners isn't? I don't think I could ever do a job that meant I could risk shitting myself in front of millions of people.

That's another point, if you're wearing a sports bra (as you must) and a t-shirt then you're wearing an extra layer compared to the men, and a close fitting synthetic fabric one too. Even tops that have an incorporated bra still have an extra layer for support.

I wear fairly short shorts and vest (not cropped though) as like a pp I tend to get very, very hot whilst exercising - to the point that this is what I was comfortable running in during 8 degree torrential rain earlier this week. 🤷‍♀️ I do worry a bit that people think I’m after attention (couldn’t be further from the truth) , which is ridiculous and sad as I’m sure a man wouldn’t think the same.

There’s a rule in triathlon events that nobody can show their nipples - it’s led to disqualification when male athletes unzip their cycling/running tops in hot conditions. Some have got round this by wearing a cropped bra-like top.

There’s a rule in triathlon events that nobody can show their nipples

I'm glad it extends to both sexes but is there a reason for this bit of victorian fear of nipples?

it doesn't' change the fact that it has been sexualised for men

That seems like a rather disingenuous comparison considering pole dancing was conceived for titillation. Criticising or dismissing the sport (or, worse, the athletes) itself because it's been sexualised places the blame on women.