Sportswear..question on behalf of dh

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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?

I'd love to see your dh ask Jade Jones that question

Half a minute's thought answers the question: fashion. In many sports there's a uniform - martial arts, eventing, football, most team sports. These are about tradition (I can spar just as well in leggings and t-shirt as my gi, but eh, why would you when there's all that history and pride attached to the white suit?), team cohesion, that sort of thing. Individual sports like running give more range for individual expression, and with the advance of technical fabrics, of course people are going to play about with expression and style. There's a fantastic but very obscure book which traces the evolution of Victorian bathing costumes through the development of man-made fabrics, and the shortages after the wars caused a real culture change in female dress of all kinds.

I'm actually seeing the reverse in swimming - women are turning up in swimsuit-fabric shorts and t-shirts which cover far more than the traditional one-piece suit or even tanking. To me they look impractical and ride up on the belly, but again, eh, if it gets women in the pool, so be it. I can see why anyone with body issues from fat to scarring, or modesty concerns, might make that choice, and more power to them. Likewise if you're more comfortable in less, so be it.

This question is a bit like asking if an intensive care nurse wears a uniform because she's trying to turn on her patients.
How does that help teach men to respect them for their athletic capability?
The drooling idiots probably don't have a fraction of these women's sporting ability for a start, so I dunno, perhaps they should consider that perhaps women are sentient beings and not everything they do is done for male approval.

I think the wording is actually along the lines of “adequate coverage of the chest area” - in particular front fastening tops must be fastened. I think most triathletes would understand that wording to be a prudish reference to nipples. Got no problem with nipples myself but there’s zero chance of not wearing a sports bra while running.

Also, what would be the alternative? The clothing would have to be tight fitting for athletics or else it would hinder motion, men would still be tugging themselves off if these women were wearing tight catsuits. Men sexualize women for whatever work they do - athlete, office worker, nurse, businesswoman etc etc it's a way for them to degrade an otherwise powerful woman and feel in control when faced with a woman who poses a threat to their manhood, so perhaps tell your dh to have a think about why he doesn't respect a woman who's dedicated her life to a sport to reach the pinnacle of athletic achievement simply because she's wearing short shorts.

Well pole dancing in its current form traces back to travelling circuses and the like.

Mallakhamba goes back to the 12th century and I’d say the more sporty/competitive side of pole dance holds as much, if not more in common with that form.

GemmeFatale I'm not an expert, but I do know that competitive dancing is more like gymnastics or using the trapeze and doesn't involve the kind of gyrating that you'd get in a strip club. I don't think it's a feminist act as 3rd wavers do, but I do think it can be quite beautiful at requires a lot of athletic ability.

By the way, I'm not saying your dh shouldn't find athletes sexy, but to undermine their sporting achievements and all they've worked for just because he gets a stiffy looking at what they're wearing just sounds like woman-hating.

On a final note, I'm sure the athletes don't give a f* if men sitting in their armchairs and wanking over their outfits respect them.

Women, on average, run with more hip abduction and internal rotation

What an awful, biology obsessed, thing to say.

Some people who are women run in that way, others don't. So what if not doing so gives an advantage? So what if the women who's hips are differently aligned have penises and more muscle mass? It's all just a quirk of biology and you can't discuss it or you're a Nazi.

And another thing....how is what he is saying any better than saying women who get a breast out to breastfeed in public are showing themselves off to men and therefore shouldn't be respected as mothers? In both cases women are doing what's required to get the job done, the male gaze has got nothing to do with it, and in fact the last thing you want in either situation.

Pole fitness is incredibly demanding. We wear stuff that shows skin for grip - some moves need side grip, most need leg grip and some need armpit grip. I'm constantly covered in bruises from the pole, it's painful and hard on your core

I think the OP is getting a bit of stick for asking the question. I presume she means ‘is this what athletes would wear if they could have an absolutely free choice’. And when you think that for, say, pop stars, I presume it isn’t, it is a valid question.

I wear a short top with my leggings to the gym purely because there are no long gym tops available.
I would prefer to cover my bum but the only gym like tops that do that are men's baggy T-shirt's and I want a fitted top so I can see my progress!

Answers like this make me wonder how feminist some of these posters are. Come on- they choose to and they don’t give a shit if men wank over them? Nice bit of neoliberalism there! It’s a good question and my guess is that it is part of the wider pattern of female athletes not being taken as seriously as male athletes and not being paid as much. It’s a form of degrading and devaluing them, in the same way that bars that stipulate ‘sexy’ uniforms and offices that insist on high heels do.

Oh and I presume her DH asked the question because he felt that female athletes were being degraded, not because he personally got a hard-on watching them

Sometimes it's mandated by the sport. I knew someone who played beach volleyball at international level. Iirc, there was a maximum size of knickers allowable for competition. She was not happy about it.

@Peakpants I can't talk for other sports like beach volleyball but in athletics they 100% do choose. All athletes could wear cycling shorts to their knees and vests in international competitions.

It’s not an outright free choice though is it? I am too tired to argue this but female athletes are continually undermined and devalued. See eg the reaction to certain tennis outfits. It’s more about the structural discrimination against women, which is why I never take ‘choice’ arguments that seriously.

Ok, I get your point with that. Not sure what the answer would be. Couldn't force them to wear more- taking away personal choice of what they wear seems counter productive. Lots of the cropped top wearing at the moment is about showing off muscles as having abs is very 'in'.

What about gymnastics? Don’t the women get judged on appearance as well as performance?

Peakpants
Answers like this make me wonder how feminist some of these posters are. Come on- they choose to and they don’t give a shit if men wank over them? Nice bit of neoliberalism there!
Not sure what point you're trying to make so aggressively here by attacking me and my calling out a victim-blaming mentality for being 'neoliberal'. Do you really think female athletes at the top of their game prioritise looking sexy over winning, and by your logic I'm therefore condoning them for that? You seem to have missed all the other points I made about wearing the best thing for the job and the male gaze not being your priority when taking part in sport, how annoying it is to have men perv at you when you are doing sport and their attention is the last thing you want. The question in the OP included 'How does that help teach men to respect them for their athletic capability?' - is it the female athlete's job to 'teach men' to respect them by dressing modestly?! Shouldn't they be respected anyway? Running in particular is going to be a lot easier in short shorts/pants because they won't chafe against the thighs - I know, I've run 3 half-marathons, which is a lot less than these professionals. I don't see it's the female athlete's responsibility to prevent men from having erections whilst they're doing their job. I would of course be against any kind of clothing that was being forced on women in order to sex-up sport for the titillation of men.

Answers like this make me wonder how feminist some of these posters are.
Such a pathetic thing to say and you're completely missing my point. I'm clearly not saying women should be allowed to dress sexy if they want to in sport, I'm saying it's the last thing on any professional athlete's mind when they're competing, and they should be respected for what they do regardless. But yeah, tear another woman down because she's got a different perspective to you, I'm clearly just saying athletes are just attention whores and choice is all that matters, my bad.

But please, do point out to me what I've said that is so 'neoliberal', I'm all for being reeducated so that I can one day be a proper feminist like yourself.

As for the OP's DH thinking the women were being degraded, that may be the case but if so the questions were phrased very badly, and they haven't come back to engage which means it may just be a plop.

cockblocker see my last post. You have spectacularly missed my point. Honestly too knackered to enter into full blown debate. Have a good evening.

Peakpants how convenient for you. As I've said, would love to hear your analysis of how my defending women's right to do sport in whatever helps them get the job done best is 'neoliberalism' some time.