German gymnastics team, tired of 'sexualisation,' wears unitards at Tokyo Olympics

[believer123]

@acer621 I remember being in high school tennis and being forced to wear tennis skirts for competition. I hated it so much I quit the sport. I'm glad that there are people taking on the issue of why women's sports uniforms are so revealing in so many cases, and why there are no alternatives offered that provide more coverage. But I also wonder why it took so long.

 

[kauri]

@acer621 My “thing” is volleyball. I loved at the Rio olympics how they opened up the uniform options, and more countries sent women to compete. For example, the Egyptian team who had one beach volleyball member who was muslim and wore an athletic hair covering. Previous and later Olympics don’t have that option, and women from strictly Muslim backgrounds/countries aren’t even in the qualifying process, much less the games.

If the Olympics are supposed to be showing off the best the world, they have to be more inclusive. Let athletes show their thighs or not depending on their preferences, and let’s have a fair battle including ALL the athletes.

 

[jimvincible]

@acer621 good. I've been watching skateboarding, table tennis, football and basketball today, and, strangely, all women were wearing similar clothes to the ones that men have. it's almost like competing in a bikini isn't necessary looking especially at you, volleyball

 

[andreamk0713]

@jimvincible This is one of the reasons why I like winter Olympics. Everyone just wear the same clothing. Sometimes you cant even see the gender of snowboarders.

Winter Olympics for the equality.

Minus the ice skaters but those people are just crazy brave. I mean doing that on hard ice while wearing that with two sharp blades attached to your feet, mad respect.

Good on the girls here. Wear leotards, wear proper clothes for the athletics. Plus these looked amazing in design.

 

[johnnys1983]

@jimvincible I loved looking at the outfits the women and men were wearing in skateboarding. So interesting!

 

[alistair_wonderland]

@johnnys1983 I was obsessed with some of their shirts! They looked cool.

 

[enochwalkd]

@alistair_wonderland Designed by Piet Parra! One of my favourite artists:

https://hypebeast.com/2021/6/nike-s...ms-usa-japan-brazil-france-parra-release-info

 

[johnnys1983]

@alistair_wonderland Yes! I loved the shirts some of the Japanese skaters were wearing

 

[dawn16]

@johnnys1983 Yep, I was particularly interested in the shoes. Must be a big choice for them since it would have a big effect on grip, flexibility, whatever. I know nothing about skateboarding so this has been fascinating!

 

[andreamk0713]

@dawn16 Vans! Skateboard or surfing clothes have mad history. Vans shoes because they are flat rubber soles so they had a great grip. They were at the beginning of skating as a sport and used the Z boys to help them design shoes.

Sufers invented clothing with spf to protect themselves from the sun. And so.

 

[enochwalkd]

@andreamk0713 Not all of them were Vans! Nyjah had his signature shoes on, saw a bunch of Janoski slip-on, Adidas Tyshawn, and more.

 

[andreamk0713]

@enochwalkd Oh definitely I agree, vans were the only ones I remembered at the moment. They have a great history of their clothing evolving with them.

 

[johnnys1983]

@dawn16 Agreed! So fascinating to watch, I think it's my new favorite event!

 

[ampman54]

@dawn16 agree! the style choices made the event even more interesting

 

[shh]

@acer621 First of all, I love those and think they're long overdue, in a lot of sports.

Second, the irony that this article was listed under "Related Stories" is so strong - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07...chless-told-sprint-briefs-too-short/100306402

 

[dawn16]

@awc1300 You're absolutely that right we shouldn't have to cover up to avoid these problems. Clothing does not invite assault and it's insulting to the women to tell them so.

I think the stance here is more about choice than the actual uniform itself.

These athletes should have the choice to wear unitards over leotards, or the women's volleyball have the choice to wear shorts instead of bikinis. They're fighting against being forced to wear revealing uniforms when competing when it should be their choice.

 

[acer621]

@awc1300 You thought I was victim blaming the gymnasts?

Really, that is quite a reach.

My point, as should have been desperately obvious when coming from the head mod of this sub who has posted frequently (both here and here) about the absolutely appalling nature of the crimes against gymnasts both in the US and in Australia, was that gymnasts might like to wear an outfit that doesn't so blatantly sexualise them when half of them are still children.

For goodness sake, I can't believe you read that as victim blaming.

 

[rahnjoseph300]

@awc1300 I get where you're coming from. I read it more as "these women are pushing back against the sexualization baked into the sport" rather than as victim blaming. It seemed to lay blame onto the industry at large, of which Nassar was a part.

 

[awc1300]

@rahnjoseph300 I would disagree that sexualization is baked into a sport invented to be played only by men in Ancient Greece

 

[prophetjack]

@awc1300 You do realize that the Ancient Greek athletes competed naked, that men having sex with each other was completely normal in Ancient Greece, that women were forbidden from going to the games as the audience, that modern women's gymnastics is quite different than the ancient Greek sport that men did, even having a number of completely different events, and that you don't have to go back to a sport's origins in order to make generalizations about how it is regarded 2500 years later?