Uplifting Games for women

THE London 2012 Olympics carries a lot of positive messages for girls and women.

In fact, it may, more than any other major TV spectacle this year, be one of the most gender-positive TV moments of the year.

Right from Danny Boyle’s highly politicised history of Britain for the opening ceremony, a tone has been set. Shoe-horning in the Suffragettes was one thing, but beaming British TV’s first lesbian kiss (from Brookside in 1993) into the living rooms of countries where such acts are completely illegal and severely punishable was certainly a moment.

This has been a first for many of gender’s glass ceilings. London 2012 is the first time every single team has a woman in it. Wojdan Shaherkani (judo) and Sarar Attar (athletics) are the first Saudi female Olympians.

Attire is a small part of it too. Not only is women’s boxing in the Olympics, its competitors don’t have to wear skirts. And while it may seem like a very small victory, London 2012 is the first Olympics where women beach volleyball players have not had to wear bikinis.

Not that these small but significant moments have been hiccup-free. Bumbling London mayor Boris Johnson did manage to wax lyrical about the “semi-naked women playing beach volleyball” who, he added, were “glistening like wet otters”.

And there was a year of bruhaha with the boxing authorities to allow female boxers to avoid skirts. The supposed fear was that they would be indistinguishable from the men. Just why this was a concern is curious in itself.

Bikinis were still the clothes of choice on day one of the beach volleyball, when the theme music to Benny Hill accompanied the action. Really.

The reactions to some changes in the style and substance of womenathletes by the global public has been mixed. Wojdan Shaherkani’s father has robustly defended his daughter in the face of a barrage of criticism in the Arab world about the proper place for women in society.

Teenage British weightlifter Zoe Smith used her blog to issue a serious smackdown to the many men and some women criticising her unladylike appearance.

She said: “This may be shocking to you, but we actually would rather be attractive to people who aren’t closed-minded and ignorant. Crazy, eh?! We, as any women with an ounce of self-confidence would, prefer our men to be confident enough in themselves to not feel emasculated by the fact that we aren’t weak and feeble.

“And here’s some food for thought — maybe you should broaden your criteria for what you consider ‘attractive’ anyway, because these perfect, feminine women you speak of probably have no interest in you either.”

More broadly, and compared to most sports, men and women get more equal coverage in the Olympics. Along with tennis and gymnastics, track and field athletics is one of the few areas in sport where men and women almost get parity in TV coverage. And track and field is a core part of the Olympics.

Track and field, and the Olympics in general, show strong women working hard, women who are not especially or necessarily interested in their looks or in celebrity.

The coverage of women in track and field still doesn’t come near to the coverage afforded team sports. The major team sports, in TV coverage but not participation, are dominated by men. Soccer rules the time allotted to sports on all forms of media in the Western world. It is noteworthy that at a time when male identity is in a more vacillating, metrosexualised and challenged position, men-only gladiatorial displays have become more and more popular.

Rugby is rising in popularity globally — the Rugby World Cup now has one of the top global sports audiences. And rugby, in particular, has moved closer and closer to the Colosseum and the brutal male collision, and further from the game where impish scrum halves and barrel bellied props shared the field.

Increasingly, programmes like The X Factor, or what could be termed crying in front of millionaires and millions of people for fame and attention, has promoted style over substance. While not exclusively aimed at females, tween and teenage girls are sent a barrage of messages about anything other than skill, hard work, and endeavour.

For boys and girls, however, the Olympics certainly creates role models who work hard and deserve to be where they are based on this hard work.

This is not to ignore the hard questions of the message that victory through cheating, both through drugs and occasionally rule-breaking, sends out. Or of the residual elitism in sports such as polo and showjumping, the questionable use of resources in promoting such an event while much of the world, including Britain, is in recession. Or the irony of fast food companies such as McDonalds sponsoring a sports event.

But it is simply to say that, in a few significant ways, the London Olympics are certainly challenging some gender stereotypes.