The Impact of Clothing in Women's Sport
- genderandsport8
- Sep 19, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 27, 2018
Figure skating, gymnastics, beach volleyball, cheerleading. What do these sports have in common? All of them feature women in revealing clothing. The athletes wear tight-fitting clothing, often showing a lot of skin. Sometimes this is beneficial to athletic performance, however that is not always the case. How does clothing fit into women’s sport today, and are regulations regarding women’s clothing in favour of athletic performance?
Let’s start by looking at performance sports, such as figure skating and gymnastics. These sports have a grading component that is based on how the athlete looks when they are performing. Clothing and costumes can have a significant impact on this.
In figure skating, costumes often reflect the style of music and the story the athlete is attempting to portray to the audience and judges. For example, the image above shows Canadian figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond in her costume for her “Black Swan” performance. The costume added to the presentation aspect of Osmond’s skating.
In 1998, Katarina Witt’s costume (seen above) was considered too revealing. This resulted in the creation of an official dress code, sometimes referred to as the “Katarina Rule” that required women to wear “a skirt covering hips and posterior”.
Although the International Skating Union dropped the rule in 2003, rules regulating what women can and can’t wear still exist today. Very recently, at the French Open tennis competition, the dress code was changed as a result of tennis player Serena Williams’s “catsuit-like” attire. According to Williams, the outfit was chosen to prevent blood clots. Rather than focusing on the health benefits that the clothing had to the athlete, officials criticized her appearance, resulting in the ban. The French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli said that the bodysuit worn by Williams did not “respect the game and the place”. Personally, I do not see how wearing athletic clothing that aids in health and performance is disrespectful.
Alternatively, the London 2012 Olympics encouraged female athletes to dress provocatively in an attempt to increase viewership. Female boxers were encouraged to wear skirts, and a regulation was implemented making it mandatory that female badminton players wear skirts when competing. These regulations and suggestions show the continued sexism in modern sport, and the belief that female athletes cannot attract viewership based on their athletic ability alone, and must rely on their bodies.
You might be wondering, why does this matter? Well, the way the media portrays professional female athletes affects young girls and women. Based on a study comparing different types of female athletes, female athletes in aesthetic based sports such as figure skating and gymnastics have a higher risk of developing the “Female Athlete Triad”, and are more likely to be underweight. The Female Athlete Triad consists of amenorrhea (loss of menstruation), lower bone density, and eating disorders. The choice in clothing, the aesthetic aspect, and focus on appearance in these sports causes young female athletes to develop the Female Athlete Triad. Modern media portrayal of female athletes reinforces the idea that to be a successful professional athlete, women must be sexually appealing when performing. If they are not, they will not receive air-time or sponsorships. Sport governing bodies do nothing to help this situation, as their sexist regulations reinforce the notion that people care more about what the athlete is wearing than their athletic ability.
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