Retro Hoyden: “Feisty Olympians defy the odds”
Despite being born with the use of both legs, many of these bipedal athletes inspire us with their commitment and guts. Having typically learned to walk around the age of one, these amazing Olympians don’t let their lurching two-phase locomotion hold them back. Thought they may look unwieldy to the naive eye, as viewers their movements soon look natural to us. We can see their grace and nimbleness shine through.
Friday Hoyden: Katie Taylor
Katie Taylor, of the Republic of Ireland, just won a gold medal in the 60kg lightweight division of the first women’s boxing competition to be held at the Olympics.
Friday Hoyden, Olympic edition: Gillian Rolton
It’s Olympics time and again, we learn the names of athletes who we never hear of at other times. As a nation we’re obsessed with swimmers and runners and ball sports, but our equestrians kick serious butt. We see horse racing on TV all the time, but rarely 3DE. It’s a brutal, testing sport needing [...]
London Olympics 2012: “Sexy” women’s volleyball and basketball uniforms updated at last
Some of you oldie Hoydens might remember my 2008 post on Australian Olympics uniforms, Women still the sex class in international elite sports. I thought I’d do a bit of an update on gender and our Aussie uniforms for the 2012 Olympics. And – how often does this happen? – things have actually changed for the better, at least in two sports!
Most notably, the regulations dictating that all women playing beach volleyball must wear teeny-tiny bikinis has changed. Female beach volleyball players will now have the choice of wearing shorts or bikini bottoms. This change ostensibly took place to enable the participation of more women from countries and cultures which restrict the amount of skin women may show, which is great; it also allows women from other cultures the opportunity to cover up a little more should they so desire.
Fire in the frost: Feisty Olympians defy the odds
As the opening quarter of 2010 draws to a close, we look back on what I believe is the one of the highlights of the year: the Winter Olympics in February. In this event, a whole different kind of athletic competitor took to Vancouver slopes to show the world what they could do. This two-week [...]
Quickhit: Icedancers with a new twist on blackface.
Via baby_elvis, this ice-dancing routine. From the news: Russian world ice-skating champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin have danced around the controversy surrounding their Aboriginal-themed routine, insisting they will still use it at the Winter Olympics. Aboriginal elders say the pair’s two-and-a-half minute routine causes serious cultural offence. But Domnina and Shabalin, favourites to win [...]
Quickhit: protests and arrests in Minneapolis St. Paul stifle legitimate dissent
If it wasn’t for blogs I would hardly have heard that nearly 300 people have been arrested while protesting the Iraq war and the Republican convention over the last few days. The city centres have been heavily militarised with large squads of police in full riot gear. There were even raids on houses where known [...]
Fourth Down Under Feminists Carnival is up at Blue Milk
The wonderful Blue Milk has just published the Fourth Down Under Feminists Carnival, and a bloody marvellous effort it is too. (And four days ahead of deadline, what’s with that?) There’s a whole lot of Olympics, a whole lot of reproductive justice, and a fair bit of everything else. Enjoy. Being the first of the [...]
Saturday Links: “Ethnic” Food, Mother-Blaming, and more on sexy sports uniforms
Hoydenizen Vegan About Town has a terrific post up: “talking about things to eat (or: how the words people use to describe food make me feel like a freak)“. An excerpt:
I read Jay Rayner’s attempt at a week of veganism, where he suggests that “ethnic is the default position for the vegan.” I bet he uses ‘exotic’ ingredients in his cooking, too. I have an ethnicity; we all have ethnicities: the fact that the food I grew up with is easier to veganise than the stuff he ate as a child doesn’t make me ‘ethnic,’ it makes me Chinese. Using these words trivializes the decision I have made to be vegan, and it others my family and my whole freaking life, because using words like that aren’t just saying that I’m ‘different,’ they’re saying that I’m ‘other.’ And he is not alone in this, many people are guilty of this all the time. That you’re trying something you’ve never before heard of doesn’t make it ‘exotic,’ it makes it new to you.
But why are women so worried about their looks?
I took a lot of flak in a recent discussion elsewhere for suggesting that women who have cosmetic enhancement surgery might be responding to just a little bit more than their own psychological insecurities about attracting a mate – that there might actually be some much larger social issues about why women choose to be surgically enhanced i.e. that it’s not just about getting sex, even if the surgery they are having is aimed at increasing their sexual appeal (by certain widely acknowledged to be fucked up standards).
Here’s just one high-profile example of how women are trained from a very young age to believe that their looks matter more than anything else about them, not just when it comes to finding a sexual partner, but also in terms of recognition and reward in other aspects of life:
Women still the sex class in international elite sports
This photo is what passes for sports journalism at the Sydney Morning Herald nowadays. I did not crop this photo; the Herald did.
WWTTMD?
What would Tiananmen Tank Man Do?
I don’t think he’d watch the Olympics. Of course I can’t know this, because we don’t know who he was, whether he is still alive, or whether he would actually be an enormous fan of the Olympics right now.
Still, I am not watching these Olympics, simply because I can’t square my conscience with supporting the regime’s propaganda exercise.
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