Paper #3

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Amanda Saber

Professor Hearn

EWRT 2

12.5.2012

Gold versus Glam

The petite gymnast dons on her leotard bedazzled with rhinestones and glitter. Carefully she pulls

her hair taut into an elegant ‘ballerina’ bun and uses glitter infused hairspray to hold of stray hair in

place. Next is the careful makeup artistry as she paints on her game face: slightly rosy cheeks and hints of

sparkly pink rim her eyes. Flashing her million dollar smile, the finished effect is the appearance of a

graceful, fragile doll-like girl. Across the Olympic Village, the tall and almost gangly swimmer prepares

for her race. She squeezes into her compression suit, designed to make every part of her, especially her

breasts, as compact as possible. Her hair is tied in a messy bun, stuffed into the silicone cap. Dark-tinted

goggles are placed over her eyes and she sets her face into one of concentration; there will be no smiles

until after her race. She looks fierce and intimidating.

Two athletes, a gymnast and a swimmer, are showcased as they are preparing for the pinnacle of

their athletic careers: the Olympics. While the depiction is broad and overly generalized, it is still a rather

accurate juxtaposition between the two sports. Both sports are similar in the way they are competed:

while athletes are part of a team, they compete both against their team members and athletes from

opposing teams, a characteristic unique to only several sports. And although both sports take extreme

athletic ability and skill to succeed at the high level: the athletes themselves are portrayed in stark contrast

to each other. While gymnastics facilitates an environment where the best athletes are able to mask

athletic prowess behind elegance, successful female swimmers are place higher regard on strength over

grace; yet because of existing stigma, athletes from both sports struggle to find the balance between

athleticism and retaining their feminine identity.

Defying the rules of seemingly normal athletic apparel, gymnasts look more appropriately

dressed for a fashion show than a sporting event. While there are some limits on the cut to prevent

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extremely scandalous leotards, athletes are encouraged to compete in glittery, glam costumes, with no

limit on the amount of bedazzling. Apart from the leotard, female gymnasts exude femininity through

their makeup, which looks more appropriate for a party than the Olympics. All gymnasts are

encouraged—expected—to cake on ostentatious makeup, especially the perfectly rosy cheeks, making the

gymnasts resemble China dolls; dolls that are fragile in nature. By utilizing a dress code where glitter is a

necessity, gymnastics makes sure that its athletes always look like they are en route to a party, even when

they are doing flips in the air. As long as the gymnast looks like a doll, there is no questioning the

athlete’s femininity. By hiding the strength needed to perform the routines behind sequins, gymnastics

effectively creates the allusion that a successful gymnast exhibits absolutely no masculine “strong” traits.

Gymnastics has been cited for cultivating a sport where females cannot just be small statured, but

looking kid-sized is a must for success. On a basic level, small size does have the advantage in

gymnastics; it would be physically difficult for a 6 foot individual to do a tumbling pass where they had

to catapult their head over heels multiple times. But beyond the laws of physics, it is very apparent that

gymnastics prefers lithe athletes possessing the sough after ‘international look,’ the lithe, rail thin, tiny

girl. The emphasis on the little girl is highlighted by the age range of top gymnasts. Many of the best are

between the ages of 14-18; the age range where the athlete’s body has not completely developed, and thus

the athletes still resemble a stick. It seems strange that gymnastics would prefer the stick-thin little girl

body (a spitting image to a skinny little boy body) to a curvy ‘womanly’ figure, especially because

gymnastic promotes femininity. However the tiny stature completely hides any muscle definition or other

athletic markers, once again bringing to mind a fragile little girl with doll-like features. If an athlete is

able to successfully hide her muscles, then it is almost certain that she will avoid any attack that she is too

masculine. Thus, by showcasing the athletes as fragile, gymnastics is able to present its stars as being

ultra feminine.

For the gymnasts who are slightly taller, there is a tradeoff that clearly exemplifies the need to be

feminine. A small gymnast, already established by her size to be feminine, can be a power gymnast. This

means that her routines are centralized on her exceptional strength, with technical expertise

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overshadowing grace. By comparison, the taller gymnast typically opts to perform in the artistic style,

giving higher importance to incorporating ballet moves and long lines in her routine. The tall gymnast

must highlight her elegance and beauty in her routines, ensuring that her femininity is unquestionable. If

the tall gymnast does not make such concessions, she blatantly exhibits her strength—completely

unacceptable—resulting in a brash performance lacking enough feminine qualities. As Linda Nochlin

articulates, this act of defiance against the principles of femininity cannot go unnoticed, and “[w]oman

will be punished for not being good girls…strong-willed behavior is obviously wrong, and punishment is

the “not surprising” outcome,” with such ‘rule-breakers’ given lower scores (par. 34-35). The 2008

Beijing matchup between powerhouse Shawn Johnson and elegant Nastia Liukin exemplified this

tradeoff. Shawn, an athletically built gymnast stands at just 4’9”, while her counterpart Nastia, towers at

5’3”. Nastia won the battle in Beijing for individual all around, a medal that many suspect was actually a

result of her ballerina like physique—the international look preferred to Shawn’s stockiness—and not her

gymnastic abilities. In the months ensuing, there were many news pieces focusing on either Shawn being

underscored or Nastia being over scored simply because of body type. Of course, this is nothing new.

Gymnastics has long time been notorious for placing such astounding emphasis on the body size of the

athletes, and specifically rewarding the athletes who conform to the ideal body type. Perhaps gymnastics

is slowly starting to shift emphasis onto the actual skill of the gymnast, as the London 2012 Olympics was

the first time that the gymnast’s height and weight were not publically announced before her routine.

With the full body technical suits, hair covered by a cap, and the face masked by goggles, male

and female swimmers looked identical from a distance. While this no longer applies due to the new suit

regulations, banning full body suits for males, for a period of several years, a casual observer would not

be able to tell the difference between a male and female swimmer. This is largely due to the height, broad

shoulders and built body of many professional female swimmers. Add to the mix the compression suits

which make the breasts of female swimmers nonexistent and there are no discerning features in body

stature to differentiate the two athletes. Clearly this is overly simple, as any spectator standing near the

pool would immediately recognize the differences. However while a brief glance at a male and female

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gymnast would cause absolutely no hesitation in determining who is who, it is not quite as easy to

distinguish males and female swimmers in the same situation. The similar stature has caused many

extremely successful swimmers to be considered non-girly by the media. Female swimmers are labeled as

being lanky, muscular, and freakishly tall, and some go as far as to state that their butch bodies are

undesirable, suggesting and wholly unattractive. This negative labeling has caused many swimmers to go

through extreme lengths to prove that despite having broad shoulders they still can look like a woman.

Several years ago, swimmer Amanda Beard had several topless photo shoots and even posed for Playboy

Magazine. Only after the public saw her in skimpy bikinis (opposed to the unattractive race suit), did they

consider her to be attractive and womanly. Female swimmers should be celebrated for their achievements

in the pool, not how they look when they are nude and photoshopped. However, because female and male

swimmers share a similar body structure, a female swimmer can only be praised if she takes extra steps to

prove that beneath the polyurethane compression is a curvy, completely feminine body of a woman.

In Allison Schmitt’s post race interview, she was visibly exhausted from her preceding gold

medal performance in the 200 free. Breathing heavily and a gasping voice caused her voice to be an

octave deeper than usual; her gangly figure, straggly, wet hair and lack of makeup made her appearance

slightly unattractive. When my father walked into the room, his immediate comment was, “Wow! She

looks like a man!” Immediately jumping to her defense I proclaimed that is was outrageous to expect a

model-like appearance after an Olympic Record swim. This offhand comment truly indicates the

expectation society places on female athletes: not only was Schmitt expected to showcase her talents

against a stacked field, but she was apparently expected to win a gold medal while wearing heals and

looking glam. Because she was only successful in accomplishing half of the expectation, her appearance

in the interview elicited comment critiquing everything from her body type to her unusually deep voice.

Society cannot accept her athletic achievement standing alone; it must be accompanied by an outward

display of girliness. This is evidenced by the excessive attention given to Missy Franklin’s painted

toenails. Every time Franklin was on the block, the camera would zoom to a close up shot of her painted

nails accompanied by a comment about painting nails is a swimmer’s only way to add personality. The

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commentators may call it personality, but in reality, personality is simply synonymous with femininity.

Missy showcasing her athletic talent is acceptable to society because she maintained her feminine nature

by paying attention to her appearance whilst competing for gold. By comparison, Schmitt’s success in

London is diminished because when she did not paint her nails, she is overtly choosing to disregard her

attention to appearance. Her choice to focus solely on her skill and strength is simply unacceptable—

letting athletic abilities speak for themselves is a behavior expected from a masculine athlete—and

therefore she cannot be rewarded for her brazenness.

Female athletes who are successful in their respective sports face onslaughts on criticisms from

the media, who claims that the said athletes do not look womanly enough while competing. An Olympic

gold in the women’s individual all around did not mean that Gabby Douglas was safe from critical

comments about her appearance. The day after she showed the world her astounding skills, the media

attempted to destroy her success by proclaiming that Gabby was in sore need of a makeover. Yet despite

the criticisms, Gabby was equally blasted when she had her makeup professionally done for an interview.

She is not alone in her struggle to showcase both her athleticism while maintaining hints of femininity.

And she is certainly not the only female athlete who is criticized for her appearance during competition.

An irate man drew internet attention by calling female athletes disgusting. He cited that female athletes

with their sport bras look like underdeveloped little boys; a real woman would have curves. Male athletes

are rarely criticized by the media for their body shape; any criticism is directly related to the quality of

their athletic performance. For example a football player will be criticized that he dropped the pass, not

how his hair was styled during the dropped pass. This discrepancy between the ways athletes of both

genders are critiqued is the crux of the matter. If a female athlete is unsuccessful, society will argue that

she was not pretty or elegant enough. However, if a male athlete is unsuccessful, society will just state

that he was not skilled enough. It is absurd that regardless of gold medals and world records, a female’s

success is still measured primarily by how she looked while competing for the awards.

An even harsher stigma against female athletes is that many believe that it is impossible for a

female athlete to actually be good at her sport. Seconds after Ye Shiwen, a 16 year old swimmer from

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China, won gold in world record fashion in the 400 Individual Medley, doping rumors already began

circulating. The swimming community, as well as the general public, simply could not accept her

outrageously fast split or that she won gold out of nowhere. To her credit, she did not appear out of the

blue; she actually medaled in the 400IM at World Championships the year prior. Because her split for the

last 50 was a tenth faster than Ryan Lochte’s last 50 split of the same race, many claimed that the only

feasible explanation was that she took steroids. Even when she tested negative, the media still angrily

claimed that Ye Shiwen was actually a male. A female athlete, who maintains her feminine nature, is

allowed to be successful, but only to a certain level. Once she passes the threshold and her success is on

par with her male counterparts, she must not be permitted to bask in the glory. A female athlete who is as

good as a male athlete is simply unheard of and the notion is unacceptable. Society has established that

women cannot be as successful as men, and any female who dares threaten the stigma is considered to be

a fraud. Ye Shiwen could have tested negative 100 more times, yet people would have still believed that

she cheated her way to victory.

Every year the number of female athletes who come forward about an eating disorder or body

image issues continues to increase because of society’s expectations. These female athletes, like their

male counterparts, invested years of training, hard work, and perseverance to get to the top of their

respective sports. Yet unlike their male counterparts who are celebrated once they achieve glory, the

achievements of the female athletes are largely ignored, as society prefers to dwell on the athletes’

imperfect bodies. Society expects top female athletes to win gold medals while looking like Victoria

Secret models. However, professional male athletes do not have to look like male models to be praised for

success. Time and time again, society addresses the double standard for men and women, yet it is

normally discussed in relation to the number of partners an individual chooses to have. Completely

undermined is the double standard for male and female athletes. Regardless of the number of gold medals

or the world records, female athletes constantly battle with society’s pressure to be feminine and their

own desire to be the best in their sport. For female athletes success and femininity often appear to be

mutually exclusive.