'Gender inequality is pervasive in sports': Maritime academics weigh in on Norwegian athletes' stance on skimpy game attire
The news Norway's beach handball team was fined for wearing shorts – instead of the regulation bikini bottoms – during the European championship competition, raised a lot of eyebrows on the Bedford waterfront.
"Really?" said Darlene Boutilier, after being told about the incident. "Honest to God, I am speechless, there is no answer."
"That's crazy," commented Jason Fraser. "2021. That's crazy."
But the $2,200 CDN fine levied against the team by the European Handball Federation wasn't shocking to those who study gender issues in athletics.
"These matters of policing women's attire in sport have been going on for years and years," says Cheryl MacDonald of the Centre for the Study of Sport and Health at Saint Mary's University. "And (they're) still happening."
That includes a number of cases over the past decade.
In 2011, the Badminton World Federation implemented a "skirts only" policy for female competitors, which it later withdrew.
Later that same year, the International Boxing Association discussed a similar dress code for female boxers ahead of the 2012 London Games.
Closer to home, the Vancouver Field Hockey Association came under fire in 2015 for trying to implement the same dress code for its female players. That decision was later reversed after public pressure.
In more recent years, the tennis world has also seen controversy over the treatment of female players.
Eugenie Bouchard became the center of a social media storm after a male interviewer at the Australian Open asked her to "twirl" for the cameras to show off her tennis dress. She had just won her second-round match.
In 2018, the French Open banned Serena Williams' black "catsuit" from the competition.
"Because of those old traditions, where women have been objectified," says MacDonald, "those old traditions have stayed with us in some sense.
MacDonald's glad to see female athletes raising their voices against sexist dress codes in sport.
The chair of the Human Kinetics department at St. Francis Xavier University, says woman raised similar objections after the "bikini bottoms only" rule was established in beach volleyball in 1996.
"They were really forced into it. And it just became part of the culture over the past decade," says Charlene Weaving. "The intention was to try and 'sexify' the sport, to make it more appealing, you have this beach party type of feel," she adds.
Weaving says there are many examples of gender differences in sport attire, but certain sports, like beach volleyball and beach handball, are more obvious at first glance.
"And of course, the common criticism is, well if you're making the women wear bikini bottoms, why aren't the men changing their attire?"
"It has nothing to do with biomechanical performance, or else they'd be wearing Speedos," Weaving says.
MacDonald says even when uniforms appear the same for different genders, inequality in sports can come in other forms.
"I find hockey is a great example in terms of the resources they receive," she explains.
"Gender inequality is very pervasive throughout sports, not just in terms of what we wear, but in terms of what we have to wear, what quality it is, and what we have access to."
Both MacDonald and Weaving say one of the keys to achieving a level playing field for all participants in sport mean keeping the issue in the spotlight.
"The fact that this story has gone global, and is getting lots of traction, is an example of things that can happen," says Weaving. "It helps put pressure on those organizations to create change."
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