Oops they did it again...
by Giulia Macgarr
Those of us who care about the equal standing of women have found much to applaud in this summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games. These were, as has been widely noted, the first games which saw women competing in all events, including such previously forbidden sports as boxing. These were also the first games which saw every participating country admitting female athletes into their team, including Saudi Arabia. Commentators who criticised sportswomen’s 'masculine' physiques found themselves roundly criticised in turn.
But one element of the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies hit a discordant note. And the note was struck again at last night's Paralympic opening, to an even more jarring effect. I refer to the use of 'perfectly shaped' young women throughout the ceremonies but in particular during the long athletes' processions.
In all three of these ceremonies, women accompanied flag-bearing representatives from participating nations. But these weren't 'ordinary women'. They didn't reflect the level of diversity which I observed among the athletes, the volunteers and the ceremony participators. There weren't short women, large women, older women or disabled women. Never mind any men.
Wearing tight, red PVC jumpsuits with hair tied in the same way, these women looked identical. They emulated the saturated and hyper-feminised view of what a woman should be, an image of female identity which we are relentlessly subjected to every day.
As I watched the Paralympic opening, with clothes horses wearing cleavage-enhancing dresses escorting excited and smiling Paralympians from all over the world, I felt once again angry and ashamed. Such a spectacle of colour with so many stories of individual struggle and achievement. Scenes of people uniting from every corner of the earth to continue their sporting journey, in this case often after personal tragedy. Yet the women alongside them remained void of identity and zombie-like, detached from the very human expressions and stories that have moved me throughout London 2012.
The Games offered London a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show what our nation has to offer - to represent the Britain we live in today. In many ways the ceremonies did do that successfully. Yet it remains a great shame that the ceremonies pandered to a deeply sexist stereotype.
Who, I wonder, thought having women as trophy accompaniments to competing nations would be a good idea?
joe fd
"Sheer feminism"! Hilarious.
Annie
Woman is angered by depiction of women as standard sized grinning non participating bauble. Woman is therefore obviously is jealous and wishes she was one. Obviously.
John Kingdon
"Yet the women alongside them remained void of identity and zombie-like, detached ....."
Are you arguing that whoever carried the banners announcing the names of the competing teams should have, by some virtue of physical appearance, drawn attention away from the people who mattered?
Are you also planning to moan because the majority of flag bearers were male (actually I don't recall a single female one but may be wrong on that)?
As to the non-parade parts of the ceremonies, I must have been watching a different event as there were plenty of people who would not fit the description of "perfectly shaped young women". Or perhaps we WERE watching the same event but you were concentrating on finding something to moan about and were blind to anyone in a wheelchair or walking with a limp. Or flying in the air with an umbrella but without part of a limb. Or dancing without legs.
Diana
Wow, it doesn't take much to bring out the misogyny. It's hardly a matter for discussion that the image of those chosen to lead in the athletes last night was tailored to a stereotype - if we resist, as Giulia has done, with reasoned opposition, surely you can do better than refer to this as "sheer feminism" but thanks for the compliment.
Benjamin Mayhew
Diana,
Sheer feminism is best i could come up with. My English is fairly poor, i don't even understand what misogyny means but i guess that can be resolved with google.
I just don't understand why somebody would take the time to write an article on something so trivial. I did not even notice the glamour girls carrying the flags, and i am a fairly hot blooded 26 year old male.
Not all chaps are the same, we don't all think women should look like Katie Price. Maybe that's just me because i'm used to the missus having a speck of armpit hair now and again, but most of us guys are in touch with reality (apart from the cast of The Only Way is Essex).
The piece is written well, so i suggest to Giulia that in future she writes about things that are important, rather than pick out a few gogo girls from a parade.
Go Team GB!!
Benjamin Mayhew
I'm not sure whether this is an extremely jealous article or one born out of sheer feminism.
I personally was watching the teams and their athletes with their faces full of joy as they entered the biggest stage of their life.
My mind wasn't purely focused on how i will pick something bad out of something good and write a pretty dross piece on something so minor; in a kind of 'look at me and my pointless opinions' manner.
Cheer up