Horse Guards' Affair

On Saturday 28^th July 2012 the Women’s Olympic Beach Volleyball tournament will commence in its iconic London venue, Horse Guards’ Parade. 24 men and 24 women will battle it out for Olympic Gold. London will have seen nothing like it (apart from the test event last Summer). All eyes will be on the thrilling action as favourites, USA, seek to hang on to their titles in both men’s and women’s events from Beijing 4 years ago.

Or will they?

Many have scoffed at the inclusion of this ‘sport’ in the Olympics, particularly the women's version. They see it as the best/worst example of the ‘sexualisation of women in sport’, or in other words a parade of female forms before the world for sexual titillation.

                                                                           

The photograph above which first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald during Beijing 2008, perhaps best illustrates the point. Note the caption. It bears little comparison with the content. The photograph has been heavily cropped from the original full body shot. (See below)

                                                                            

What possible sporting/editorial reason can there be for this representation other than a focussing in on specific (sexual) aspects of the female form? Those men with tickets for Horse Guard’s Parade will be confronted with the seaside postcard banter of the office and will scarcely bother to pretend that they are attending an important sporting occasion. I know a male friend who has tickets for the event. He would be quite incapable of naming a single female player and would struggle to explain to his adoring children any of the significant rules of the sport. Nonetheless my chances of prising those tickets from his grasp, even for enhanced consideration, are absolutely zero. Maybe I should have asked his wife.

It is a fact that the amount of coverage of women’s sport has been falling since 1999. The list of nominations for Sports Personality of the Year 2011 did not contain a single female athlete. Nonetheless the visual spectacle of women’s sport has been through a significant process of ‘enhancement’ over that same period. There was no finer example of this than Anna Kournikova, effectively a journeywoman tennis player who never won a senior tour title, but  somebody who became rich and famous because of her marketing and lucrative endorsements. Sponsors were never discouraged by her lack of success on the court, simply because she attracted all of the attention for reasons other than her tennis. Maria Sharapova is the highest earning female tennis player currently on the circuit. Although she can rightly be described as near the top of her profession, she has not occupied the top ranking for over 4 years and has not won a Grand Slam title for the same length of time.

Whilst media coverage has been decreasing so women’s sport’s attire has been shrinking. Beach  volleyball players perform in little more than skimpy underwear. This is not performance enhancing. Male beach volleyball players do not don skimpy briefs yet manage to achieve the required level of Olympic performance. The trend is to diminish the costume exposing as much of the female form as possible, bare midriffs etc and to turn player kit into something akin to haute couture (a good excuse to squeeze in a picture of the lovely Maria).

Sepp Blatter, President of football's governing body FIFA, infamously called for a change of image and emphasis for women's football. He advocated more 'feminine clothes like they do in volleyball with tighter shorts' stating that 'female players are pretty, if you excuse me saying so, and they already have different rules to men, such as a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?' The strange thing is that the sexualisation of women in sport has not led to increased coverage of women's sport. It has of course led to increased interest in individual sports stars, but not truly in the sport they participate in. The popularity of sport from a viewing numbers perspective depends upon the sport itself. Viewing figures for the men's and women's game in tennis generally match up reasonably well, whereas for instance in cricket, the interest in the men's game dwarfs the women's. This is because women's tennis is considered to hold its own as a spectacle whereas traditionally there has been too marked a difference between men's and women's cricket, although this may be changing with the increased 'professionalism' of the women's game.

Perhaps ultimately it all comes down to biology. The argument goes something like this. The male of the species had to attract his mate by his compelling performance vis a vis his male competitors. He is thus innately competitive. The female of the species does not have to demonstrate such prowess, and in any event there is no direct correlation between athletic ability and fertility. The female is interested in what the male has to offer, but the male is far more interested in how the female looks and much less interested in her abilities. so the female is attracted to the prowess of sport performance and the male will look at the female sports player, but is not bothered about what she is actually doing. The male as the shallower of the species? Never heard that argument before!                                                              

NEWSFLASH!

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is to allow shorts and sleeved tops at the Olympics and have amended the rules accordingly. It follows a recent trend towards respecting cultural sensibilities and encouraging wider global participation in the sport.

Bikinis remain the apparel of choice. FIVB rules allow 'a maximum side width of seven centimetres'!

FIVB Spokesman Richard Baker is quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying that ''many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements so the uniform needed to be more flexible''.
UPDATE
The Sunday Times today lightheartedly bemoans the discovery of a rule which means Beach Volleyball players can cover up during Olympic matches if the temperature falls below 18 centigrade. Given that this has happened every day in London for weeks I anticipate that there will now be an absolute glut of spare tickets for this event!
NEWSFLASH! 10.8.12
NBC have now taken this whole sexualisation of women thing to a new level. What do you think? Is it acceptable? It seems utterly blatant and insulting and yes frankly disturbing.
Decide for yourselves http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2186262/Olympics-2012-NBC-viewers-angry-sexualized-footage-female-athletes-porn-music.html?ITO=1490&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

POSTSCRIPT
I read yesterday with some disbelief that there are such things as 'Bikini Basketball' and 'Lingerie Football' with leagues and growing participation. Here's a taster click here - maybe my original article above was somewhat naive and underestimating the issue.