International Amateur Boxing Association considering making women boxers wear skirts in the Olympics

http://thestar.blogs.com/olympics/2011/11/boxing-buffoons-consider-women-in-skirts-for-olympic-debut.html

It’s kind of downgrading what we’re doing,” said Bujold. “Why make it different? They’re trying to make us closer to the men’s boxing and saying there’s no differences, but ever since we got into the Olympics they’re changing everything.”

Bujold said the boxers had to wear skirts provided by a sponsor in the finals at the world championships in Barbados earlier this year – including Spencer, who won her third world title.

“They didn’t force people to wear it, but they suggested that it would be a good idea. So pretty much everyone had to wear a skirt in the final.”

Bujold said the Mexican women’s team wore skirts at the Pan Ams, but that in general they’re seldom worn by women's boxers

“You know what, they’re actually not that bad as long as they’re designed well,” said the Kitchener fighter. “Some of them are really funny – they look more like cheerleading skirts – and I don’t think I’d ever want to wear that. You can get some where it’s shorts underneath and like a flap over top that makes it look like a skirt.

“But I think it’s ridiculous if they’re going to try to make it mandatory. I don’t understand that they’re gaining out of that. I know they want to be able to differentiate between women and men. That’s why they told us when we get in the ring we have to get in without our headgear on so that people will recognize us more. Now, I think they’re trying to add this other thing to wear a skirt so our uniform looks different.”

It wouldn’t be suprising if this is being driven by the television networks, who are bothered by the fact that once women are in the ring with their headgear they look just like the men.

This is just the latest example of this kind of nonsense. Those tight shorts you see the women wearing in volleyball weren’t their idea, but was orchestrated by their federation head to make the game more appealing to a male audience.

*EYEROLL*

Women's sports always have the stupidest people running it who panic constantly that nobody will watch it without some stupid gimmick to girl it up -_- Like Team Canada wearing pink uniforms in the first women's hockey Olympic event... or Badminton saying all women had to wear skirts recently...

honestly I can't see how it even helps, b/c I'm pretty sure all the guys who don't want to watch women's sports won't regardless of what you make women wear... I doubt they think that they're going to see the most conventionally attractive women when they watch BOXING neways (or really ANY sport... they're not selected for their looks you know -_-)... but more importantly, why does everything need "sexy women" 24/7? This, I don't understand at all. Like, my last issue of Sportsnet magazine had a random picture of a UFC girl on it's contents that went to an article that had nothing to do with girls and was about George St. Pierre. Would hetero men who presumably paid 5$ for a SPORTS MAGAZINE suddenly decide they won't read it, then see a picture of a girl in the contents and go HAY I THINK I WILL READ THIS ARTICLE, then they flip there and it's about a man, and they're still so revved up by the horny they don't care and they read the article? o_O

My sports radio station has a daily "fangirl" on it's website, which is basically some random model (like those newspaper girls that some newspapers like the Toronto Sun has) they have a pic up. Do ppl listen to radio stations that have women on their website over ones that don't? o_O What does this have to do with radio? If you're already on the internet looking at a Toronto sports radio station's website can you not just GOOGLE PORN!? or swimsuit model...

same thing for superhero comics, same thing for... well... all sorts of things -_-;; I think the whole "logic" doesn't make any sense. The only arguments I ever hear for this are some variation or combination of 1) the perfect knowledge of the market... which presumes of course a) we have an actual free market and b) corporations are constantly doing things and changing philosophy to completely 100% maximize all demographic possibilities... and 2) hetero men are naturally horny dogs, and any of us women who are like o_O just "don't understand"...

which of course both are BS... the first one is essentially an appeal to authority... it basically is "they know more than you so of course it's the best decision"

Presumably, men who want to watch porn will watch porn... do men need porn in EVERYTHING or something? -_- Somehow I doubt this...

Neways, to go back to the topic... this is so stupid... my favourite part is the whole "DON'T WEAR HEADGEAR OR PEOPLE WILL THINK YOU'RE MEN"

even if that's true and audiences that show up with a ticket to WOMEN'S BOXING cannot tell that the boxers (who would not have bare chests) are women... so what? Maybe we should just focus on them as athletes and not them as "OMG WOMENZ!" -_-

Good fucking grief. Skirts?!!!

This reminds me of my elementary school pe teacher, who despite conforming to pretty much every other bullying gym teacher stereotype, had really progressive views on gender. He was an ex-weight lifter and lucked into a world-class female pupil. When the Olympics came here in '96, the two of them lobbied to have women's weight lifting added as an event. It came down to that or beach volleyball, and beach volleyball won because, and this is what the panel actually said, 'women look more presentable in bathing suits.'

"That’s why they told us when we get in the ring we have to get in without our headgear on so that people will recognize us more"

Uhm, wait, what? As someone whose knowledge of boxing comes mostly from Punch Out, I may be mistaken here, but isn't that kind of an important safety thing?

Uhm, wait, what? As someone whose knowledge of boxing comes mostly from Punch Out, I may be mistaken here, but isn't that kind of an important safety thing?

You're right. Why are they worrying about how the headgear looks when they're important for safety? Why should safety ever take a backseat to vanity? It's ridiculous.

Also, there are a lot of sports fans who aren't straight men. I don't want female athletes to be pressured into wearing short skirts and girly uniforms. I want them to be taken seriously as real athletes instead of being treated like eye candy. I would prefer they wear whatever is the most practical and comfortable for their sport. Why won't the networks consider that?

To clarify I think they meant having headgear off when you get into the ring and putting it on after, so the fans recognize you as a woman (I'm unsure WHY this is important... presumably they understand what event they're in right? And female boxers wear tops while male boxers don't... and besides, why do they think it's so important that ppl make the distinction?)

OK, making them wear skirts and otherwise pinkifying them is fucking ridiculous. Female athletes do not exist for the fanboy gaze.

You know, nobody ever makes male athletes do anything for the fangirl gaze. I wonder why that is.