Sports Commentary
Historically, women in sports have not garnered the same respect as men, though they perform the same tasks and play the same games as most male athletes. Women have just recently started to become the forefront of athletics thanks to groundbreaking athletes like Caitlin Clark, Simone Biles and Ilona Maher, but women athletes still face unique obstacles in their profession from unequal pay to disparate appearance expectations.
It is widely known that appearance expectations for women are not the same as those for men. In the sports world, women are judged harshly on their appearance and, in some cases, aren’t allowed to compete if those expectations are not met. From beach volleyball bikinis to gymnastics leotards and track and field kits, womens’ uniforms are much more revealing than mens’.
In a recent case, Nike faced controversy over Team USA’s track and field bodysuits, which were revealed in April before the 2024 Olympics. There was a stark contrast between the mens’ and womens’ uniforms. The men sported a two piece with a loose tank top and track shorts that come to mid thigh, whereas the women sported a tight one piece with a very revealing bikini line. Nike faced backlash as people, including professional athletes, spoke out about the sexism represented in the uniforms.
Former American track runner Lauren Fleshman voiced her opinion on the new uniforms via Instagram, stating, “Women’s kits should be in service to performance, mentally and physically. If this outfit was truly beneficial to physical performance, men would wear it.”
The uniforms were designed based on appearance and not functionality. In reality, revealing uniforms are a distraction to the sport and unethical for the women wearing them. They don’t aid the athlete’s performance but rather allow for the over sexualized appearance standards in women’s sports.
This double standard is seen in women’s gymnastics as well, especially at the collegiate level. Many fans and athletes have complained about the size of the leotards and their progressive adjustments to expose more. Uniforms such as these often deter girls and women from sports.
In fact, a study published in the journal “Sport, Education and Society” found that 75% of the women surveyed had seen girls drop out of school sports due to concerns about uniforms or body image.
Women’s appearance in sports has been a controversial issue for years, but athletes and fans continue to push back on the traditional gender appearance expectations in sports. Olympic champion and South African mid-distance runner Caster Semenya published her book “The Race to Be Myself” in 2022, highlighting the disparities women in sports face when not conforming to gender expectations.
Semenya’s gender was called into question by her competitors early in her career. Though Semenya identifies as a woman, she was born with differences in sex development that cause her to not have all the same biological body parts as most females and higher testosterone levels. Semenya, however, was assigned female at birth and has identified as a woman her whole life. In 2009, as her career was picking up, Semenya became the headline for a gender debate after she was called out for “being a man” by her competitors, the media and fans. Because of this, Semenya was put through degrading gender confirmation tests as an 18-year-old and even banned by World Athletics from her best events in 2009.
On Channel 4’s Podcast “Ways to Change the World,” when asked what makes her a woman, Semenya answered, “I think it’s you understanding your identity…from young, I’ve always believed that I’m a woman.” Although she calls herself “a different kind of woman” due to her lifelong tomboyish interests and non-traditional presentation, she says, “I’m not ashamed of myself, I love my body, I love embarrassing myself and I’m not going to let, you know, no man tell me how I should look like, how I must look like despite of my differences.”
Semenya exemplifies hope and sends a message to the world about respecting each other without judgment or discrimination and putting human rights first. Semenya’s case exemplifies what it means to defy traditional gender appearance expectations in sports.
Though uniforms for women in sports are still often revealing and oversexualized, more athletes, coaches and fans are fighting for equality in sports, inspiring us for the future.
