Viewing pleasure diminished for those who know too much.
by Jody Dallaire, Dieppe Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunity between Women and Men
At these Olympics, IOC announced that women would finally be part of every national team sent to the games — for the first time in modern history. Saudi Arabia was a hard case. Women there can't vote or drive cars let alone run in public. The IOC bent the rules of equality just enough so that Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar and Brunei, sent a few female athletes.
Then I heard that a British canoeist has launched a court case asking why women's canoe is not on the 2012 schedule. What's that about?
Apparently, there are several disciplines under each Olympic sport. Canoeing includes both kayak and canoe. For the first time at these Olympics, there are a couple of female kayaking events, but still no female canoe events. Yet, there are five men's canoe events at these Olympics.
Some people believe that reality television is real – that The Bachelor is a real person and that they actually get married at the end. So why can't I believe in the Olympics? Maybe I know too much.
I still really want to believe that the Olympics is the best of humanity coming together for the pure enjoyment of athletic effort and competition, in an oasis far away from politics. I want to believe that "any form of discrimination based on race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with the Olympic Movement".
That last bit is straight from the Olympics Charter. And that's my point. That same Charter states that the official languages of the Olympics are French & English. And yet, at the last Olympics — held in Canada, a bilingual country — they forgot to include French.
I want to believe but I know too much. Mind you, most of what I now know seemed incredible at first hearing, but then I googled the stories and unfortunately the canoe story is true and so are these other stories:
Australian and Japanese male athletes travelling to London for the Olympics flew first class, while their female athletes didn't.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is allowing countries to force their female athletes to wear performance-disabling garb. I still remembered the kerfuffle about performance-enhancing outfits in past Olympics, but I guess if countries don't care if their female athletes are competitive, why should the IOC?
A few years ago, Canadian canoe sprinter Sheila Kuyper, created the lobby group called WomenCAN International. Its goal: to fight for her sport's inclusion in the Olympics. Canada, as you might expect, has some strong female canoeists who would be contenders in such an Olympic sport. Yet her story has gotten little attention, before or during the Olympics.
Another reason I can no longer get excited about these being "the first games with women in every sport" is that there are 30 percent fewer medals available for women — 132 gold medals for women, compared to 162 for men.
Another sport that the IOC was happy to tell us would have female participation this time is boxing. Now, I could argue that the Olympic spirit would be better respected by the elimination of male boxing rather than the addition of female boxing, but that's a story for another column.
When I heard that female boxers would be required to wear skirts, I actually didn’t believe it.
The International Olympic Committee has also expressed concern about the natural testosterone levels of female athletes, and called on each nation to "watch out for those unfeminine females" — to investigate any perceived deviation in sex characteristics of its female athletes.
Coverage of women's volleyball and women's soccer at these Olympics has been a lot about what the athletes wear and how sexy they look.
The Australian Sports Commission has been critical about volleyball rules, calling the clothing sexploitation of women. "Women must compete in bra-style tops and bikini bottoms that must not exceed six centimetres in width at the hip (men compete in shorts and top)." Enough said, even if they now "allow" women to wear shorts…
Maybe the Olympics will go back to being men-only and there will be an Olympic beauty pageant for women.
About Jody Dallaire
Jody Dallaire lives and works in Dieppe New Brunswick where she writes a weekly column on women's equality issues and matters of social justice.
Email: jody.dallaire@rogers.com.
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