Sexism at the 2016 Rio Olympics

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

This year, at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, for the first time, there was such a powerful talk about sexism towards female athletes. The audience doesn't like it anymore. Commentators and journalists have to apologize for their statements about the age, figure or marital status of the participants in the Olympic Games. In a sense, female athletes are making history now, like 116 years ago, when women first took part in these competitions.

Here are 9 of the most prominent cases of discrimination against women at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

1. Final in judo among women. Athlete Maylinda Kelmendi won in her weight category, thus bringing Kosovo the first gold medal in history! The BBC commentator described the fight as a "cat showdown", for which he received a lot of indignant messages: "Shame on you, you are talking about the Olympians!"

2. Mexican gymnast Alexa Moreno performed with dignity at the competition, having completed all the elements. Nevertheless, a discussion of her figure began on Twitter. There were very rude comments, advice to go on a diet and even comparisons with Peppa Pig. Twitter removed most of the unpleasant comments, and Alexa admitted to the press: “Gymnastics is a sport for brave people. You need to strive for the goal, have a strong will and perseverance. I will not stop until I reach my goals."

What's wrong with sexism?

It imposes on a person a framework of behavior, limiting his possibilities. Not all women are interested in self-care and consider marriage and childbirth to be the pinnacle of their destiny. Not all men want to support their families, strive for high wages or career achievements. But both of them feel the pressure of society and stereotypes about "real woman" and "real man".

3. This Sunday, Chinese athlete He Tzu won the silver medal in the 3-meter springboard. Immediately after the awards ceremony, her lover, athlete and also Olympic medalist Qin Kai made her a marriage proposal!

Some media outlets wrote: “What could be better than winning an Olympic medal? An offer of marriage . Of course, it's insanely touching and romantic. But those volitional efforts, training, hardships and hardships that are in sport and are then rewarded with world recognition, it is a little strange to compare with the beginning of the path to building harmonious family relationships.

4. "Russian gymnasts performed like a man" - with this heading "Kommersant" published an article about the silver victory of the Russian women in the team gymnastics tournament. In the same article, Alexandra Raisman, the silver medalist in the all-around USA from the United States, was called by the author of the article "hot little thing" and "curvy girl."

In the author's opinion, comparing gymnasts with men is the highest praise. But not all readers of the publication agree with this! Some commented on the article in the following way: “you can look at men's behavior at football”, even “learn from your British colleagues how to talk about athletes so as not to look archaic mu… oh”.

Top 5 sexist expressions addressed to women:

"For a woman, you're doing pretty well."

"You have great breasts" ("butt", another part of the body is separate from the personality)

"Relax", "don't be so emotional" in response to expressing your feelings

"You distract me", "provoke"

"Itself is guilty" - as the cause of male violence against women

5. However, it is too early to give lessons to British colleagues. After tennis player Andy Murray won another Olympic gold medal, the BBC presenter addressed him: “You are the first person to ever win two Olympic gold medals in tennis. It feels incredible, right?"

In response, Murray immediately noted the success of the Williams sisters in singles:

"Serena and Venus have about four medals each." Twitter users joked that the Olympian should be awarded another medal for reminding the host of the existence of women in the games.

6. Everyone was impressed by a swimmer from the USA Dana Vollmer. She won bronze and silver at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, having given birth to a son 17 months earlier. Preparing for the Olympic Games with a newborn baby in your arms is a really powerful thing to do.

But the press and commentators went too far with the mention of the fact that she is, in fact, "mom." If she were not, above all, a professional and experienced athlete, there would be no medals.

7. American swimmer Katie Ledecky set a new world record at a distance of 400 meters. But who cares about records? Much more interesting comparisons, the media decided and immediately dubbed her "the female version of Michael Phelps", and the NBC commentator said that Katie "swims like a man."

8. Bronze medalist in shooting Corey Cogdell was called by the Chicago Tribune "the wife of a player of the Chicago Bears football club", despite the fact that the American has already brought the country bronze from the Beijing Olympics.

Historical fact:

During the ancient Olympic Games, a woman who dared (not to perform, no!) To watch an athlete's competition was ordered by law to be thrown from a high cliff into the abyss. Only men and priestesses of the goddess of fertility Demeter were allowed into the stadium.

9. One of the most egregious cases is a statement from a commentator on the American TV channel NBC that the victory of the Hungarian swimmer Katinka Jose belongs to her husband and coach Shane Tusup. Spectators were outraged that the breakthrough of the athlete, who set a new world record and took the first gold medal for her country, was attributed not to her hard training, strength, endurance and will to win, but to another person. The commentator later officially pleaded guilty and apologized to the Olympic medalist.

Sexism in the Olympics also applies to men. “If a woman loses, they sympathize with her. They are ready to crucify the losing male athlete,”the representatives of the stronger sex comment on posts about sexism.

It seems that many people forget that athletes - men, women - have come a long way to compete in the Olympics. And they ended up in Rio because they are the best in this sport from their country.