The athletes wanted to "feel comfortable and safe."
GLIMMER OF HOPEWhat?? That is the dumbest thing I’ve heard today. Disqualified for your body? Ridiculous.
It's very common in sports. They can even disqualify you for how you wear your hair. I once got in trouble for running without a ponytail.
I never played sports growing up, so this is all news to me, but that is crazy. If you’re unbothered by it, why should they care?
I used to be a swimmer - once our club got new onepiece suits, with incredibly high cut legs (they must've been inspired by Baywatch or something). We all got wedgies swimming in them, and it was "fun" to bend over at the starting blocks with the (mostly male) timekeepers staring up our butts. After the tournament, dad came up and asked why my times had been bad across the board - what was wrong? Uhm, you try to do a tumble turn with a wedgie up your arse dad. We started wearing them over a regular swimsuit, after stretching them out to reduce the discomfort. More drag etc, but at least no wedgies...
Another time, they got us robes with ouru club colours - black and white, but the robes were all white. Many of us girls kept having "robe malfunctions" every month when our periods came early (usually unannounced, as swimmers have very low body fat and it messes with your cycles). Carrie would've just been another one of us!
Most of the time it's racism and sexism :/ Dreads and other black hairstyles are seen as "unprofessional," even in sports!
Unrelated to sports but related to being a girl with "inappropriate" sized breasts: I was once written up for my top because the (female, but admittedly boomer) teacher claimed my large breasts were distracting in it. There was another girl in my class who was relatively flat chested and she happened to be wearing the SAME TOP as me in a different color. A couple other female classmates protested the write-up with me while it was happening using the other student's shirt as an example but the teacher kept saying things like "it's different on her" and "they're not the same top."
I was 17. The teacher stopped the lecture to write me up over my body being distracting. I was punished for existing with large breasts. Looking back the top wasn't even indecent. It had a scoop neckline but it really only revealed about an inch of my cleavage.
It's ridiculous how girls are punished not only for how they dress, but also how their bodies are naturally shaped and the way clothes acceptable on others fit on them.
It's insane how often adults will claim that young girls are dressing for attention. Like you really think a 17 yr old is thinking about looking sexy in a 8am math class?
They're the ones who sexualize us from a young age. Making us wear shorts/skirts past our fingertips, banning spaghetti straps and banning SANDALS of all things.
I went to a Christian school so it was extra insane. They would get mad if we wore too much jewelry or put on makeup. The boys rules? Hair can't be past their shoulders. That's it. I had guy friends who wore their shorts shorter than mine. 😭
I remember when those tank tops with the HUGE arm holes became popular. You could see their whole torso through it no matter what angle their arms were at. My school did say boys weren't allowed to wear those. But you're right, beyond "neat hair" and "no sagging your pants" boys really don't have a dress code in non-uniform schools. And in uniform schools their dress codes are significantly more relaxed than girls.
We wore a uniform at my school (khaki pants/shorts/skirts with a polo shirt). The only official rules were that we had to wear belts, tuck in our shirts and no open toed shoes. But they had sooo many secret rules for the girls. This was in Florida too so it sucked when it was hot and they wouldn't let us wear slightly shorter shorts/skirts or untuck our shirts.
Same, my K - 8 had uniforms. They wanted us to buy the uniforms from a specific company (which was a pain in the ass for poor parents to keep up with growing kids but that's another topic) so everything was made around the same. I have a high waist so my uniform skirts naturally settled higher on me. We also had to tuck in our shirts and wear belts. I was very insecure about my midsection from a young age so I started only wearing skirts to school because we didn't wear belts with them, and I'd frequently get nagged at for my skirt being too high up. I wore opaque tights with my skirts because I got bullied for having dark body hair (and shaving regularly is hard for a middle schooler okay :( ) which is arguably more modest than having bare legs (if they really wanna play that game) but nooo.
I just remember girls started getting dress coded in the 4th grade if they had "headlights" showing through their shirt, AKA visible nipple bumps from their newly developed breast buds. I haven't thought about that in years, I remember how uncomfortable it was just to see other girls getting written up for it. Even though they pulled them aside you kinda knew why. The nurse kept a stash of training bras along with spare panties for girls going through puberty. The panties were a nice gesture to have during a period emergency, having to go to the nurse to put on a school-issued bra after your teacher called you out for having visible nipples really sucked.
I am surprised to hear there were boys with shorter shorts. In general girls get targeted because we wear more revealing clothes. Makeup is a means of sexualizing yourself. I am not saying anyone should be offended by a female body or sexuality per se, but it is true that girls often do it to themselves by wearing revealing clothing much more so than boys do. This is the result of gender-- by 14, girls are already brainwashed into thinking they should be wearing revealing clothing and makeup. Kids should not be sexualized and therefore should not be wearing revealing clothes or makeup, be they male or female.
Personally, I think that until kids are mature enough to understand why no one should be showing that much skin at school, they should be in uniforms at school. At the very least, everyone should have the same dress code. The problem is when the dress code is different for different kids.
Whoever makes the decision to disqualify her for having breasts that "move too much" needs to have their computer searched by law enforcement. It's unacceptable to sexualize children's bodies based on their natural sized and the way physics acts upon those parts. Girls shouldn't have to BIND THEIR BREASTS (that's what your friend was doing even if she wasn't squashing them flat to appear masculine) for social acceptance. We need to start holding people accountable for their own damn thoughts.
Things like these make me feel like I’m genuinely living in some kind of simulation, because how does the general population not think that women being obligated to compete in literal cheeky leotards for a sport like GYMNASTICS is completely absurd??!?! Let alone any sport in general??
Especially because male gymnasts are not required to wear only a leotard. It's just like beach volley ball again.
Just regular volleyball sadly. I used to tutor and have seen many of my areas high schools' volleyball teams. Approximately 1/4 to 1/2 of their butts were hanging out.
Haven't they always been required to wear a leotard but just allowed to also wear full length pants over it?
I didn’t know these outfits were required until I was well into adulthood. I imagine most people just don’t think about it
Finally! These poor female athletes have been on display for way too long.
Good. I remember getting an automatic deduction in meets if my bra strap or underwear showed during a routine. I had an older teammate miss out on getting 1st in All Around at a pretty important meet because of the underwear deduction. I hope USAG follows suit.
I remember being told to wear either no underwear or a thong during my ballet exams when I was younger because the thought of potentially seeing a glimpse of a child's underwear below their leotard line was too much.
How is it that we are required to compete in these Leotards with our buttcheeks hanging out but PENALIZED for showing a bra strap accidentally??
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Now if only American sports would adopt this. In highschool I did track and my friend on the team had to wear 3 sports bras because she could get disqualified if her chest moved too much.