Popular Culture Review Vol. 18, No. 1, Winter 2007 | Page 53

The Woman Athlete Revealed: The Problem of Get-Ups and Glitter for Female Olympians In most events of the Olympic games, while the athlete’s appearance plays a role in psychological competition with her opponent, her choices for physical presentation are largely dictated by function, by what will help her be faster, stronger, more focused. Nevertheless, in a significant handflil of events— those that attract the most spectators and media coverage—clothes seem literally to make the girl. Unlike their male counterparts, in events like beach volleyball and gymnastics, women are required to make their appearance part of their perfonnance, on top of, and as a distraction from, their athletic ability. That they must wear costumes means that both they and the audience are made self consciously aware of their femininity and sexuality, in a way that is not expected from men or women in most other events. The requirement of many women athletes to focus on the appearance of their bodies, rather than their function or skill, is a sign of a persistent inequality both on and off the playing field. Athletics for women emerged in American culture in the late nineteenth century. The leaders of women’s colleges, with the support of many medical experts (including women doctors) felt that girls could benefit from exercise in some of the same ways that boys could. Girls could learn valuable lessons about cooperation and moral fortitude through sport; experts further agreed that young women, notoriously sickly during this period from such ailments as chlorosis or neurasthenia, also needed to increase their health in order to handle the rigors of academic study, possible work, and near-certain motherhood. However, if exercise could help girls become stronger, certainly they should not be allowed to become too strong: young women were given different games, different rules, different attire, and were kept separate from young men in educational institutions, so that they could have the benefit of exercise, competition, and cooperation “without fear of sexual hann or the taint of masculinity” (Cahn 24). Moreover, despite the fact that organized athletics thrived amongst the working classes from the late nineteenth century onward, the standards for national competition were determined largely within the academic system catering to upper-middle-class white ladies: as a result, many sports for girls were overlaid with rules and conventions designed to preserve not just femininity but gentility and fashion—class status—as well. Girls were steered away from “coarse,” lower-class activities like boxing and wrestling to more sociable and decorous pursuits like croquet, riding, archery, swimming, golf, and tennis (Cahn 14). Into the twentieth century, one significant element in expanding the range of women’s sport was the modem Olympic movement. After the first modem Olympiad in 1896, women were allowed to compete in growing