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