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Monday Mini: Why Are We Still Sexualizing Women's Athletic Uniforms? · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm awkward to stuff'll
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: never tell you protection of iHeartRadio. And today is May second,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. I'm just gonna put that in there
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: because this conversation we're talking about today is changing ongoing. Also,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you can see our book for more information about this,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: because we're kind of talking about sexualized costumes, costumes iman
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: kind of uniforms for women in sports, and we have
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a section on that in our book. We've also talked
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: about it before in I think mostly update episodes where
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: we've talked about sports, and you can see our Olympics
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: episode that we did. But yeah, this comes up depressingly often,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and here we are again. Here we are again. So yes,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: we are a little bit late to the game. But
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: back in mid April twenty twenty four, Nike revealed a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: series of outfits uniforms for athletes competing in the Olympics
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four in Paris. One particular uniform caught
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: quite a lot of attention. It was a body suit
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: for Team USA's track and Field women's team specifically. But
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I will clarify this more later because there's some argument
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: about that based on the image. The body suit appears
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to be very high cut on the hips and extremely
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable and revealing. It is very high cut. It was
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a whole thing, especially when the Internet got hold of
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a side by side, which is how the company announced it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: They had a side by side of the men's uniform
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: with the women's. The men's uniform is a tank with
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: some mid length compression shorts, so very different. Nike face
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: all sorts of criticisms for this design. People, many of
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: them athletes are somehow in the realm of athletes, express
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: concern over sexualizing women with this over performance, and many
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: mistook it for a bathing suit. A lot of people
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: were genuinely like, oh, is this for swimming? Is not?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Former US track and field athlete Lauren Fleshman posted, professional
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: athletes should be able to compete without dedicating brain space
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to constant pube vigilance or the mental gymnastics of having
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: every vulnerable piece of your body on display. Women's kits
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: should be in service to performance mentally and physically. If
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: this outfit was truly beneficial to physical performance, men would
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: wear it. This is not an elite athletic kit for
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: track and field. This is a costume born of patriarchal
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: forces that are no longer welcome or needed to get
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: eyes on women's sports. Long jumper Tara Woodhall posted, wait,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: my houha is going to be out. Two time Paralympian
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Famita onion Pecu posted this is clearly a joke. I'm
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: someone's mom. I can't be exposing myself in such ways.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Where are the shorts? Paralympian track and field athlete Juleen
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Roberts said this mannequin is standing still in everything, showing
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: imagine mid flight. Woof. Here's a quote from The Daily Beast.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: There's no way a female runner had any say in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that design. I hope USATF is paying for bikini waxes.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Another commenter wondered, if the Labia are hanging out on
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a still mannequin, what do we expect to happen to
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a moving person? And from the Atlantic quote in response
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: to the women's body suit included in the first look promo,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Grayson Murphy, a two time world champion in mount running,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: said that Gussett is giving me anxiety. It's representing other
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: countries also sounded off on the design. Canadian hurdler and
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: two time olympian at Sage Watson wrote, Yeah, that's a
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: note for me. Dog. An English long jumper, Abigail Abigail
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Irrazuru shared a photo of the uniforms to her Instagram
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  Speaker 1: story with the caption was any female athlete consulted in
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: this team?
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Kit can? I read some of the comments so like,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I saw this on Instagram again, we're a little late
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: to the game and now and then, which is what
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: the news organizations had that posted, and people of course
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: commenting and the amount of men being like, what's the problem.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, y'all are complaining blah blah blah blah blah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: But like some of the comments in hair A Gold.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: One was talking about the fact that Naire was going
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: to be their sponsor was one and then there was
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: a comment that says one huddle in and a whole
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: lip is going to slide out, oh, which I was
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: like yep. And then this one I thought was funny essentially,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: was like it looks like Nike is supporting bring out
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: the bush, Let the bush out, And I was like
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: they are doing this is too good. And someone was
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: talking about where does my lapia go? And I was like,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: at least they brought in. I mean, I feel like
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: after all of the conversations we've had about women's volleyball
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: teams and how they're like this is unnecessary, and again
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: being like why is this, Why is this necessary? Like
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: if it was that beneficial, as they had said, men
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: would be wearing it too, So either men should be
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: wearing this as well, or we should be wearing women
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: should be wearing what the men are wearing. Like it
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: it doesn't mean anything. And then like there was this
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: whole argument within the comments about how people women or
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: those arguing against us do not understand how balls work
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: compared to vaginas and they don't all hang out like
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: balls do. And I'm like, wow, you're super reaching, dude.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't dude, by the way, man's to us
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: about how vaginas are easily covered.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Right, which a lot of issues with it.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Which it can be if it was shorts, if.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: It was shorts. But yeah, again, if you're like running,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: which is what you're meant to do.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: In this at the hardest speed possible.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, And it's we've talked about this before. It was
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: is a running joke that women who do like that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: volleyball or handball have like to have like a specific
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: wedgie pick that they do. They just do, which is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the thing that you have to do, and it's on
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: camera and like, and we've also talked about how these
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: sexualized uniforms have kept women girls from competing. Like literally,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: if that's what I have to wear, I'm not confident
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of that, right, not doing that. So it's a it's
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: a thing. It's a big deal, and I'm all, I'm
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: kind of flabbergasted by this whole thing just because to me,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: also just that like different gender and outfits, Like, I know,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: bodies are different, but you don't have to we don't
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: have to do it like this.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: The bodies are different, but it doesn't mean like one
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  Speaker 2: can wear a little piece of lightning between their crotch
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and then be able to jump, Like I can't imagine
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: the amount of sand. Yeah that's gonna fly up in
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  Speaker 2: that if you're doing like a long jump.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And also I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure some companies can get a fine for streaming.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, this is a separate issue,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: but for if like Pubes did, you can get fined
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: for it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, National TV.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which again that's kind of a separate thing, but
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: they're taking a risk, what I'm saying.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: And then can we just talk about the overall sexualization
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: that is oftentimes that if something is captured, if a
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: woman is captured in some kind of position, the way
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: that that's going to live on the internet and media
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  Speaker 2: forever because Nike decided, the sponsored outfit decided this is
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: this is the one.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Of course, And it's also going back to some of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: those comments, Yes, you don't want to be wasting that
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: like brain space and time on any kind of maintenance,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: but also that's going to kind of at least for
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I would say a good amount of people take you
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out like you're going to be thinking about that, and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you don't need to be thinking about that. You are
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: in like the toughest competition of your life, maybe right,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and you're worried about like, oh no, what if my
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: body looks weird?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Right? Women are often talking about this jiggles or this
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: looks sunky, how you can see one of my stretch
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: marks here? Like having that in itself. And don't get
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: me wrong, I know these athletes are like in shape
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: and tone, but like whether they're too muscular there too,
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  Speaker 2: Like so many conversations that happen about this that just
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: shouldn't be happening, as well as the fact that can
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: we talk about in a world where they say dress
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: appropriately or if you get attacked, you deserved it, and
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  Speaker 2: then this is what they want to feature as professional
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  Speaker 2: athletic gear.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Right, okay, right, it's like, don't be sexual, but also
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: if you want to be in this, you've got to
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: be reliance.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: We need to show it off things of all everything.
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  Speaker 1: It just reinforces the idea too that men it's they're
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the athletic ones. When it's nice that you're here, that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: we can look at you, it's still your looks but
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not your performance that we're into when so many things,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: as we mentioned lately, like women are killing it. They
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: have been and they currently are in terms of sports,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: in terms of what people are watching, in terms of
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  Speaker 1: what people are interested in. So this is like an antiquated,
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous sexist idea that needs to go that like women
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  Speaker 1: are lesser wear the sexual outfit, right, I must say.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Nike has responded to these criticisms. One spokesperson said, we
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: showcased some of the new Olympic uniforms at the Nike
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: on Air Experience in Paris, but as we are a
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: few months from the games and working with limited samples
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: in a limited format presentation, not all looks and styles
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  Speaker 1: were featured. They asserted that they have over fifty styles
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and women are not limited to the leotard. They can
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: also wear the men's design if they want. I'm curious
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: about this. I would love if someone could write in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: because I can't. That just confuses me. Then, I mean,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: if you want to wear that, and we're going to
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: get into that in a second, that's totally fine. But
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that was the one you showcase. I guess I.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Look what we did, right, variation? How little you want
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  Speaker 2: to cover?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Yes? Oh, speaking of this is sort of funny to
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  Speaker 1: me in a dark way. They also pointed out that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: they raised the neckline of the leotard because they respect
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: women's comfort.
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  Speaker 2: Remember looking at that, going this doesn't make sense.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, you want points for that, right?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I also think that same way about like skater skating outfits,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Like when figure skaters come about with like the fact
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: that the uniform is a bathing suit but with sleeves
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  Speaker 2: that I'm like, I don't understand if that's comfortable, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: that maybe there's some reasons for that, I don't quite get.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: I get like not having dresses and trains and things
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: like it's get stuck on you. Absolute get that, but
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: to the point that I'm like, I've always been like,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: it always is such an oxymoron that I every time
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: I look at it just fills off when I see
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: sleeves and no no bottoms.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, and to that end. So one of
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the big complaints that we've been talking about, and that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: was huge online, was people were saying, did you ask
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: anybody any woman who's going to be wearing this? Apparently
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: USA Track and Field claims that some athletes were consulted,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and since all of the online backlash, some have reported
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: that they do like the design. The mannequin just didn't
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: do it justice. This is also on the heels of
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: another outfit controversy courtesy of Nike, with the newly designed
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: MLB outfits that sort of became a meme because they're
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: see through and their bad quality and care to the
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: point that they are from what I understand, they are
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: going to redo them. It was I mean, I felt bad,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: but I was laughing at pictures of it, like, oh yeah,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: that's see true.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: I feel like they're just you would think with multimillion
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: dollar deals in contracts they would get good quality things.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: I don't understand. Is this how they're like, oh, but
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: this is because of inflation, we have to do less
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: when we know that this has all been a lie
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: to begin with. Like, yes, that was a little bit
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: of problem during COVID, but it has been fixed since
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: then with a shortage, and you're just trying to make
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: more money. So are you trying to like cut through
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: some things so you can make more money for the
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: for the CEOs, Like I don't understand.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I definitely think so. I definitely think so, but I
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: could be wrong, and let me know. I will say
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: in fairness, some have changed their mind after seeing this
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: bodysuit in person, including Davis Woodhall that we quoted earlier
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: quote it was the picture that did no justice. I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: saw one today. They're beautiful. They're not like the picture.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: The cut looks a bit different on that mannequin. They
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: just should have had a second look with someone to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: choose that photo to post. I mean, it's the photo
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: is bad. It looks bad. And then I wanted to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: end on this. So here's a quote from Gold medalist
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: poll Walter Katie Moon, who is sponsored by Nike. I
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: have to say, but she said that while she believes
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the outfit is troubling. Quote, even if it's with the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: best of intentions, you're ultimately attacking our decision as women
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: to wear it. The point is we do have the
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: choice of what to wear and whether we feel the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: best in a potato sack or a bathing suit during competition.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: We should support the autonomy. Should I agree with I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: guess I'm just really curious about how much freedom of
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: choice there actually is.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Right after all the conversations that we've seen and negotiations
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and women being told they can't compete unless they follow
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: these things, including about hair and different types of things
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: like that, there hasn't been much choice, and there hasn't
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: been much conversations. So perhaps there is now, which is
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: great and choosing is great. But again, also it comes
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: to the fact like why did you choose? Did you
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: did you know this was going to controversy so people
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: would talk about it? And you did this on purpose?
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Who chose this? Minnegan to stretch it up and give
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: it the worst wedgie in its life? Like who did this?
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Like there's so many thought processes, like, after everything that
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: you've gone through as an organization that has seen sexism
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: within this type of field, why would you not have
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: a deeper conversation like that looks like the first thing
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: you see is that's going to show everything everything. Yeah,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: and then if you're walking in that, that's going to
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: be up everything. So who did this? Yeah?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Who did this? Who did this? Because either it is
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the most like up too because again the last Olympics
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, because COVID, they had the huge
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: backlash with the handball the handball team women's handball team protesting,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: so it's like been a conversation and they got the rules,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: they helped get the rules changed. So either you were
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: in doing this incredibly obtuse and like just not tuned
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: in at all. Oh yeah, you knew it would cause controversy.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but they I mean when I was
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: researching this, like every article ended with kind of a
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: flustered comment, like they reached out to Nike for comment
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and a flustered reply like we weren't done yet. So
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Again, listeners, if you have any more
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: information about this, I just if there's fifty options that's great,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: but I feel like there's still got to be some
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: pressure where you're all wearing the same thing or something
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: like there's some because I usually when I watched the Olympics,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: they're all wearing the same thing, right, So either this
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: is new or there is some kind of unspoken to
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: us as viewer, ur as an outsider, you're gonna wear this, yeah,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And I would like to know.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: It's also interesting to see alphas like this when major
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: sports events can happen in places like a tar where
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: wearing something like this will get you arrested.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And like it's Paris is obviously a little different, but
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: like you you think, like with an international issue like that,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: and again I know it's only for the US team,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: but it's just like there's so many indications and implications
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: when it comes to uniforms, and we already know it's
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: already like, uh right, an issue, but then you start
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: considering like the international aspect.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And just to hammer the point home again, I
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: think that they chose the side by side of what
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: they say was fifty options, and it's this one, the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: male one that looks very functional and for women, it's
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: like a swimsuit is gonna show off everything. I think
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that's also part of it. So yeah, listeners, let us know.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: If you have any more information or have any thoughts
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: about this. You can email us a Stephani mom Stuff
• 18:19
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• 18:30
  Speaker 1: we do talk about this stuff. Thanks as always too,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and your
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: contributor Joey.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 18:37
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