Olympic Irritation

I know the Olympics were very uplifting and everything, but I have to say they have left me above all with a residual sense of irritation. Because whilst the headline message was that it was the first ‘Gender Equality Olympics’, we didn’t need to look far beneath the surface to see that we are still a long way from that.

I was irritated by the contrast between the men’s and women’s Beach volleyball kits.

I was irritated by people telling me that what women are expected to wear is an unimportant thing that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things (it does).

I was irritated by the commentator Bob Ballard saying that the Australian women’s freestyle swimming team were “just finishing off. You know what women are like, hanging around, doing their makeup” (for which he was removed).

I was irritated by the comments about Simone Biles’ - the greatest gymnast of all time’s - hair (racist as well as sexist).

I was irritated that Netball is still not an Olympic sport, apparently because men don’t play it (despite it being way superior to many of the games men do play, which they would know if they played it, or at least watched it for a few minutes).

I was irritated by the post about the ‘prettiest’ athletes in the Games.

I was irritated by the choice to have a half-naked woman dancing pointlessly behind Snoop Dogg during the closing ceremony.

I was, and am, irritated by the reality that, whatever women do, and however brilliant they are at what they do, they are always sexualized or diminished, or both.

Rant over. For today.