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March 30, 2012

Spiking the …. Uniform? Women’s Olympic Volleyball Getting “More Flexible”

By Karen Donley

Thanks International Volleyball Federation!  It’s really nice to know that Olympic athletes no longer have to dress like Vegas mud wrestlers to play beach volleyball.  Quite a relief  that women from countries with religious or cultural objections (see Rwandans below) can choose to expose less as opposed to more of their bodies.

But when you look at the uniforms now accepted by the IVF, you really have to wonder how they got to the current uniforms to begin with and why women play a sport in costumes clearly aimed at men.

All kinds of men:

Bush-Beachvolleyball.jpg (490×571)

The current uniforms will still be used by teams choosing to use them but, according to IVF spokesman Richard Baker, “many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements, so the uniform needed to be more flexible.” And while we try desperately to avoid jokes about flexibility or lack thereof (particularly in the fan base), it’s impossible to ignore the fact that men’s beach volleyball uniforms have always been a little more expansive.

– Karen Hull

(Credits: Top photo: EPA/GEORGIOS KEFALAS  Caption: Brazil’s Juliana gives a sign, during the pool round match between Brazil’s Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca against Latvia’s Inguna Minusa and Inese Jursone, at the FIVB Beachvolleyball World Championships in Gstaad, Switzerland on Wednesday, July 25, 2007. US Women: FIVB caption: Misty May-Treanor leaps into Kerri Walsh’s arms after the final point. Rwandan Women: CAVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup. Bush/US Olympic Team: Mandel Ngan/Getty. Bottom photo: Bob Rosato caption: Phil Dalhausser (USA), serves against Brazil during the mens beach volleyball gold medal match at the Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground during the Beijing Summer Olympic Games.)

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  • Anonymous

    The fact that a bathing suit was REQUIRED was very sexist and wrong.  However….I’d say most sand volleyball players would probably prefer to play in one…..never fun to have sand between clothes and skin….so the less clothing the better as far as comfort goes.

  • Momly

    Doggone it!! I was looking forward to ogling men in speedos. (Well, not really, but this is where the requirement should have gone, imo.)

  • Momly

    Doggone it!! I was looking forward to ogling men in speedos. (Well, not really, but this is where the requirement should have gone, imo.)

  • Guest1

    Agree with Charles. The mandatory requirement was sexist not the uniform itself.  The requirement was even more sexist because the International Federation also mandates that the men must wear a shirt jersey when playing. In competitions not run by the International Federation men typically prefer to play sans shirt (see picture below of a professional at a non-FIVB event).  Women playing in bikinis and men playing without shirts is the way the sport has always been played.  Not surprisingly, because it started as a way to kill time when hanging out at the beach.

  • Guest1

    Agree with Charles. The mandatory requirement was sexist not the uniform itself.  The requirement was even more sexist because the International Federation also mandates that the men must wear a shirt jersey when playing. In competitions not run by the International Federation men typically prefer to play sans shirt (see picture below of a professional at a non-FIVB event).  Women playing in bikinis and men playing without shirts is the way the sport has always been played.  Not surprisingly, because it started as a way to kill time when hanging out at the beach.

  • Troutcor

    A complex little story that raises questions, too, about how women react to or even play into gender roles and typecasting. After all, I don’t recall Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh complaining about what was a signifcant factor in the rising popularity of their sport: the appeal of T&A. That is not to say the double-standard is OK, but it does absolve women of being helpless victims. 

  • http://twitter.com/SteveLaudig SteveLaudig

    I call it the “T&A” channels which are either evidence? or ‘crime’? I live outside the u.s. I get back every year or so and am then ’subjected’ to popular entertainment while visiting with friends. I had given my tv away a decade before I left the country so I only have a ’stoboscopic’ or ‘time lapse’ impression of the state of Americanized television which seems to be sliding/gliding/falling/running into a state where the phrase  ”soft pornification’ comes to mind. Never full on sensuous of course, that would be threatening. every 10 or 15 seconds there’s a jolt of salaciousness. once I detected this regular light dosing it became irritating. on the lines of the canned laughter. inhumane and, upon reflection, frightening, at an existential level.

  • Matt

    didn’t the original olympics – you know, the ones in ancient greece – feature athletes performing in the nude?

    • karen h.

      Must have had high Nielsen Ratings.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1382474842 Mike Thorneburg

    Well, I guess this is exactly the kind of thing we should expect from a woman reporter. If female volleyball players hated their uniforms, I am certain that they could make enough noise to have them changed. Because they haven’t and the rules are changing to become even MORE flexible, I might imagine that nobody is concerned about the uniforms except women who wouldn’t look good in them. 

  • Felipemotta

    Stupid comments by the author… And anti=Brazilian, anti-pleasure, anti-freedom…

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