Men's horse riding--

Would you let yourself get this short and light and wear funny clothes even if it meant that you could have a show on Animal Planet and you could maybe win the Triple Crown?

I mean, some of these guys are tiny and they wear clothes called "silks".
















Gosh, did that post seem *****y of me? Ridiculing men who are short and light and wear pink clothes? It isn't like they can help being short and besides it takes athleticism to ride a horse for less than 2 minutes in an oval.

You're right, that would be a *****y post on my part.

However for the same reasons that this post seems wrong -- criticizing someones appearance, pointing out the ways they don't follow norms of their gender, criticizing them for not meeting the Western ideal of tallness in men, being dismissive of their accomplishments -- are done on a daily basis with women athletes (and politicians and business women but I digress) in popular media and on MFP *all the time* and we don't even notice it because we are so used to women being their for the gaze of men.

There are very accomplished weightlifters who have been criticized for their appearance during this Olympiad. One in the lightweight division and one in the super heavy weight division. (plus some swimmers, and gymnast and untold others, I've missed). The discussion on the one in the super heavyweight division is sadly on MFP and is discussing, in part, how unhealthy her level of weight/fat is. Some folks have pointed out that to lose the fat risks losing strength so to some extent, yes, the fat helps her lift. I'm certain the OP of that thread did not realize and did not intend the gender bias in that thread. I'm certain he is a stand up guy. I just wish it was a bit more common for ALL of us to question our assumptions.

But here's the thing: why are we commenting on her body? We are not commenting on the bodies of the male super heavyweight division. We aren't commenting on the health risks of the extremely thin marathoners. We are commenting on how her body looks on a site populated with people attempting to lose weight.

She is not a model. She did not go out there for the purpose of inviting others to comment on her body. She is out there to lift ungodly amounts of weight over her head. THAT is what is worth commenting on.

If we want to talk about the relative health of athletic endeavor, we need to talk about overuse injuries, decalcifying bones among girls at an age they should be building stores of calcium, about head injuries in soccer and the NFL and we need to talk about the risk of anorexia among the colleagues of the nice chaps above. What we don't need to do is to put up a picture of a woman and invite judgment of her based on her appearance on a fitness site primarily used for weightloss.

If what I'm saying pisses you off, do me a favor, blast me that's fine, but also pay attention to Olympic coverage, and also other news. Notice how many times there's a comment on Hillary's pants suits from the campaign 3 years ago, or comments on Sarah Palin's hair. Notice the discussion of hair and stature and spritliness or nails or whatever when they are covering an accomplished woman and then ask yourself, would this comment be made about a man? No one (rightly) talked about the pen Bob Dole carried all the time. Or that he always wore a blue suit and a red tie. Always. Or heck, that Barrack Obama was always wearing pants suits too. No one's talking about Michael Phelps' appearance.