I know the title may make me sound like a prude who is ashamed of the human body, but there is a line somewhere and the Olympic broadcast seems to be crossing it.
I have no objection to bikinis, and I have a lot of respect for the sport and the dedicated and skilled athletes competing in it. But some things have been changing over the years and it all seems to be about giving men an erection.
The TV coverage of this sport feels like it's been pornified. The women aren't wearing much, they're diving around and things are jiggling (for lack of a better word), and NBC shows zoomed-in slow motion replays of it after every point. It's no coincidence that women's beach volleyball was barely watched in the Olympics in the past, but has become very popular and is featured heavily on television since the arrival of large HD TVs.
They also play the games at night, and NBC airs the footage of it after 10 PM, seemingly acknowledging it isn't appropriate for children and it's something men might want to see later at night.
I think it's likely that some of the athletes are wearing less or giving themselves wedgies on purpose. Their sport isn't the most popular but once every four years they find themselves in front of a worldwide audience of millions of people. In this age of social media, they have to know they'll gain followers and potentially sponsorships if they can attract enough attention, especially if they have a moment that goes viral.
And of course, men are shamelessly treating the Olympics (and volleyball in particular) as a source of softcore porn. Vice even wrote an article about this during the last Summer Olympics. There are places like the subreddit "Ohlympics" where men post screenshots and slow-motion replays of the athletes so they can masturbate to it. Surprisingly, even Preddit has had enough of this and banned it last month for "non-consensual intimate media".
The TV coverage wasn't like this in the past. Sure, it's attractive women in bikinis, but there were only a couple of camera angles, it wasn't in HD being watched on a 70 inch screen, and the women didn't have their whole butt cheeks hanging out. Even if the pornification of sport wasn't intentional and is just an accidental result of better technology, something should be done about it.
I think it's time that NBC and the Olympics recognize what's going on here and start treating it more like a sport. Limit the slow motion replays or have them zoomed further out and focus more on the ball than an athlete's body, keep the close-ups to a minimum, and require the athletes to wear something that at least attempts to cover up their butts (as gymnasts and track athletes do).
It's worth noting that the athletes are free to wear whatever they want while competing at the Olympics. But professional volleyball leagues require them to wear bikinis, clearly because the sex appeal of their sport is the only way they can profitable.
And the Olympics has acknowledged this issue starting with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, advising broadcasters not to focus on sex appeal, but very little has actually changed so far.
Even the gymnasts. Why should you need to get a bikini wax to play your sport? The men wear long pants.
I recall the original rule was that the sides of their bikini bottoms were not permitted to be more than an inch wide or something.
Like how do you justify that as necessary in any way for athletic performance?!
While other competitions might require those outfits, I have to give some credit to the Olympics for finally making it optional. The German women wore long pants.
Most of the issue I have is with the way the TV coverage is handled, but the IOC should have a rule banning the extra revealing bikini bottoms.
Sadly, men do think of women's athletics as softcore porn. On YouTube, it's not uncommon for males to use a screenshot of a female athlete in a compromising position for the thumbnail. Instead of commenting on her displays of athleticism, the males in the comments are talking about her body in dehumanizing ways. Female body builders are especially fetishized by certain groups of men. They don't take women's training and physiques seriously. It's all a show for them.
Yup. There's an entire Youtube universe of women's gymnastics and track-and-field channels that cater their videos toward horny old men.
I bet the ridiculous outfit requirements scare a lot of young women out of trying out for high level volleyball. Even when I was young and skinny, I wouldn't have wanted to wear those bikinis on national television
I saw an article about exactly this issue a few years ago. Teenage girls are indeed quitting sports because they were worried about having to wear these skimpy outfits. It's not even just volleyball. I think tennis was affected too, and gymnastics (ofc) and ice skating. Basically all the sports that intentionally sexualize their female competitors. The organizers in charge of these sports all but admitted that was exactly what they were doing, because they thought that sexualizing the women would bring in more viewership and revenue (with no evidence of course).
Um, matches are played during the day, too. In fact, daytime coverage has shown entire matches.
I hate the sports’ uniform requirements. The most hilarious is when it’s cold and the women wear longsleeved rashers BUT HAVE TO WEAR THE SPORTS BRAS/BIKINI TOPS OVER THEM. Also, why aren’t the men shirtless? If the point is to mimic actual beach volleyball, the men would not be wearing shirts. And yet they all wear tank tops.
I continue to wonder why they can’t come up with athletic and yet beach-appropriate attire for the female athletes. Boy shorts which don’t get stuck up ass cracks and even just slightly more supportive sports bra type tops would still nod to the idea of being able to jump in the surf after a quick match, but also respect the women as the athletes they are. And there’s still be plenty of skin.
I know it has been played during the daytime in the past, but every time I've come across it this week it was after 10PM and the match was being played at night in Paris. I didn't mean to imply that no matches were ever played or broadcast during the day.
Also, why aren’t the men shirtless? If the point is to mimic actual beach volleyball, the men would not be wearing shirts. And yet they all wear tank tops.
Exactly, the difference is so obvious when you go from the men's event to the women's. It makes me glad that the swimsuit with built in shorts is a competitive advantage in swimming, at least in that highly viewed sport the women aren't being valued for their attractiveness to men.
And of course, men are shamelessly treating the Olympics (and volleyball in particular) as a source of softcore porn.
I tried reporting a few accounts on twitter for writing explicit and degrading posts about underage female athletes with zoomed in pictures of their bodies (some of them childhood family photos) alongside violent fantasies.
Each post had tons of interaction from other repulsive men and the posts themselves contained the girls' ages but flipped (eg 41🔁 61🔁) to evade a ban. The things these men were openly writing about children were so utterly sick it actually made me feel nauseated.
I doubt anything will happen to the accounts but it just made me feel so hopeless.
The female divers are also wearing Brazilian-cut one-piece swimsuits now. They don't even seem comfortable - most of them are constantly adjusting the suits. It's infuriating.
Does anyone know why the US team is in bikinis while many other teams opted for leggings and sports bras? Who makes that decision?
I’m just being a fly in the ointment here and while I agree with your assessment of some of these women’s sports is pornification, doesn’t the US team have something to do with this? The IOC is not mandating that the teams wear ultra skimpy bikinis or butt cheek revealing shorts, Are the teams choosing the attire for themselves? Please educate me.
The athletes are choosing their own outfits. I could only guess why some of the teams are wearing extra-revealing bikinis, and my guess would be that they consider any attention good for their career, or maybe they don't want to be the only ones dressed more conservatively than the others.
I remember last Olympics there were some games played in the rain, no one had any objection to covering up and putting on what looked like a scuba diving outfit then.
It might be called a free choice but there is no way that there isn't someone putting pressure on them if it will affect how many viewer will tune in.
Men definitely just see it as porn. My ex followed an IG account of college athletes that was literally just zooming in on their butts or filming them jumping to warm up etc. and it was mainly volleyball and track & field with really tiny uniforms.
Somehow that was the final straw and I told him I wanted a divorce when I found that. The way men are allowed to behave this way disturbs me. Those girls aren’t out there to be sexy, they’re trying to compete and there are just bullshit uniforms likely chosen by males or handmaidens.