USA’s Sada Jacobson (R) competes against France’s Leonore Perrus during the women’s team sabre bronze medal match France vs. USA on August 14, 2008 at the Fencing Hall of National Convention center, as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
We’ve been discussing the astonishingly sexualised uniforms for female athletes over at Hoyden About Town, as have many other blogs. As Lauredhel said:
No. It’s not about faster, higher, stronger. Women in sports are promoted as sexualised bodies for ogling; men are promoted as performers.
This is also something I’ve posted about before, showing how track uniforms were virtually identical for men and women in the 80s compared to the enormous disparities now.
It’s also interesting to note that in one of the very few summer sports where streamlining actually is crucial to performance, the mens and women’s swimming costumes are almost the same (much to the distress of this eejit in The Times bemoaning how female swimmers’ breasts are compressed by these costumes so that they don’t give him the titillation to which he feels entitled). His ridiculous column is a fine example of the major display of sexism at the Olympics - the media commentators who are so focussed on how the female competitors look that they don’t actually pay proper attention to the competition and the phenomenal performances. Indeed, as far as women’s competitions go, unless the athletes show skin or wear a form-fitting uniform they receive hardly any TV coverage at all.
At least the Indians successfully argued that the beach volleyball regulation bikinis (or even the notoriously sand-trapping alternate regulation one-piece) were culturally inappropriate and their women’s beach volleyball team are competing in generous shorts and T-shirts. But for other competitors where the old men with authority in their home country don’t object to their bodies being on display, refusing to wear the regulation bikini means being dropped from the squad. This is not just an issue for elite athletes - more and more local and school competitions are requiring participants to wear uniforms similar to those worn by the elite competitors, much to some women’s dismay. A Senate Enquiry in 2006 found that sexualised uniforms were turning girls off sport at younger and younger ages, a phenomenon which will have major effects on women’s health and physical confidence.
Anyway, have a few more pictures of fiercely competitive women:
Gold medallist Yang Xiuli of China bites her medal during the medal ceremony of the women’s -78 kg judo event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 14, 2008. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon)
Johana Gomez of Venezuela pitches against Taiwan during their softball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 14, 2008. (REUTERS/Danny Moloshok)
A drop of blood falls from the forehead of Ange Mercie Jean Baptiste of Haiti during her women’s -57kg preliminary judo match with Yurisleydis Lupetey of Cuba at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 11, 2008. (REUTERS/Dylan Martinez)
I agree.
What do we want?
More taught, toned men in skimpy outfits!
I may regret asking this, but taught to do what exactly?
They’re your objects tigtog, to do with as you please. Diving and munching, one would presume.
Um, tigtog, with respect to men’s sprinters costumes, while they don’t reveal midriff they’re pretty, um, “figure-hugging”. Anybody remember Matt Shirvington?
OTOH, the swimming commentary has often seemed rather patronizing towards the female swimmers. Duncan Armstrong, I’m referring to you…
It’s entertainment, the sport I’m interested in has the women and men equally covered ( swimming). Horse riding, covered. Your problem is your watching too much beach volley ball.
Believe me, I’m not.
Yep, as Helen has pointed out riders wear exactly the same clothes in the equestrian events, as do their horses regardless of gender.
And as Robert Merkel has pointed out the male sprinters outfits are also completely different than in the ’80s. I do remember the fuss about Matt Shirvington.
The football players seem to wear the same uniforms, so much so that some of the women’s teams often appear to be wearing oversized uniforms.
Beach volleyball certainly stands out for the ridiculous disparity between the uniforms of the two sexes, which is far greater than the difference in indoor volleyball.
At least the male sprinters don’t have to use BodyGlide to combat thigh-chafe.
Look at the women’s tan-lines on their legs - they don’t train in those underwear-type bottoms. They train in shorts that protect them from chafing.
Doesn’t it give you pause that your reaction to women wearing uniforms with the exact same looseness as men’s is that they appear “oversized”?
Team sabre? I’ve never heard of that event before.
Do they all fight simultaneously, the way they do in swashbuckler films? That would be something to see.
Doesn’t it give you pause that your reaction to my comment that I mean that some of the Women’s teams seem to be wearing the Men’s uniforms?
I believe DJ’s implication was that they might be wearing the very same uniforms.
I don’t agree, but there you go.
I watched some womens’ soccer the other night and didn’t realise for a while (until there was a close up). So they at least appear to be doing it well. Great game too - Norway were resting a few stars, sure, but Japan got some cracking goals.
Yes FDB.
The uniforms may be a smaller size but the same cut as the male ones which could explain why they appeared looser than the male ones on some of the smaller female players. A few players just stood out as looking like some of us did when we were kids playing in uniforms that fit the big kids but looked like tents on us smaller lads. While I would prefer to play in a relatively loose uniform, playing in one that is too big can be distracting and detrimental to your range of motion.
BTW, I agree that there’s no reason for female athletes to be running in pseudo-bikinis other than sexist TV executives. They could wear something similar to the men’s sprinters.
Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor talked about their dislike of the Opals Bodysuit on Channel 7’s Yum Cha, which is online (ep. 1, about 51 minutes in.)
It makes them self-conscious about watching replays.
LJ: I mean they may as well just paint them on, really
It’s interesting to note that the WNBL teams have moved away from bodysuits.
Exactly, Boynton. Lauredhel had a side-by-side for that as well:
I thought it was pretty well known that Beach Volleyball was nothing but tits and bums. Providing a mens competition is just part of the pretence it’s a serious sport. The criticism here really goes to the tossers who run the Olympics these days, and allowed such a blatantly commercial operation into the Olympics.
Costume disparities in the other sports are legitimate, I think. In the case of running, the best clothing in the 80s had been developed for males, and women simply used that without adapting it. As women have become more confident, they’ve switched to figure hugging clothing that gives them more freedom of movement. Males don’t have the same options due to their anatomical complications.
Women runners do actually train in skimpy figure hugging clothes when it’s appropriate, such as on the track. But they don’t wear those clothes all day, so their tan lines reflect fuller shorts and other clothing.
Also longer shorts don’t prevent chafing for elite athletes; they cause it. The shorts now being worn by women runners are actually the most appropriate for them. The fact that it’s skimpy reflects womens’ confidence rather than some sort of deference to cheap thrills for blokes.
“Do they all fight simultaneously, the way they do in swashbuckler films? That would be something to see.”
That’s almost exactly the same image I had last year when someone told me the Davis cup is a team competition.
Men have anatomical complications that prevent them from baring their torsos? Funny, I would have though that would be more of a problem for women.
So all those professional football players wearing longer bike-shorts under their uniform shorts are lying about it preventing chafe?
The male track athletes are deliberately inducing chafe?
Pull the other one Tony Healy.
Why are there skirts in Hockey, what *possible* advantage can that give women? If it’s such an advantage, let’s slap em on the menfolk. What about the basketball outfits discussed, where clearly at least two women aren’t feeling more *confident* by way of wearing skimpier outfits. And again, the uniform requirements are just that, requirements, not women deciding of their own volition.
And *dude* do I even need to tell you how offensive your comments on beach volleyball would be to any person who’s trained their life away to be able to play like that?
Yeah, I have to wear bike shorts underneath short shorts to stop chafing. I used to hate the short shorts that we had to wear for Touch or athletics/running shorts. I don’t have the same problem with longer shorts.
An obvious solution. Return to the spirt of the original Olympics and have everyone compete in the nude. Hell, even the horses.
Well except perhaps for the Bulgarian weightlighters. There are some things humanity was never meant to see.
They should all compete naked. If it was good enough for the ancient Greeks, it’s good enough now.
Make that anyone who has ever played it competitively fuckpoliteness.
It’s volleyball, played by 2 people on a court that usually has 6 people covering the area, in the sun, with wind, in sand, with tighter restrictions on setting and a ball that is harder to control because of it’s weight and material specs.
Anyone that reckons BV is a “pretence” of a sport has obviously never tried to play it.
Mens beach volleyball was in operation for years before the womens version became professionalised. It never started out as a T&A marketing regime.
And despite a large element of that marketing strategy happening in both mens and womens BV today - it’s a bit of an exaggeration to suggest it drives the sport. In some competitions around the place where there are zero dress restrictions, you still see an awful lot of bikinis in action, voluntarily - and if not, short boardshorts and kini tops make up the rest.
Except the blokes - who often don’t wear any top at all - but no budgie smugglers, for which we can probably all be thankful.
Roy and HG have been calling for a NUUUDE!!! olympics for years.
Speaking of Roy and HG, what’s with that Yum Cha crap? The Dream turns into a nightmare.
Regarding anatomical complications, I was referring to shorts and running. Women wear skimpier shorts because they can.
Regarding exposed torsos, you certainly do have a point. I think in that one, though, it’s the men who are suffering under silly gender stereotypes. Womens’ clothing is much more appropriate for endurance events, because the bare torso dissipates heat better. In casual running, many males dispense with tops in warm weather for this reason.
Regarding longer shorts causing chafing, I should have been more precise. I was referring to elite runners. Your photo was of runners, and I used to do distance events. I know, dj, that many people wear bike shorts underneath running shorts, but those people are not elite athletes competing in running events.
Also, just doing a sensibility check on this, tigtog, most elite women runners do wear skimpy shorts. Surely you’re not suggesting they’re all brainwashed or something?
Beach Volleyball players are not in the same league as elite marathoners, swimmers and cyclists, so stop pretending otherwise. Wnkrs.
[personal abuse disemvoweled, and I’m pleased to inform you that this application to be placed in permanent moderation has been accepted ~ moderator]
The Olympics is for the benefit of Channel 7, so it’s really no surprise that the coverage is constructed about as intelligently as your average episode of Today Tonight.
They’re certainly not in the same league as elite marathoners, swimmers and cyclists when it comes to running a marathon, swimming and cycling. I never realised it was a dick swinging contest of my sport is bigger than yours. No wonder the men don’t wear budgie smugglers with all this sporting viagra floating around.
So saying, I played against an Australian cyclist about ten years ago in a beach comp where he filled in for a bit of fun. He was rooted after 10 minutes - like most sports, the movement involved is pretty unique to that sport.
I’m suggesting that if they refuse to wear the regulation uniforms they get dropped from the squad.
Okay, seeing as we’ve moved into highly productive Superman vs Godzilla territory, here’s my 2c on pointless sport:
Making It Hard For Yourself For No Good Reason: The Walking And Swimming Story.
Who cares how fast someone walks? Walking is what you do when you don’t want to go fast.
Likewise, who cares how fast someone does a stroke other than the one they do fastest?
There are probably others.
Also this:
As a physiotherapist, I’m well aware that wearing a modern sports material that wicks the sweat away from the skin is actually far more effective at dissipating heat than sweat remaining on bare skin. It might well go against the factoids accepted by the running fraternity who aren’t actually sports scientists, but it is a demonstrated physiological fact.
Tigtog - those modern materials are pretty profound in what they can do. I still hack about on a beach court weekly, but at night and not on a beach. In summer there is often zero wind and often high humidity and the heat literally kills you - well, it used to until I started wearing a long sleeve shirt made up of that weird textured stuff, recommended by a physio actually.
Now if only they could design one that doesn’t stink after about 10 minutes of use, the world will truly be a better place. At least for those within 50 feet of anyone wearing them.
I guess it’s just pure coincidence that the most “scientific” uniforms for women are also completely in line with the sexay?
None so blind as those who see what they want to see?
I wonder Kim if the “scientific” uniforms - like the bodysuits for the basketball players as a random example - just happen to be “sexy” on the ladies but would make the blokes look a little too effeminate for prime time TV and associated marketing?
Got it in one, I suspect, Poss!
Basically, we could say perceptions of gender is an intervening variable here.
Possum - what is it with those materials?
My indoor soccer shirt smells fucking frightful, and has since maybe the second game I played in it. The fabric must abosorb stench and really store it up - completely immune to washing. I take it off and my body itself smells of naught but fresh, manly sweat.
Reminds me of this superb disco picture-shirt I found in Don Bosco op shop. Looks fantastic i an ugly gaudy sort of way, but it’s unwearably tainted with horrid man-stink. And it’s someone else’s.
I have only watched road racing bikes, boxing and shooting. No women boxing but in the bike racing you actually cannot tell from just looking if it is men, women or martians competing.
Kim - you’re such a cynic!
As if some burly US basketball player, flexing biceps and generally showing off his alpha male prowess couldn’t be dressed in the equivalent of a leotard when he looks down the camera and implores middle aged men everywhere to buy a Hummer.
Advertising gold I tell you!
FDB, never buy a white one! That shit stains like the Cat in the Hats bathtub ring. You’d swear human sweat was made out of old motor oil.
And that’s honestly the first time I’ve ever seen the words “superb” and “disco picture shirt” said in the same sentence.
That is a tad disturbing!
What I want to know is - do they use semi-colons in any reporting of the manly sports?
Do the male Gladiators wear leotards? If they do, perhaps one of the unspoken selection criteria was whether they were the total…package.
Possum, I’ve been looking for an excuse to post this. Thank you.
Bah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT59FXkS93Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT59FXkS93Q
Liam, mate. You’re talking in circles.
FDB, I’ve tried putting up the real link but my further comments are going down. Splash two.
You’re spaminator baiting, Liam!
Sorry Kim. Looks like my ego is writing comments Wordpress can’t cash.
Women runners wear skimpy shorts everywhere, not just at the Olympics. This suggests they prefer it. It also straining credulity to suggest the Australian Olympic Committee would try to force female competitors to wear clothing they did not approve of.
So why do elite women runners prefer bear midriffs? And why do their sports scientist advisors approve it?
If it’s links to sports montages with homoerotic overtones you’re after, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdPKL1aAzn4&feature=related
At about 43 seconds begins a whole new world of WTF.
Wow. Talk about more bounce to the ounce, Ice(cream)man.
I got the film out for a perfectly innocent weekend of zombie and teen martial arts movies. After this scene appeared, we had to rename our beach shack the House of Holiday Hernias.
Oh, and in respect of the earlier discussion over lycra bike shorts, here is a data point on inappropriate sporting gear.
Tigtog, you said:
No. The point is that it’s the uniform shorts that cause the chafing, not your own skin. Your options are to go nude as God and Nabokov intended, or slip the bike shorts underneath. Or, if you are fortunate enough not to have dangly bits down there, wear shorts that finish where leg meets pelvis.
Which sport did you play, BTW?
I can really see footballers (in this post Warwick Capper world) wearing skintight shorty short shorts and crop tops that display their abs.
Ah Olympics. They should all have to do it in Mormon underwear, and instead of nation against nation, teams formed alphabetically by surname.
Admit it, you want olympics where the A-team march out first into the stadium.
Obviously I’m going to have to give my skin a damn good talking to, it’s always managed to chafe by itself without the help of fabric.
Skin chafes skin.
A thin layer of anything but frickin sandpaper will reduce it.
TH at #53, I’ve already asked and answered the question about the athletes alleged preferences for the skimpier gear - let’s actually see what would happen if the olympic/national/regional clubs didn’t mandate only skimpy uniforms, and see how many of them would prefer to cover up a bit more then. (edited to add: and the reason that they are required to do it by these bodies is all to do with sponsorship money that depends on TV ratings, and TV executives have decided that men won’t watch women’s sports in general unless they can see T&A)
Sean at #58, as said by FDB at #61, skin chafes skin. People with very large thighs, whether through muscle or fat, know this intimately. Physiotherapists see a lot of it, and recommend people to wear bike shorts because of it.
“Sean at #58, as said by FDB, skin chafes skin. People with very large thighs, whether through muscle or fat, know this intimately. Physiotherapists see a lot of it, and recommend people to wear bike shorts because of it.”
You don’t even need large thighs if you’re say, out for a full day of cricket when it’s hot and humid. Skin that’s wet for a long time does it really well, as even my reasonably svelte frame can attest.
That Sean can question this, while simultaneously questioning others’ credentials to comment, suggests he hasn’t played much sport himself. And is what’s more a boor.
Tigtog, you actually haven’t answered my points at all. Elite women runners wear skimpy shorts everywhere, not just at the Olympics.
To those discussing chafing, chafing between thighs tends not to be a problem for elite runners, because of the way the musculature of their legs is developed. For those people, when they’re wearing fly-away shorts, the danger comes when sweat makes the leg material heavy. That can cause chafing. There’s a big difference between the experience of casual and elite runners.
I think we should go back to the original intention of the Olympics and have all athletes take part naked. That should eliminate any untoward implications as to who gets to wear what.
I don’t know what we do about how women athletes proving that they were in fact female. Until 1968, I understand, this required women athletes walking past (?male?) doctors naked.
Perhaps the blokes could parade past women medicos.
Ought to boost the number of people choosing medicine as a career option.
Just a thought.
Tny Hly yr cmmts wr rly offnsv -g m srry y gt dsmvld thr wth yr rsrtng t vlgr nm cllng - frm fckpltnss
“Elite women runners wear skimpy shorts everywhere”
Everywhere you say? Jeez, that’s gotta be tough to pull off at a funeral
Actually I did answer that at #62, when I noted that the requirement comes from all team levels - olympic/national/regional and increasingly from local/school events as well.
This issue is also covered in the post itself, where the linked post on the Senate Committee report from 2006 covered how many young women are not continuing to participate in sports when they have the talent to try out at an elite level because of the uniforms that they are mandated to wear, and even veteran athletes in local clubs are dropping out because they feel that they don’t have the bodies to carry the mandated skimpy uniforms off.
It’s not a choice if it’s the only way that you’re allowed to be part of the team.
Ruh:
http://www.picsearch.com/info.cgi?q=Cathy%20Freeman&id=ud9rYnPp3m-AK3E1m3knyjGGwAQPbyiRVP-OQEeHY_Q&start=1
roh:
http://www.picsearch.com/info.cgi?q=Cathy%20Freeman&id=QYaFzwKQTO0qS-pAslwbBucVUbAfswdmz7GzDYKkVCg&start=1
Answer my points tigtog…ANSWER EM…
Cheer up Tony, at least she didn’t answer your points by calling you a wnkr. That would be out of line.
Maybe for the lanky marathoner/endurance runner, but not so much the case at all for the bulkier sprinter/hurdler power-runner types. Can you tell just from looking at that picture, for instance, which events those women run in? 3 out of 4 of them look like they’d definitely have thigh friction happening to me.
I am directly aware of women choosing not to nominate for a state level sport team because of these uniform issues or feeling very uncomfortable wearing the uniform they were required to wear. Again, there was no overwhelming imperative for the uniform design to be so different to the male one, illustrated perfectly by the fact that some of the best female teams in the sport wear uniforms that are looser than the one piece bodysuits that predominated for several years.
Yes, FP - the full body suit as worn by Freeman is the only other option for female track athletes, and some runners just full out hate the full body suits. Freeman wore it because her body fat was exceptionally low - remember how much she shivered on a warm night at Sydney 2000 when she got drenched lighting the Olympic torch?
Just being facetious in response to claims that elite female athletes wear skimpy shorts everywhere. Plenty o pics online though of marathon runners wearing short but floppy shorts (I know, I know, they may not be ‘elite’ enough) and Marion Jones (and presumably many others but now I need to stop being a pain in the bum and start doing some study, plus I don’t know any runners names beyond Freeman and Jones, so I’m out but it still wasn’t a bad innings for fun making) running a big proper elite looking race in longer shorts…
http://www.needtoknowsports.com/files/images/marion-jones-second-place-loser.jpg
Indeed, it could be argued that the bikini style shorts are less effective than longer tights for athletes in the sprints and other explosive movement athletics events, as they give less support to the major muscle groups.
That’s now done with a combination of hormone and chromosome tests, which has led to a few heartbreaking discoveries for some athletes who developed in the womb as female and grew up as women due to Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), but who nonetheless have XY chromosomes. However, they no longer require every woman to undertake the tests, only those about whom some doubts have been expressed.
Genetic testing has also caused problems for a few athletes who are genetic chimerae i.e. conceived with a sibling embryo, but the second embryo was absorbed into their own developing embryo, so that their tissues are a mosaic from two sets of chromosomes. One woman track athlete lost her medals when she was discovered to be a genetic chimera.
Of course, these sorts of chromosomal abnormalities where a woman’s hormonal makeup and musculature still develop as fully female have not been categorically shown to give them any definite advantage, which is very different from the case of XY individuals who developed as men and then have had their sex identity surgically changed.
I think there are a couple of things going on here, and it might be worth keeping them separate.
The first issue is what athletes are wearing. In the absence of evidence, we’re all speculating about the amount of choice athletes have with respect to their clothing. Suffice to say, if athletes are choosing to wear skin-tight/skimpy/what have you clothing themselves, then decrying their choice is all kinds of unreasonable. Matt Shirvington (mentioned above) wore this outfit continuously while he was competing, despite the fact that it looked like he had a bag of kittens down there. Do a google image search and you’ll see him featured in some, ahem, interesting places.
I’ve read conflicting stories about the beach volleyballers - some saying they have to wear f-a, some saying they have a choice but prefer ‘less is best’, and some pointing out that male competitors are shirtless as a general rule, and only at the Olympics do they have to ‘cover up’. It would be interesting to get to the bottom of it.
Next up - and probably of more legitimate concern - is the media reporting of the Olympics, and its relentless focus on appearance (including the deliberate lopping off of a female athlete’s head and legs in a photograph reproduced over at the Hoydens’ place). Athletes and their choices aside, this suggests that lots of media people don’t care very much that a given athlete may actually have an individual identity. It may also mean that the image was cropped in order to make it easier to flow ads around it. Media bodies are corporations like any other, and newspapers in particular exist as a vehicle for the display of advertisements.
tigtog @ 76, that’s really fascinating stuff, where can I read a bit more about it?
Laura, the description of the testing procedures in this article are good, and there’s some knowledgeable people talking about AIS especially in the comments.
The wikipedia article on chimeras is reasonable, although I think its claim that there are only about 40 verified cases in humans is well out of date.
I know it’s off topic, but - Damn FDB, that video clip is a least twelve different kinds of awesome, and I’m lathering up in all of em!
Good work, sir, I salute you, and name you “Manimal”.
I blame Liam for the off topicness. As always!
The skimpiest outfit so far has been the male divers. I’ve never seen speedos so small and so tight.
All of the athletes, male and female, should compete encased entirely in metal: cap-a-pie, as my lord Hamlet would say.
Happy now?
Tony Stark of Stark Industries, was this what you had in mind?
Due to a nipper with gastro I have ended up watching a few thousand percent more Olympics than I would have preferred. The two forms of image channel Seven keep using that reinforce the point of this post are firstly the slow motion beach volleyball serve (viewed from below, of course) and secondly the montages of the female swimmers. Thirty seconds of Ms Rice from all angles as if this were “America’s Next Top Model”.
Oh, and if anyone plays Bruce saying “..face of an angel but heart of a lion!” again I shall send a rude letter. Not to mention the fact that any female athlete is a girl while any male athlete warrants the adult form.
Fine - just, for a second, imagine if those guys hit the water at 50km/h in LOOSE speedos.
The feminists: look, we all know it’s a gendered world, but for real, this coverage of the Olympics, and all the focus on tits and arse in pictures, montages etc is driving me nuts - these women are ATHLETES. Hence, here see some pics of kick arse women you DON’T get to see often since they aint in itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikinis. Because female athletes - all of them - are awesomeness!
The men: Oh YEAH??? Well, I’ll have you know it’s SCIENCE, and we all know that science and the way we think of it is INDISPUTABLE FACT, not tarnished by the ways we think or our prejudice. Furthermore, you just want us to be gay and not like female bodies! That’s right, you want women covered in big floppy uniforms that they’ll trip and hurt themselves in all because you have a problem with female bodies.
The feminists: No. Please learn to read and furthermore to read words written by a female that may unsettle you without the immediate impulse to piss all over them by a/ calling names, b/ snide comments such as “what sport did YOU play, c/ demeaning the sports of women, d/ missing the freaking point whether intentionally or unintentionally, e/ falling back into what sounds like feminist hating when you again acuse us of just not liking womens bodies - go forth and read: there’s a world of literature out there to tell you all about gender discrimination and its effects, educate yourselves, f/ STOP CHANGING THE ARGUMENT AND ANSWER THE POINTS OF THE POST ITSELF RATHER THAN MAKING PEOPLE ARGUE ON YOUR TERMS
Ok wait, it’s been a long week. I apologise…read the above as The men who refuse to engage, not the men in general. It’s been a long week of sevaral men telling women they ought to be pleased they’re so highly sexualised etc…apologies to the many men who’ve engaged and had respect for the issues.
Thanks, FP!
Tigtog, this makes no physical sense - by removing sweat from the skin you avoid the evaporative cooling it would provides. This maybe more comfortable (”not sticky”) but it’ll dissipate less heat. I’m just an ignorant runner but here is a sports scientist of the same view: Gavin, 2003 T.P. Gavin, Clothing and thermoregulation during exercise, Sports Medicine 33 (13) (2003), pp. 941–947
There you go, Tigtog, you’re not a physiotherapist at all. Or if you are, you don’t know anything, and a ’sports scientist’ knew more five years ago than you do now. Because everybody knows that ’science’ doesn’t change in five years.
Especially not if it justifies women wearing three band-aids to jump up and down in.
But not men.
Or something.