The 2012 Olympics in
London has included many triumphant moments for international athletes beyond
the podium. Male athletes enjoyed landmark events such as Michael Phelps’
record number of Olympic medals and double amputee Oscar “Blade Runner”
Pistorius’s competition in the 4x400. Female athletes also experienced history-making
achievements from the first-ever inclusion of women’s boxing (see this interview
from WBEZ’s “The Afternoon Shift” on the documentary, “Go For It: Life Lessons
From Girl Boxers”) to the praise of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh for their
third gold in women’s beach volleyball to US Olympic gymnast, Gaby Douglas’,
mature response to criticism
of her hair. Yet amid these achievements were also events that were
evidence of lingering biases against competitive women and single, successful
men, revealing problematic social norms for both genders.
The McKayla is Not Impressed
meme has become one of the m buzzed about and visited memes since its inception
on August 7th, 2012. The meme features American gymnast, McKayla
Maroney’s, face after not winning gold in the women’s vault photo shopped into
scenes like the an image of the Taj Mahal, the White House cabinet getting
briefed on Osama bin Laden’s death, and the birth of Jesus. Some of the memes
are witty commentaries like Mitt Romney’s
VP choice or jabs at Justin
Bieber, yet others like Maroney’s supposed lack of amusement at the
Pyramids and Paralympics
athletes competing suggest that she is simply a bitch with a bad attitude.
The meme’s playfulness with Maroneys frustration over not winning gold risks
interpreting her drive and competitiveness with being bitchy and ungrateful.
Why is this female Olympian’s expression after losing first place synonymous
with not being “impressed” with anything else in the world? Is this a
gender-based meme that confuses competitiveness and disappointment with being a
prima dona?
Similarly, the NBC
coverage of the Russian Olympic women’s gymnastics team included the
gender-biased word choice, “diva,” in describing the Olympians’ training styles
and relationship with their coach. Dvora
Meyers' Jezebel article on NBC commentators’ poor word choice draws
attention to the problematic association between women’s motivation, focus, and
training style with “truly negative, un-sportswoman like behavior”
characteristic of a diva.
Male athletes also
received special attention from the media that sometimes confused
attractiveness with sexual permissiveness. Swimmer Ryan Lochte is an
eleven-time medalist yet the majority of press about him this Olympics revolved
around his personal and sexual life. Rumors continually swirl about his latest
girlfriend(s), photos like this
one pop up with Lochte out clubbing (with special attention to his
sartorial choices), his mother unfortunately told the press he only has time
for “one-night stands” upon repeated questioning about his dating life—thus
forcing Lochte to clarify that his mother doesn’t even know what that means and
that she meant he is “not in a relationship so I do go on dates”—and recently
he has been courted to join Dancing
with the Stars and The Bachelor. The athlete’s appearance has gained more
attention than his professional success, making Lochte’s sexual life a
proverbial piece of meat for the press to gnaw on. The commodification of
Olympic athletes is not uncommon given the void in professional options
post-games and is therefore not always bad attention for the athlete, yet
Lochte’s offers and media attention are based solely on his appearance and the
press’s assumption that he is a womanizer. At least Apollo Ohno’s endorsements
with Subway and Nyquil don’t involve him handing out roses to beautiful but
crazy women.
The problematic gender
portrayals of Olympic athletes come down to what sells: womanizing guys, diva
Russians, and bitchy silver medalists. They are easily packageable images of
womanhood and manhood that people respond to. The question is: will we as
internet users, TV watchers, and blog readers ever change our response and
eventually get frustrated with these prescribed roles, demanding new portrayals
of Olympians?
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