The Olympics are over. For me, this means I have to go back to parenting. No more abandoning my kids in front of a DVD player with the instructions, “Call me when it’s time for bed.” No more eating dinner in front of the TV in the basement, which we euphemistically call “having a picnic.” No more outdoing our neighbours with the size of our flag.
Canada's most patriotic garage door
Yesterday, after reading and commenting on Natasha’s post, “The Canadian Women’s Olympic Hockey Scandal,” I started to think about gender and the 2010 Winter Games.
The statistics for Team Canada, at least, are impressive. Women made up 44% of Canada’s 206 member Olympic team. Fifty-six percent of our medals, whether individual or team, came from female athletes.
These stats are fantastic. I am encouraged that we are moving toward an even playing field for women in sports.
We are, right?
But what surprised me is just how many gender-related issues there were at the 2010 Olympics.
Consider this:
- The beer drinking and cigar smoking of the Canadian women after winning hockey gold proved to be controversial, sparking letters to the editor across the country. It still would have made the media if the men’s team had partied on the ice at Canada Hockey Place, but it wouldn’t have garnered as much attention. As a society, we hold women to a higher moral standard that does not include partying after being crowned the best in the world. It might be a strange thing to argue, but women have as much right to kill brain cells as men do. It shouldn’t be a story.
- If Jon Montgomery, winner of the gold in men’s skeleton, were female, the media – and possibly the IOC — would have been all over the sculling of a pitcher of beer in public. Instead, he’s lauded as the poster boy for easy-going Canada, which he deservedly is. I just don’t get why a man can chug sixty ounces of beer given to him by a stranger, but a woman can’t have a can from the locker room.
- Women were not allowed to compete in ski jumping. Apparently, the Olympic committee decided that female ski jumpers aren’t good enough to participate, never mind that they have their own World Cup. Yes, forbidding women to ski jump at the Olympic Games will really encourage more girls to get involved in the sport.
- Johnny Weir, US figure skater, was criticized by some media for being feminine. While it’s conceivable that the media might criticize a woman for being masculine, the implication would be different. Calling Weir feminine is to suggest he’s “lesser than.”
So what’s the lesson? There may not be one. But there’s still work to be done before our daughters and sons are full partners in this world of sport and media.
Now, it’s your turn: does gender bias still exist in sports?
Leanne Shirtliffe is the mother of seven-year-old twins, Thing 1 and Thing 2. She lived in Asia for eight years, which turned out to be a build-your-own-family adventure. Leanne writes for Nickelodeon and pens a humour column for The Calgary Herald. She is represented by Jill Marr of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency in California. 
Amen sister. Ridiculous how far behind we still are in 2010 for god sakes!
It is amazing it’s 2010…glass ceilings, and all.
Very timely blog subject. At volleyball tonight there were six players on my team: three guys and three girls. We normally alternate girl, guy, girl on the court so no two girls or two guys play side-by-side. It has nothing to do with height…I am taller than most of the guys, and several of the girls spike far better than the guys. After one of our games, a guy on my team named Shawn decided to switch positions for the start of the next game just to mix things up a bit. He took the “spot” of one of the girls so that two girls would then be playing side-by-side. Another guy on the team said “Shawn might as well take that spot, he’s been playing like a girl all night.” From his tone of voice, it was clearly meant as an insult and it was infuriating. Gender bias definitely lives on in sports.
Ahhh! I know what you mean. Anytime someone says “throw like a girl”, I want to line them up about thirty feet away and let them see how I throw. A letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail on Saturday tried to reinvent the phrase, saying it’s too bad the Leafs can’t play like girls (i.e. The Canadian women’s hockey team) because then they’d win games. Thanks for commenting!
Have you read the column by Christie Blatchford in Saturday’s Globe and Mail? If not, get your hands on it! I wanted to stand up and cheet after reading it! My favourite part was when she said that every Canadian female athlete and her mother should be given a brewski and a cigar to chomp on, then their pictures should be taken and made into a calendar, which should be sent to every little girl across Canada!! Amen, sister, amen!
I did read it, and now I can’t find it online. It was great. I too loved the mother-daughter comment. I believe I read it aloud!
I think part of the issue for the women’s drinking party after winning was that the winning goal scorer who was joining hte festivities was underage. She was only 18 and 19 is the legal drnking age in BC. BUT I don’t think even THAT should be an issue since she was surrounded by older, mature women who were more than capable of making sure she didn’t go overboard. Many of these players are Moms after all.
As for the ski jumping, the IOC’s argument I think was that only US and Canada really have a well developed program so the competition would have been unbalanced. I would have liked to see them bring women’s ski jumping in as an exhibition at the very least. Yes, no medals but they would get worldwide exposure that could only help promote the sport so it can be included in 2014
You raise some fantastic points, Carrie. I think having ski jumping as an exhibition event is an awesome idea.
Regarding the drinking party, you’re right, the underage aspect was a part of the story. Other issues were that they were on the ice (not in the locker room) and that they were still in uniform. I still think, though, that seeing women partake in this had a bigger effect than anyone wants to admit. Thankfully, as Margaret pointed out, there were reporters who commented on how ridiculous the negative press was.
Thanks for such a great comment!
So, I admit to being on the fence about the drinking on the ice. I thought it was classless – although, I personally would have found it equally as classless if it had been the men. I disagreed with the lesson in it for younger athletes since at least one player was underage. However, that aside I completely agree with you.
I have a five year old son who plays hockey. He loves it. He wants to play for the NHL one day. At least that is his goal at the moment. And Hubby and I encourage that. Will he really play for the NHL one day? Realistically? Probably not – but hey ya never know! And I have my blog post already written in my head for when he does.
I also have two daughters. The older one is one and a half. She wants to play hockey too. She is already skating. My son talks about her playing in the NHL with him. I have not corrected him yet because neither of them need to know that harsh reality yet.
It stinks!! We tell our daughters all the time that they are the same as the boys – but society as a whole does not agree and it is infuriating.
Okay, I completely love that your son talks about his sister playing in the NHL. And that she loves hockey. Kids like these give me hope.
I must admit the underage thing didn’t bother me. It’s a matter of one month till the woman turns 19 (legal drinking age in BC); plus, she was already legal (i.e. 18yo) in my province, Alberta, which is where the team trains. Still, I respect that it might bug others…and I know in the US the legal age is 21.
Thanks for the fantastic comment…and happy lacing up skates!
I had to laugh at your first paragraph. We don’t usually watch a lot of TV in our house, but for the last two weeks, my husband & I have pretty much neglected the children in favour of CTV. I actually blogged about my glowing patriotism the day after the closing ceremonies…and I am not usually like that!!
Having 2 girls, I made sure there were a lot of high-fives and shouts of “GIRL POWER” during the Olympics. I was kind of oblivious to the whole gender-inequality aspect of it (a tendency to refuse to believe that as a society we could be so backwards, maybe), but the thing about the ski-jumping is really nuts.
This really has very little to do with anything, but thank god for Johnny Weir. He added a vitality and energy and yes, flamboyance, to the parteh.
I agree. There is a real double standard out there; however, I think (although I’m not totally sure) that the IOC removed women’s ski jumping because there simply weren’t enough people competing. It had nothing to do with how good the women were.