Sure, America’s women athletes may have taken home a whopping 29 gold medals, but over on The Thinking Housewife, Laura Wood is pissed off at them – and the rest of the Olympic women — for being so, well, athletic.
In a recent post, Wood rushes to the defense of a Turkish newspaper columnist who complained about the “broad-shouldered, flat-chested women” who were destroying Womanhood with their mannish, muscular bodies. Alas, wrote Yuksel Aytug, even their “breasts – the symbol of womanhood, motherhood – [were] flattened into stubs as they were seen as mere hindrances to speed.” Curse you, sports bras!
Seriously, in future Olympics, female athletes should face mandatory deductions for every cup size less than C.
Wood adds her own two cents:
A man who dares to say what every normal person has been thinking when confronted with the muscle-bound female gladiators at the games and what soft, effeminate Western men would not dare articulate, Aytug has been attacked for his remarks throughout the Western world. He is tiresomely accused of misogyny. In fact, judging from these words, he is an admirer of women, a courageous defender of them.
Or at least of their tits.
The Olympic Games are anti-woman. They require female athletes to ape men in grotesque ways. They compromise female fertility and modesty. They promote the idea that aggression and competitiveness in women are normal and healthy. They debase not just women athletes but womanhood throughout the world.
Well, I suppose Wood can take solace in the fact that the “muscle-bound” bodies of these “female gladiators” didn’t stop the Pedophile – sorry, Ephebophile – Army of Reddit from perving on McKayla Maroney and the rest of the US Women’s Gymnastics team.
@TheMcGee: I already addressed the fact that “womanly” is a purely subjective term and made no such claim that lacking periods is un-womanly.
@howardbann1ster: You’re making a inference about how I personally feel about my own body which you cannot possibly know or verify. But most of all, it does not invalidate what I posted about female body builders and the fact that men’s and women’s bodies are built differently. I claim that there is no physical equality between the sexes because for one their bodies are distinguishable not only by appearance, but on measurable physical performance stats.
Howard: I’m pretty sure it’s on Tom’s list of not-really-fallacies-but-feminists-keep-saying-it-and-I-wish-it-were-against-the-rules.
Dammit, people, NWO just wants you to focus on the real problem affecting the Olympics: non-Western culture! What are all these foreigners doing messing up our Olympic games?
NWO, the original article was written by a Turkish man and published in Turkish. Does Turkey count as part of Western culture? Where’s the cutoff line?
Dude, you said they ain’t equal. Either you think your body is beter–which is obviously a hateful beleif that I would not want to say you had, because that would be putting mean and nasty thoughts in your mouth–or you thought they were better. And I wanted to assure you that just because you don’t have their body doesn’t mean you’re less than them.
Unless you’d like to upgrade to ‘hateful.’ Go for it.
I strength train and wear sports bras. Never did I think I was destroying womanhood. In fact, I feel sorry for, “The Thinking Housewife” for having such a narrow view of womanhood. Rigid gender roles are stupid.
Oh no! The women athletes don’t meet the standards of some newspaper columnist and the Parroting Housewife! And they have nothing to console themselves with but their gold medals, likely future endorsement deals, fitness, fame, and sense of achievement at something that few people of either gender accomplish in their lifetimes. What’s a girl to do? Tsk tsk.
No joke, my stay-at-home-dad housemate is teaching his daughter to shoot soccer goals in our backyard while I read this thread. It’s soothing my heart.
Nope. You just quoted someone who said” So if a woman pumps iron it undermines the purpose of her body, makes her less womanly?”
And then said this:
But sure, I totally understand how you’re not saying that’s un-womanly. And I can totally understand why you wouldn’t want to comment on the personal opinion of someone who says that such a thing is un-womanly because it’s totes personal opinion. It can’t possibly be wrong and completely conflict with reality. Ya know, made up standards for what makes someone a particular gender.
Oops. Other computer used my other handle.
@ MSN So having your period is womanly and men like womanly things. It’s a given women are on this earth to make men love them. So it only makes sense men love the shit out of our periods. Instead of winning gold medals, training hard in sports we love, pushing ourselves to the edge of endurance and accomplishing stuff, women ought to take the time men are competing to just talk to them endlessly about menstruation. Dudes will love it.
McGee, you’ve wished in vain. I made extra sure I had a daughter (prayers to Bona Dea).
But don’t fret. I’ll be certain that my daughter grows up to be a good little Valkeryie for the hivemind. I mean, she’s only ten now and she wouldn’t put up with your shit. She’d laugh and tell you you’re an idiot.
Jenna Marbles tore that Aytug dude a new asshole over that one. Now granted she’s hot either way, but she’s the sort of person that people who would say things like this can’t deal with either way — I’m fond of reminding people who dis her that she has a master’s degree and is in all likelihood smarter than they are. (That goes double for her former boss at Barstool Sports — Dave Portnoy’s… complaints… only make sense when you remember he’s a dudebro writing for dudebros and doesn’t know what to do with a woman who could go on a three-day bender and still out-think him.)
NWO’s Marxist obsession is getting old. Every time he uses that word I need to drink. Or drive a nail through my hand. Either one.
This is why I can’t even muster up some annoyance; the same with that article on Sally Ride a few posts back. “But but but womanhood!” just falls flat.
Oh, how cute! NWO is making a pest of himself *everywhere* and he’s just as unoriginal wherever he goes.
Men and women aren’t the same. Women can’t piss on a wall and men can’t have periods. Other than that, MSN, I’ve seen little bitty peasant women who could throw you over the wall, at least unless you’re obese.
And Laura Wood is a dreary, *envious* bitch.
Laura isn’t a bitch. She’s just bitchy.
or we could just focus on their accomplishments because they won the fucking olympics and that’s kind of accomplishment sort of dwarfs the pretend concerns of empty-headed moral scolds like you?
Gee, guess I’m extra womanly right now, given my general body shape and the lovely fact that I’ve hit perimenopause, so things are a little out of whack lately.
Damn family genetics!
I CAN’T FOCUS ON THE MONUMENTAL SHIT THESE GIRLS DID BECAUSE OMIGOD I CAN SEE THEIR LEGS
how dumb do you have to be to find this argument compelling
@pillowinhell,
Uh oh. I can see I’ve put my foot in it. I’m a little thrown by your comment though. I think I might have expressed myself poorly or had blinders on and expressed something offensive. Can you point out what I said that has offended you so I can either explain myself or learn where my blinders are and what I opinions/beliefs I have that I need to examine. I truly did not mean anything offensive and I feel terrible that I may have said something that would cause someone to be so angry by it.
I must be totes anti-women, then. Just yesterday I was wrestling around on the mat, practicing take downs in my martial arts class. I plan on taking up free running. LOTS of sweating and working out to build up my endurance. SO evil.
(I mean, at some point, after I sit around and read all these blogs…)
Time Buttman has spent focusing on the accomplishments of Hijab-wearing Olympic athletes:
00lolwho seconds
Okay, this is completely hilarious, because not only is it stupid on its face, you’re specifically talking about gymnasts.
This is what female gymnasts wear: http://media.hamptonroads.com/cache/files/images/862521000.jpg
This is what male gymnasts wear: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6lfl5uXFh1r8h6rlo1_400.jpg
I want you to explain to me how exactly the women are wearing “next to nothing” whereas the men are properly attired. Because what I see are members of both genders dressed in a way that allows them to move freely, as you would need to when you’re, you know, doing gymnastics.
Training as hard as professional athetes do can fuck with your hormones in a non-healthy way, but that goes for men as well as women. It’s just that people only ever focus on women who loses their period, perhaps because that’s such a clear sign that your hormones are messed up. But training yourself to perform the feats super-athletes do isn’t really healthy for EITHER gender. Still, you don’t become a professional athlete unless you think it’s worth it, at the end of the day. It’s their bodies, their choice.
@Vitamin D, the testosterone question IS a bit more complicated than that.
In equestrian men and women compete on equal terms, and in shooting guns and bows men and women were only separated some time ago because men dislike losing to women. But in most sports, men on average perform better than women on average. They do that, because they have more testosteron. It used to be that you competed in men’s sports if you had a penis and in women’s sports if you had a vagina, but that was changed, since penises and vaginas in themselves have nothing to do with performance. Nowadays, you compete in women’s sports if you’re below a certain level of testosteron, and that makes much more sense, since women having less testosteron than men is the SOLE JUSTIFICATION for having “women’s sports” as separate events.
Semenya was treated terribly shitty by the world wide media, when they questioned whether she really was a woman. Of course she’s really a woman. And yeah, it sucks that this particular genetic gift must be “treated” before she’s allowed to compete, while all other genetic gifts are allowed to flourish in sports. Still, if we say that you can have as much testosteron as your body naturally produces and still compete in women’s sports – the whole point with having women’s sports as separate events disappear.
You know, I have about had it up to HERE with people telling me what my body is supposed to look like. If you have any opinions about the way I look, just keep them to your fucking self, because I am NOT interested. And my “womanhood,” whatever that might be, is my damn business and no one else’s. Here’s a news flash: the way I look is the LEAST important part of who I am.
The coverage of the Olympics has really pissed me off, as you can see.