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If The Women
Don’t Want To Wear Skirts, Let The Men
By Tim Donaldson
It was a little over a week ago that I got an email from
Marianne Marston stating that the Amateur International
Boxing Association wants female boxers to wear skirts in the
ring. The reason for this is that female athletes should be
feminine, elegant and distinguished, and apparently, shorts
are not feminine, elegant, or distinguished. Now, this is
the debut of women’s boxing in the Olympics, and things like
this are of the utmost importance. Female athletes must
project femininity as much as male athletes need to project
masculinity. God only knows how many hours the figure
skating association must have spent trying to figure out the
perfect masculine outfit for male figure skaters. So it is
no surprise that they have turned their attention to the
clothing of female boxers.
So what’s the big deal? I thought women liked to dress up
and look good when they are out in public. Quite a few years
ago, Bert Sugar wrote an article summing up his view of
women’s boxing. At the time, he felt that they boxed simply
because they fought for a purse, got to wear gloves, and, oh
yes, they could win a fancy jewel encrusted belt. Now I will
give Bert a pass, mostly because of who he is, but
apparently that isn’t why they box. Women are not getting
into boxing because they are worried about fashion, at least
not while they are in the ring.
Say what you will about women’s boxing, but I have to
believe that they do it more for the love of the sport than
the men. They get little to no attention from the media
unless they happened to be named Tanya Harding or Kim
Kardashian. How many boxing fans can even name one female
champion? They fight for less money than the men. Has HBO,
Showtime, or ESPN ever showed a boxing match between two
women? More importantly, when is the next time they plan on
doing so? Overall, they get little, if any, respect from the
boxing establishment.
Now, if the AIBA is committed to female boxers wearing
skirts in the ring, I think that they should make the same
requirement of the men. Some of you are now saying, that is
ridiculous. Is it? Aren’t the men more concerned with
fashion and flash than the women? I can think of several
local Philadelphia fighters who change the colors and even
style of their boxing trunks every couple fights. It’s not
just their boxing trunks that change, but they change their
hairstyles from fight to fight. I am not simply talking
about a haircut from one fight to the next, but they are
taking the time to dye their hair. I thought only women,
punk rockers, and men trying to hide their gray hair
bothered with hair dye.
As for men wearing skirts, some already are. Paulie
Malinaggi was the first I saw wearing one—a cross between a
skirt and what a gladiator would have worn. Since then I
have seen more and more boxers wearing these men skirts.
Sure they probably wouldn’t call it a skirt, but you tell me
what it is. Thank God that they wear shorts underneath. But
the fact that they wear shorts underneath makes me question
as to whether or not there is any advantage to these
outfits. I could go on and on about boxers being just as
wrapped up in their appearance as they are in their boxing
skills. A few boxers are even accessorizing their look with
dog collars and the like. The truth of the matter is that I
would never tell these men that they are less than men, and
I do think that they should be allowed to wear whatever they
want.
The point is not that the men are concerned with their
image. Image has always been a part of sport, although in
boxing mostly out of the ring. The point is that the women
boxers participating in the 2012 Olympics should look like
boxers. Check out the video on MSN on the women’s boxing
team from Afghanistan. They are boxing in spite of the fact
that they are receiving threats from family as well as
others. I don’t think they are fighting to thought of as
elegant. They are fighting for dignity and respect. They
should not be singled out to wear skirts just because they
are women. In a world pushing toward equality of the sexes,
give women the choice.
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