Team-mates in love

November 14, 2020 11:52 AM

Dr Payoshni Mitra, an athletes' rights activist, who has worked on the cases of South Africa's champion mid-distance runner Caster Semenya and Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, believes it's the latter. She calls the environment in a women's sports team "a safer space compared to men's teams". That is possibly why women's teams are spaces where women who are not considered stereotypically feminine feel welcome.

By Firdose Moonda.

posted by smcg (5 comments total)

There is an irony in the mention of Caster Semenya in that "controversy" around Caster Semenya is 100% about policing women's genders, especially those of women of color.

Many of the trans men I knew chose to play sports like cricket and football because of the uniform. They can wear shorts and pants and feel comfortable. With sports like tennis, the dress code is different.

Yup.
posted by hoyland at 12:34 PM on November 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

My high-school's response to the protest from womens' volleyball players over being required to wear tight short-shorts, asking for the *option* to wear things significantly more revealing than the existing mens' teams, remains baffling. The students were literally demanding six inches of lightweight fabric. They battled for years without success. (This was two decades ago. I'm not sure what things are like now.) I genuinely can't imagine how someone would refuse that request, unless they actually believe that revealing the shape of the pelvises of 15 year olds is the reason people attend sporting events. In which case, they probably shouldn't be teaching. I lost a lot of respect for many teachers and administrators when that went down.

(The short-shorts often worn in roller derby seem to be a choice, as far as I can tell. Cheers to them and similar sports.)
posted by eotvos at 3:02 PM on November 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

Looking at photos from my high-school's official website, from last year, I assume, nothing has changed.
posted by eotvos at 3:11 PM on November 14, 2020

Good article, depressing that same-sex relationships are pretty much accepted in women's cricket and not at all in men's. One the one hand, I think the majority of fans actually wouldn't care if a player came out. On the other, there's plenty of homophobic abuse in the game (the Gabriel/Root sledging mentioned in the article; but I also remember Australian players suggesting to Shiv Chanderpaul that he and Lara were lovers, and from experience the strict rules at games against racist abuse or signs don't seem to be applied to homophobic signs).

I did chuckle at this:

What if a cricketer was to pair up with someone inside cricket but from another team? "I guess it would it depend on which team they played for," Schutt says, maybe only half-seriously. "I mean, if it was an Australian player dating a Kiwi, no one is going to care because deep down we love Kiwis, but if it was an English player, given our rivalry with them, it may get a little tense!"

posted by Pink Frost at 4:41 PM on November 14, 2020

*Good article, depressing that same-sex relationships are pretty much accepted in women's cricket and not at all in men's.*

I don't really follow cricket at all, but I'm reflecting on the fact that (men's) football has made approximately zero progress in my lifetime. I guess it probably relates to the undervaluing of the women's game in both football and cricket--by the time anyone noticed that the women were actually playing "real" cricket/football, the norm of queer players had already been established.
posted by hoyland at 6:38 AM on November 15, 2020 [2 favorites]