Posts Tagged Olympics

Must read: Nancy Goldstein on gay rights and the Winter Games

Friend of the blog Nancy Goldstein is at The Prospect today, making a very clear case for continued protests and boycotts of Russian products. Goldstein interviewed a number of Russian LGBT right activists and argues that we can’t afford to go to the Games and repeat the same mistakes that were made in 1936 in Berlin:

Think long and hard before you evoke the spectacle of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin—thus far the model for the West’s approach to Putin—or argue that winning LGBT athletes will “show ‘em” in Sochi. In 1935—as in 2013—the International Olympics Committee was keen to pretend that sporting events could wash a clearly politicized setting of its politics, or wipe ...

Friend of the blog Nancy Goldstein is at The Prospect today, making a very clear case for continued protests and boycotts of Russian products. Goldstein interviewed a number of Russian LGBT right activists and argues that we ...

Other ways to look at the Olympics rings

The iconic Olympics rings are everywhere we look. But what happens when we look at them a different way. That’s what artist Gustavo Souza did in his project Oceaniaeuropeamericaasiaafrica. Souza explains, “The rings represent healthy competition and union, but we know the world isn’t perfect. Maybe understanding the differences is the first step to try to make things more equal.” So Souza uses the colors of the continents and plays with the size of the rings, so they illustrate the differences and disparities among the world’s regions.

Oceania is blue. Europe is black, the Americas are red, Africa is yellow and Asia is green.

Check out more images and the video here.


 

The iconic Olympics rings are everywhere we look. But what happens when we look at them a different way. That’s what artist Gustavo Souza did in his project Oceaniaeuropeamericaasiaafrica. Souza explains, “The rings represent healthy competition ...

Sexist Olympic coverage: Lady athletes have ladybits edition

Last weekend, I had the great fortune of seeing the US women’s water polo team play Italy at Olympic Park in London (the USA won). My sister, who lives in London, had a spare ticket to the semifinals, and she asked me to go along with her to see the USA-Spain match followed by Great Britain versus Spain.

I grew up watching her play water polo, which she did for a decade, first in club teams and then for her college team, and while I don’t understand the minute details of the game, I can watch a water polo game and know what’s going on, which is more than I can say of most sports ...

Last weekend, I had the great fortune of seeing the US women’s water polo team play Italy at Olympic Park in London (the USA won). My sister, who lives in London, ...

olympicwomen

What’s the right way to be a female Olympic athlete?

Over the weekend Jeré Longman of the New York Times published this piece about female Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones. It is by all accounts pretty scathing. Alyssa Rosenberg calls it “one of the nastiest profiles” she’s ever seen. David Roth calls the article “unfounded and unfair” and Isaac Rauch of Deadspin found it so harsh that he goes to considerable effort to tear it apart line by line. Additional takedowns here and here.

But all these critics of the Times piece are missing the point. Lolo Jones needed to be called out for committing what’s become an all-too-common mistake: trying to be Olympic While Female. It goes without saying that she’s ...

Over the weekend Jeré Longman of the New York Times published this piece about female Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones. It is by all accounts pretty scathing. Alyssa Rosenberg calls it “one of the nastiest profiles” ...

Breaking: Gabby Douglas wins gold!

Today, Gabby Douglas became America’s first African American all around Olympic gymnastics champion. She is, in fact, the first woman of colour to ever win this medal. Here she is doing her amazing goddamn thing at National Championships in June.

 

Today, Gabby Douglas became America’s first African American all around Olympic gymnastics champion. She is, in fact, the first woman of colour to ever win this medal. Here she is doing her amazing goddamn thing at National ...

Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith speaks for us all when she tells sexist trolls we don’t care if you don’t find us attractive

Last week, after the BCC aired a documentary about British Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith and her teammates, dudes on Twitter responded with some highly original quips about the athletes not being feminine enough. (Yep, people actually still say things like, “Now piss off back to the kitchen and make your boyfriend a sandwich he’s hungry.”) The 18-year-old Smith gave them the “verbal kicking they deserved” on her blog:

As Hannah pointed out earlier, we don’t lift weights in order to look hot, especially for the likes of men like that. What makes them think that we even WANT them to find us attractive? If you do, thanks very much, we’re flattered. But if you don’t, why do you really ...

Last week, after the BCC aired a documentary about British Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith and her teammates, dudes on Twitter responded with some highly original quips about the athletes not being feminine enough. (Yep, people actually ...

Saudi woman will be competing in judo donning hijab

This year in the 2012 Olympics women are competing from every country that is participating in the Olympics including, for the first time ever, Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar. To be clear, Qatar and Brunei weren’t as resistant as our dear friends in the Middle East–Saudi Arabia who made women’s inclusion next to impossible. They finally gave in when the International Olympic committee threatened to ban their participation in the games.

Almonitor has a brief history of when most countries in the Middle East and North Africa began to allow women to compete from Iran to Bahrain. The last of the region’s hold outs included:

…Kuwait (which sent its first female athlete in 2004), Oman (2008), UAE (2008), and ...

This year in the 2012 Olympics women are competing from every country that is participating in the Olympics including, for the first time ever, Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar. To be clear, Qatar and Brunei weren’t ...

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