Monday, May 30, 2011

867 The Babes of Badminton

867 The Babes of Badminton

News item: Women who play Olympic-level badminton must now dress in skirts instead of gym shorts. Brings more dignity to the sport according to its governing body.

This is an unabashed publicity stunt. First off, almost no one watches badminton. Second, the only reason men watch is for the babes in gym shorts. Third, the average woman player is not much to look at anyway.

And, oh yeah, fourth, the newly prescribed clothing restricts movement. Skirts, indeed.

Some women wear shorts or slacks for religious reasons and they’ll still be allowed to do that. BUT... they’ll have to wear a skirt over them.

Some players already wear skirts. And if that’s how they play their best, fine. Let ‘em. But those who don’t?

Let’s not show all that flesh! It makes the men crazy. Actually, men who watch this sport are crazy to begin with. Both of them. But there are some more popular sports in which the viewers aren’t.

How about women’s basketball, for example. Showin’ a lot of arm and shoulder, there baby! Not to mention leg. Can’t have THAT.

Soccer? Nah, no problem. They move so fast you can’t see ‘em anyway. Except the goalies. Maybe the goalies should be forced to wear skirts.

And track and field? How about pole vaulting in a skirt that falls below the knees. Or hurdles. Or sprints. (Anyone remember when a sprint was something besides a phone company?)

And how about tennis! Gonna get the Williams sisters in long dresses?

Very ladylike, all this.

And since women of sports set the trends for women of not sports, we can go back to the days when women are required to wear dresses or skirts and blouses at the office.

So where did this dress code idea come from in the first place? From Octagon, the marketing company that markets itself as a “world leader in thought.” (Never mind Einstein, Aristotle, Leonardo and Darwin. Octagon is the world’s mind!)

Wonder if they have clients who are skirt makers. Probably not. That would be too brazen. Or would it?

Anyway, what kind of “thought” is behind a move like this? Well, let’s see. The mere sight of a woman in form fitting slacks or spandex or (heavens!) running shorts is distracting? Or is it “women should be seen as above the fray.” There is a sexual component to athletics and it’s been well known since the start of sports, how many thousands of years ago?

But even swimmers of the Florence Chadwick era wore form-fitting one-piece bathing suits (Chadwick had a pretty good body. So there!)

Sport takes movement. Running, jumping, the swinging of arms and legs.

It’s okay for the guys but not the gals?
Someone hold a seance and get in touch with Babe Ruth. “Hey, Bambino! Could you have knocked them out of the park in a dress?”

Any one got Muhammad Ali’s phone number?


Shrapnel:

--Memorial Day 2011. You know what to do. Do it.

--Radio ratings are essentially vaporware and meaningless. Rush Limbaugh’s numbers have tumbled 30% recently. Conclusion: the drop doesn’t mean much because the original figures didn’t mean much to begin with.

--Oink! The USDA now recommends cooking pork to a minimum of 145 degrees, 15 degrees lower than its early standard, which people have been doing for generations without contracting trichinosis. The “other white meat” lobby’s cloven hoofprints are all over this change.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com.
© WJR 2011

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4759 The Supreme Court

  C’mon, guys, we all know what you’re doing.  You’re hiding behind nonsense so a black woman is not the next Associate Justice of the  U.S....