Sports Celebrate Physical Variation—Until It Challenges Social Norms. ⇒
4 November 2024, mid-afternoon
Our bodies are festivals of variation. And in sports, we celebrate those differences—until we don’t. In certain sports, people are much more skeptical and far less accepting of variations among women athletes. With all our uniqueness, it seems strange to me that we laud some anatomical variations and are so hostile towards others. What matters is not whether a particular variation is common or rare, but how we perceive it in terms of the societal categories we have made. And because of our perceptions, some athletes end up adored. Others are shamed for some of the very characteristics that could help make them great.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.