When the summer Olympics come around, we always think about one important question.
What the fuck is up with men's and women's beach volleyball uniforms?
We put up a little photographic evidence over at our blog, but many of you have probably seen this in action already. The women have to wear the tiny little ill-fitting up the butt bikinis instead of the baggy comfy shorts and t-shirts that the men wear because...? Maybe constant wedgies help them focus. Or something. We're sure there's a logical explanation.
I guess we should just be glad that women are allowed to compete at all - yeah, looking at you, Saudi Arabia. They still don't allow women to participate in the Olympics at all. Hopefully this BBC article is correct about the IOC putting pressure on them to change so that we can see Saudi women in London in 2012. "If not, it is conceivable the Kingdom may not be allowed to enter an all-male team." We'd be fine with that.
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Maybe the bikini combos are more comfortable than baggy shorts and tank tops and the men would be in tight briefs as well if it weren't for homophobia. (I'm mostly kidding)
Me and my mom were thinking the same thing. Really, why can't they just wear tank tops and shorts? Also, if you notice, the US has tighter panties(or bikini bottoms, but you're lucky I didn't say thongs) than the other countries(or at least tighter than China).
Also another thing: I love the swimming uniforms. Both the men and women wear the same uniform, covering their chest and legs. I just had to say that because I'm actually surprised they don't have them wearing bikinis too.
The women's volleyball uniforms actually have a "maximum" allowed size, believe it or not. At least so says the internet and wikipedia. Apparently the players prefer two pieces because sand gets in uncomfortable places, but they seriously have tiny outfits.
It all reminds me of this story from 4 years ago when the head of a soccer league (pardon me, football) suggested sexier uniforms for the women's teams. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jan/16/football.gender
What century are we in?
This was definitely jarring to me as well! And regarding the discomfort of sand in the wrong places - couldn't they just wear shorts over these? or biker-short type things? Not that anyone who prefers wearing the current outfit should be prevented from doing so, but it seems ridiculous that there's not more room for difference (as literatebrit has noted, there is variation among countries and athletes in their swimsuits...)
Hey Literatebrit,
Actually the men's and women's swimming competition suits are designed the same way because of improved speed and stability in the water - basically no one is winning competitions without the new Razor suits. It's interesting that swimming was one of the few places where men wore skimpier suits than women, you can still see the itsy bitsy Speedos the men used to wear in the diving competition. But that was all due to the same reasoning, if you were wearing less fabric you got less drag. The new suits actually make you faster wearing more fabric.