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In response to
"I dunno, why are men, women's gymnastics so vastly different skills. Traditional sexism? Frolic, frolic, sudden soldier 1000 yard death stare -- nm"
by
zeitgeist
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Traditional sexism.
Posted by
JD (aka Jason Dean)
Jul 30 '24, 11:25
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“As late as the interwar era, women practiced Parallel Bars, Rings, Horizontal Bar and Pommel Horse — these apparatus were especially popular in communist countries,” said Georgia Cervin, a former New Zealand national team member and PhD in history whose book on Women’s Artistic Gymnastics will be published by University of Illinois Press later this year. So why didn’t women compete on them? Cervin chalks it up to gender stereotypes, and a decision to separate the sexes in sport.
As a result, one of the bars was raised to create the Uneven Parallel Bars, and Balance Beam, a discipline practiced in Gymnastics schools from Germany to Sweden, was elevated to become its own apparatus. “Secondary sources suggest that both of these apparatuses promoted a style of movement where women ‘’posed’ on the apparatus, to be observed in their grace and beauty,” Cervin said. In her research, Cervin has seen Uneven Bars and Balance Beam described as a ‘pedestal’ for female gymnasts, she said.
“Perhaps most importantly, in the Olympic context there has been a great reluctance to allow men and women to compete on the same terms,” she added. “In this context, it makes sense that the apparatus were different or adapted for women. On the one hand, it reflects a perception that women are smaller and weaker and thus need different or modified apparatus to work on. And on the other hand, it avoids any invitation of direct comparison between the performances of men and women.”
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