Under the heading—Just When You Thought It Could NOT Get Any Stranger—there’s this story.
“The Disciplinary Committee of the European Handball Federation (EHF) fined the Norway team 1,500 euros ($1,768), or 150 euros per player last Monday, for “improper clothing” after they wore shorts in their loss to Spain at the European Beach Handball Championship.
Read story here
Clothing has long been an issue in beach sports, with some women players finding bikinis degrading or impractical. While bikinis have not been compulsory for beach volleyball players since 2012, International Handball Federation (IHF) rules state “female athletes must wear bikini bottoms” and that these must have “a close fit,” be “cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg” and a side depth of no more than 10 centimeters.”
Men wear shorts.
Perhaps if they required men to wear banana hammocks, it would make for even more exciting spectacles.
Joe Broadmeadow
I have lived all these years under the mistaken impression that Sports were about sports, but obviously they are also about attire. I wonder if this will apply to the Tokyo Olympics? It should. If they can’t have spectators how else are they going to get people to watch?
This is not a story from the original Olympics, where women didn’t compete (although some listed women as the owners of horses used in the competition.)
This is not a story reflecting a realization that the described clothing somehow levels the playing field.
This lays bare—pardon the pun—that objectifying women when it increases the bottom line (I can’t help myself) is acceptable.
Look how far we’ve come.
Perhaps if they required men to wear banana hammocks, it would make for even more exciting spectacles. The ball (I know, I know) is in the hands of the Olympic Committee
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Under the heading, I Didn’t Know That we have this. Now are the Dog Days of summer. Such an expression suggests images of panting dogs, tongues hanging from their mouths, desperately seeking shade from the hot summer sun.
It is an example of how something that had one meaning when it first appeared has transmogrified (such a great word) into something different.
“Dies Caniculares” Latin for Dog Days or in the original Greek κυνάδες ἡμέραι kynádes hēmérai, concerns the star Sirius in the constellation Canis Major (Great Dog.)
Sirius, known as the Dog star, is at its closest proximity and alignment to the sun. Ancient Greeks believed this alignment added heat from Sirius to the sun during this period — generally July 24th through August 24th.
Thus the Dog Days of Summer.
So instead of looking in the shade for hot and sweaty tongue-drooping dogs this time of year, look up. Find Canis Major, spot the bright star Sirius, and realize that many of our “beliefs” aren’t what they seem to be.
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