Midriffs not allowed in Gymnastics Australia group. Why stop there? What’s next, ban womens bathing suits on public beaches around the world? Because oh my God!! Little girls might see a nicely toned midriff, stick a finger down their throat and barf on the spot. As if a ban like this would actually prevent eating disorders. These bans are fucking petty and pointless.
Look on the bright side. At least they’re not banning it for being indecent…
Will Australia ban fat people from wearing lycra, too? Cause when I see that, I just want to eat a case of doughnuts.
Sorry, but I have to ask. What does **pusification ** mean?
The chearleaders all had weaping sores, which is why they had to cover their midriffs. The pus that splattered everywhere when they cheered their team’s success was very demoralizing.
Something to do with infections.
Alternate spelling “pussy-fication.”
The act of converting a healthy, vibrant culture into a homogeneous blob of shite.
Sorry, I suppose I misspelled it. It’s pussification. But I take it you already knew what it meant based on its context? It not, you can Google it.
No. The context tells me nothing. It’s not a word I’ve ever seen or heard used and it’s not listed in any of my dictionaries.
But I see that in the meantime **silenus ** has explained it.
This is incredibly stupid. And I know it’s conventional wisdom that “seeing attractive women turns young girls into anorexics” and thus the supermodels are to blame for eating disorders, how well-proven is that link? I have this pet theory that anorexics’ belief that they are “dieting” is basically an epiphenomenon, and it’s basically a way to put a faintly acceptable face on what actually boils down to self-injury. What exactly is known to prove the commonly-believed notion that seeing skinny women on TV and so forth leads to anorexia?
I have only ever known two people to have an eating disorder. There was one girl at our school who was rumoured to have bulimia, and she didn’t. A lot of people thought I had anorexia, and I didn’t. Of all the confessions I have heard from friends (I was raped, I lost my virginity to this creepy old guy, I am racist etc), I have never heard “I have an eating disorder”.
Surprisingly, the two people I know to have had eating disorders are middle aged mothers (and were at the time).
I think the eating disorder scare is blown way out of proportion. The obesity scare however, is underestimated. These people are so out of touch with reality. What’s next? The gymnasts have to be “healthy” sized?
JFTR, according to the article cited, it’s only ‘cheerleaders’ who are covered by this dress-code, not gymnasts themselves.
Which makes it even more curious.
So is there any evidence that since the introduction of bare midriffs there’s been an increase in eating disorders? I find it hard to believe that exposed skin can affect the inherent nature of a psychological disorder.
It might, however, affect turnout at a game.
My take on it was that there was a competitive cheerleading sector of GA and that they were the only ones that bared midriffs*. I didn’t think Gymnastics was the kind of sport that needed cheerleaders.
*Remember that Gymnastics Australia ad with the girls in the one piece 80’s-style swimsuit?
My take is that ‘cheerleaders’ do their stuff at games of Rugby Union and the NBL (National Basketball League), but are governed by the rules of the Gymnasts Association because of the nature of their art.
Maybe the boys in those sports don’t want the girlies stealing the limelight??
How? Rugby has had this whole frigging country mesmorised for decades. When the All Blacks play EVERYONE pays attention (well not EVERYONE just MOSTLY EVERYONE). It would be hard to believe that a few girlies in short skirts could have more effect. In fact I’m sure quite a few diehard Kiwi All Black fan’s could argue that cheerleaders could detract from the game…“It’s time for the fucking rugby mate, half naked girls we can see after the game!”. The All Blacks could have a half time show of sheep playing chess and it wouldn’t detract your average “Gooooooooooo Blacks” type.
Cheerleading seems to be an American tradition, I can’t say our tradition is any better but it doesn’t seem to need exposed skin to draw in the crowd (unless Dan Carter and undie ads counts!).
Cheerleading is an American tradition. Which was why I was surprised to see the news on this a couple of days ago. “Banned cheerleader midriffs – in Aussie?? WTF?” was my reaction.
Ah well. Must add colour to the footy, maybe. Personally, I’d say that folks would have a lot more problem with trying to emulate toned and tanned bods in other situations, such as the movies.
Sorry then. Really. I thought you were being a snob about my spelling.
Too true. Ban the movies! Shit let’s just ban pretty people appearing in public!
Given that the majority of us don’t look like cheerleaders or movie stars surely banning them makes us lowly non-perfect type more aware of that fact.
Did the new millenium make us so fragile we might break?
What makes this generation’s parents soooooooooo fragile that they feel the need to protect their children beyond the limits of what they would have wanted to be protected thmselves?
We are NOT an endangered species. We will survive, no matter how hard we try to protect us from ourselves.
Be a rebel! Make today the day you don’t wash your hands! See if you survive…see if your child manages to cope…see if your child lives to share playdough again!