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I do see from the slideshow that a couple non-Americans sported the messy hair as well.
I thought that people were probably over-reacting until I saw the slideshow.
OMG! I agree that their messy hair could be compared to the college women who wore flip-flops when they met the President in the White House. Everything else, outfits, make-up, routines, were so slick & polished and then they just slapped in a hair elastic and didn't look in the mirror before they competed.
P.S. I'm glad that they won gold but it just seemed so odd to be "perfect" in every other way and then to have the sloppy hair.
I watched the encapsulated version of women's gymnastics last night, and I was rather put off by the messy hair that almost all of the American gymnasts wore. When they were coming out in groups, everybody was in warmup gear, so I thought they were being comfortable. Nope, they performed like that. And as far as I could tell (granted, I only saw Russia, a little Romania, and practically no China), we were the only group of girls with that sloppy hair. A different leotard for every event, different outfits for the medal ceremonies ... and scrunchie buns that look like they just fell out of bed. You represent our country at an important event, ladies. Brush it out or put it up, for Pete's sakes. My ballet teachers would have killed me.
I agree! So many women today look like crap in public because they all look like they just crawled outta bed after a rough night!! No pride in personal appearance at all!! Such slobbery!
On her worst day of being sick my wife NEVER failed to at least comb and puff up her hair to be at least decent in her appearance.
OMG! I agree that their messy hair could be compared to the college women who wore flip-flops when they met the President in the White House. Everything else, outfits, make-up, routines, were so slick & polished and then they just slapped in a hair elastic and didn't look in the mirror before they competed.
One last "minor" technical point, as a retired Ballet Dad (thank god) I know that these kids don't wear their hair in buns or other performance preferred hair styles EXCEPT when they are preforming, as a result not every everyday hair style easily converts into a picture perfect hair style which is only intended to keep their hair out of their eyes in some orderly fashion while leaping twice their height on a beam of wood that is 3.9 inches wide or spinning like some mad twirling dervish performing triple whatevers across an exercise floor!
PS - The Kid™ still curses the day that she put a permanent in her hair so that she could have the perfect looking Balanchinesque bun, and I've cursed everyday that I had to try and help.
If I remember my high school gym classes, none of us was very careful with hair or makeup because we were going to get all sweated up anyway.
Ideally, the competition is about the body and not the expertise of the costume seamstress or the cosmetologist.
Yes, I agree that some of these women obviously had haircuts that were for a different style, what they wear in their 'other' lives. I consider, also, that they are young and so tend to follow fashion trends, which today means long hair. I venture that there is not a hairstylist following them about as an unnecessary expense and they need something that they can do quickly to long hair to keep it out of their faces, blocking their view of the sport.
You can also tell that some of these women have very fine hair, which is weighed down with sweat and that they tried to get a perm to give it some body and fluff, but no dice. There is not much you can do to fine, thin, hair when you sweat.
If women in the US don't care to support the fashion/cosmetic industry, that bothers me not a bit. It just depends what you are after in life. There are a lot of women who decide to put their time into other, more real, projects than hair and face - almost every spare moment applies to their art, science, business. Women today are entitled to follow their dreams and there is so much less pressure to have to look 'cute' for everyone around them.
What is a non-athlete, and what does that have to do with anything? I guess if I played softball or darts I wouldn't notice gymnasts' hair. I notice because I know better.
I agree that we'd rather have a slob winning gold than a neatnik winning nothing. Good thing there are other options, including winning gold AND spending a few extra minutes getting ready. It is possible, believe it or not.
Where were you when she was struggling, going to school and practicing all day? would it have suited you if she had took time off of her scheduled to spend 2-3 hours fiddling with her hair instead of practicing. From my understanding she spent the majority of her time with an Asian couple, so that being the case what do think that their emphasis would be on, her hair or practice? This is why our people are still focused on the minor things and ignore the big picture and than complain why we are being left behind and point fingers at everyone else.
It's amazing how people obsess over the appearance of women athletes. No one pressures men athletes about their appearance.
First they are working very hard. Sometimes 12-14 hour practices and very little sleep. Many of these girls are young. The last thing they need is people scrutinizing their appearance as much as their performance.
Be happy for these girls and stop being so an*l. It's unbelievable the things people focus on when we should be so so proud of these women and girls.
Try going out and practices and working for hours, days, months, years then come back and let's see how focused you are on your hair. It's not the same as attending a dance class 3 days a week.
Where were you when she was struggling, going to school and practicing all day? would it have suited you if she had took time off of her scheduled to spend 2-3 hours fiddling with her hair instead of practicing. From my understanding she spent the majority of her time with an Asian couple, so that being the case what do think that their emphasis would be on, her hair or practice? This is why our people are still focused on the minor things and ignore the big picture and than complain why we are being left behind and point fingers at everyone else.
2 to 3 hours? Good grief no. Putting one's hair up takes 10 minutes, if that, and with practice you can do it in much less with your eyes closed. Shoot, I've been out of ballet since college and I can still slap my hair into a bun in about three minutes. And Jordyn Wieber wore a sleek ponytail. I doubt she spent 2 to 3 hours on her hair. Just pull the loop all the way through, brush it out, maybe spritz it with something, and there you go!
The Olympics are a world-class event. The judges wear business attire, and photographs of the event will exist forever. There's no reason to look like you just fell out of bed, or that you're running to the 7-Eleven on a Saturday morning for coffee and a newspaper. Furthermore, gymnasts can be docked for attire reasons, so obviously they care how the girls look. OK, we can win while looking sloppy, but is that really something to be proud of?
Last edited by JustJulia; 08-06-2012 at 12:04 PM..
Okay, once again, you are not reading the thread clearly, singlelady.
No one is "obsessed."
No one would hold females to any different standard than males. Males with messy hair would warrant this same kind of observation and comments.
We merely made this "observation" about the female gymnists.
Gymnastics is a sport, unlike other sports, where appearance and presentation are part of the performance.
They obviously cared a gret deal about their appearance, with the very detailed, heavy makeup they wore. So if they had no makeup and sloppy hair, that would have all fit together under performance being more important than appearance.
Many of them also had numerous little hair clips in their hair, so that evidently cared about hair on one part of their head looking sloppy, while not caring about the hair in the ponytail looking sloppy.
The only thing I will admit being wrong on is that some of us thought it was just the American gymnists who had sloppy hair. Now I see it was other countries as well. Frankly, in my pro-US bias for the Games, I tend to only really pay attention to our athletes (unless it's someone really cool like Bolt or Pistorius) and flick around when the others are on, so I missed it.
Where were you when she was struggling, going to school and practicing all day?
What on earth are you talking about?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Singlelady10
It's amazing how people obsess over the appearance of women athletes. No one pressures men athletes about their appearance.
First they are working very hard. Sometimes 12-14 hour practices and very little sleep. Many of these girls are young. The last thing they need is people scrutinizing their appearance as much as their performance.
If performance is the only thing to obsess about, then why do they wear so much meticulously applied makeup? Why is there glitter in their hair? Why do they have a different costume for each competition?
It's amazing how people obsess over the appearance of women athletes. No one pressures men athletes about their appearance.
First they are working very hard. Sometimes 12-14 hour practices and very little sleep. Many of these girls are young. The last thing they need is people scrutinizing their appearance as much as their performance.
Be happy for these girls and stop being so an*l. It's unbelievable the things people focus on when we should be so so proud of these women and girls.
Try going out and practices and working for hours, days, months, years then come back and let's see how focused you are on your hair. It's not the same as attending a dance class 3 days a week.
Heh, if you think I'm "anal," you should talk to the judges.
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