Backlash Against Female Athletes Reveals Uncomfortable Truths

A staple of traditional gender socialization is the tendency for girls to be raised accustomed to double standards and mixed messages: Be sexy, but not too sexy. Your physical appearance and attractiveness matter, but if you pay too much attention to that, you are vain. Girl power is declared on tee shirts and newer generations of women are raised with the ethos that they can have it all at the same time that “mouthy” women are quickly “put in their place” and professional women who are also mothers and caretakers experience backlash or disruptions in their advancement up the corporate hierarchy.

It seems that the institutions within our culture pay lip service to gender equality but the realities in regards to common values, policy, and rhetoric remain firmly entrenched in traditional and outdated notions of what women can and can’t do and who we are allowed to be. The pandemic has amplified systemic inequalities based on sex, gender, and race, as catastrophic events oftentimes do. The recent backlash that prominent female athletes have gotten for prioritizing their mental health over competition cannot be thoroughly dissected without recognizing the dual roles that both traditional gender norms and racial stereotypes have played in the social discourse surrounding these prominent athletes.

Controversy surrounding Simone Biles

Most of you are probably familiar with the recent controversy surrounding the decision of Simone Biles, one of the most celebrated and storied gymnasts, who decided to withdraw from an Olympic event citing physical and mental stress. The backlash that she received was swift and wide-ranging, with Michael Che, prominent "Weekend Update" co-host on Saturday Night Live being one of the most recent celebrities to mock her on social media. In fact, Che went so far as to also joke about the sexual assault Biles endured, a vile demonstration of how the sexual objectification of women and values of rape culture endlessly appear in different iterations within popular culture.

Some of the specific rhetoric surrounding Biles’ decision to prioritize her mental health over competing in the Olympics has included allegations of her being “selfish,” jokes about how apparently, “black can crack,” accusations of her being a “quitter,” etc. (Morgan, 2021). Biles has come out against the backlash by explaining how dangerous her position is as a gymnast and that if her mind and body are not in harmony, this can have severe consequences for any of her performances. All of this is also in the shadow of the reality that she is the sole remaining survivor of sexual assault by the former team doctor still competing on this specific American team. This former team doctor, Nassar, targeted over a hundred female gymnasts over the course of his career and has been found guilty of sexual abuse over decades and sentenced to life in prison (Levenson, 2018).

It appears that a vocal part of the public just wants Biles to shut up and play, comfortable in labeling her mentally weak and a quitter without any depth in knowledge or consideration for all of the trauma that she endured and the mental toughness that comes from being in such a high-pressure position as the one she has flourished in as an Olympic champion. Moreover, the public discourse surrounding her decision to withdraw from competition is strikingly similar to the backlash tennis star Naomi Osaka received when deciding to pull out of competing, citing mental health pressures associated with facing the media.

Objectification of female athletes

While there is a tendency to objectify all athletes—whether male or female—the female athletes, in particular, are vulnerable to this form of objectification because it is consistent with the general objectification that all women experience as part of the experience of growing up female in a male-dominated world. Moreover, female athletes are often explicitly objectified based on mandates regarding what uniforms they can or can’t wear for their sports, the underlying value appearing to be that it isn’t enough to have athletic prowess as a female competitor in professional sports; you also either have to look hot while performing your sport or minimally show more skin to entice male viewers. Black female athletes are even more vulnerable because of the legacy of slavery in our country and the stereotypical ways that black bodies have been objectified over centuries.

All of this is to say that if you think this is just about the Olympics or tennis, that is just scratching the surface of a much deeper cultural issue.

New dialogue around mental health

The other side of this coin, however, is that these brave female athletes have forced a dialogue around mental health and wellbeing that can go a long way towards lessening stigma in our culture. For instance, athletes who withdraw based on physical illness are not privy to the same backlash as those who cite mental health concerns, a clear double standard that demonstrates we are programmed in our culture to downplay the importance of mental health and wellbeing. Thus, if a person cites “mental health” concerns as a reason to not continue with a competition—or for non-athletes, let’s say, taking a personal day from work for mental health reasons—the perception could be that the person is lacking in “mental toughness."

The language of these accusations is very gendered, whether we realize it or not. In a culture where institutions are based on male dominance, any behaviors deemed “feminine” are automatically associated with weakness—mental health is less prioritized than physical health partially because it is associated with emotions and thoughts, and feelings, which have been feminized in our culture. The “it’s just in your head” mantra is often used to shame or silence people who disclose any form of mental distress.

But guess what? Yeah, it is in our heads—virtually everything originates there because the brain is a powerful vessel that is the source of our consciousness and so much of the mechanics of our functionality and humanity. Moreover, mind and body are intimately and intricately connected—physical ailments can originate in the mind or vice versa. Rather than using such a refrain to downplay or marginalize what a person is experiencing, we should all be reprogrammed to recognize how important what is going on in our minds is to our overall health and wellbeing.

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These recent controversies demonstrate the ways that entrenched traditional notions of femininity are being challenged in powerful ways. Nonetheless, far from being a great equalizer, professional sports and even competition within the Olympics demonstrates that athletes are indeed depicted by media and treated and talked about differently within larger institutions, depending on whether they are male or female. Indeed, the most prominent backlash that these high-performing female athletes have been receiving has been from male detractors.

As I have tried to break down here, there is a reason for that.

Copyright Azadeh Aalai 2021