WOMEN IN SPORT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 3, 5 January 1939, Page 2

WOMEN IN SPORT

APPEARANCE CRITICISED Paul Gallico, one of the foremost sporting journalists of the United States, recently wrote a particularly scathing article, in which he condemned all women in sport. They were among many things bad sports, rule “twisters,” poor imitators of men, and last, but most important to Mr. Gallico, they were not always beautiful. Apart from the unjust accusations, Mr. Gallico is really remarkable. He literally suggests that women should discontinue all sporting activities, as they upset his idea of the aesthetic in women. The most ludicrous of all accusations against the women in sport, and one which contradicts itself, is that directed against their dress and appearance. When a sportswoman does not measure up to the Venus de Milo in perfection, the critic immediately concludes that her lack of beauty is caused by her participation in sport. That a woman or girl may have been plain before she ever touched a racket or ran a hundred yards never enters his mind Few of the women who have never seen a golf club or a pair of running shoes would make the front line of a chorus, so why attack sportswomen for lack of beauty when in reality they include in their numbers many beautiful women? There are certain forms of track athletics which do little to improve the beauty of women. But how about the men who indulge in football and boxing who proudly reveal broken teeth, battered eyes, cauliflower ears, and twdsted limbs “gloriously” earned on the football field or in the prize ring? And is a sturdy male athlete appearing on the beacn in brief trunks more or less hirsute, red of nose, knotty of muscle, unbelievably bony of structure, and peeling haphazardly like a papery cover of a large onion a thing of beauty? From the day Eve first donned the proverbial fig leaf, dress has been second nature to women, and it is scarcely logical that a woman who s-.pends so much time on her street dress and evening attire would make sport an exception. Sporting fashions for women are given as much attention by the dress designers as any other section. No player would yield an opponent the phychological advantage of appearing on the court, track, field, or pool in dowdy dress or costume. A male’s criticism of women’s dress is amusing. rhi’ik of the dirty shoes and flannels, the shapeless plus-fours, the muddied football regalia, and haphazard running uniforms that can be seen in any male sporting contest, and the shirts which have mouldered in the locker loom for far too long! Now look at your female performer. Her socks, shoes, shorts, dress, tunic are freshly laundered. It is amazing that women are criticised for allowing activity and exposure to mar their attractiveness when there is so little evidence to back the accusation. Women with the barest essentials of good looks protect them carefully with creams, manicures, shampoos, and the like.