Sexist & Racist Indoctrination in the Olympics

"It is true that women cannot compete with men in the Olympics, but women have other strengths," concedes Suzanne McCarthy.  And yet she concludes, "If women were really so weak, then some men would not have to waste so much bluster indoctrinating women into their own subordination."

Here's evidence of sexist indoctrinating around the 2010 Winter Olympics (from blogger Laura Leonard):

In Olympic tradition, 216 athletes will march behind our flag tonight as members of the U.S. Olympic team — 123 men, 93 women. But, according to Olympic Women and the Media, a new book by University of Alberta professor Pirkko Markula, the women will have received only 5 percent of pre-Olympics media coverage, and will receive only 25.2 percent during the Games, despite composing half of the team. When those female Olympians do receive attention, Markula notes, it tends to be for their appearance rather than their skill.

Case in point: American skier Lindsey Vonn. She’s competing in her third Olympics at age 25, is the current world champion in the Downhill Super-G, and a two-time World Cup season overall champion. She’s considered America’s best hope for gold in Vancouver. But when Sports Illustrated featured her on the cover of their Olympic Preview issue last week, Lindsey Vonn, world-class athlete, became Lindsey Vonn, Olympic sex symbol.

On the cover, Vonn wears her Team USA uniform, standard gear, and what at least resembles standard tuck form for her sport. The cover ignited a controversy over the sexualization of female athletes, though perhaps unfairly, since it’s nearly identical to the 1992 Olympic Preview cover, which featured male skier A. J. Kitt. But then Vonn appeared again in this week’s issue: the annual Swimsuit issue. Vonn, along with three other female Olympians, wears a bikini in the snow to promote her Olympic bid.

Sports Illustrated features women on its cover 4 percent of the time. For a weekly magazine, that means about 2 out of every 52 issues. And with the Swimsuit issue accounting for one each year, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for acknowledging female athletes.

It’s a problem, certainly, that we can’t seem to talk about female athletes without talking about sex.

Likewise, here's evidence of racist indoctrinating (as noticed by blogger Monica Roberts):

With the Vancouver Games starting today and it also being Black History month, I have pondered why we haven’t had as many excellent African-American winter Olympians as we consistently produce for the Summer Games....  African-Americans have a long and distinguished history in Summer Games competition dating back to the 1904 St. Louis Games. George Poage not only was the first African-American competitor, he took two bronze medals in the 200m the 400m hurdles.

From Jesse Owens to Flo Jo to the Dream Team, it’s a long and proud history of sterling athletic achievement. But when it comes to the Winter Games, we’ve been invisible.

defining (Black) women

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN,
TRUTH AND STRENGTH

People of African descent have long been told that slavery, mercifully, introduced Africans (and, later, African Americans) to Christianity.  However, this assertion is not completely true.  Proof of this is found in 1 and 2 Esdras, two apocryphal books that have roots connecting them directly to two African countries--Ethiopia and Egypt....  The book of 1 Esdras, estimated to be written in the first century, is canonical for Coptic Christians....  Coptic Orthodox Christianity is said to have been established by the Apostle Mark in Egypt during the first century....  In addition, 2 Edras is absent from the Western Christian canon but is canonical for Ethiopian Christians....  The Ethiopian Church still credits its beginnings to the evangelism of Philip [evangelizing the Ethiopian eunuch].
      While those in the African diaspora, in general, may be helped by 1 and 2 Edras, African American women in particular may be helped by chapter 4 of Esdras.  Of interest is the story in Chapter 4 that depicts the king's three bodyguards competing to prove the meaning of true strength.  It is the third bodyguard, Zerubbabel, who wins the contest by combining knowledge of womanhood and truth to highlight strength....  Zurubbabel portends two images of women--the concubine or mistress, and the dutiful wife.  Attaching images or even labels to women is nothing new.  For example, since most Black women during antebellum America were enslaved, many in society expected them to play the role of plantation "mistress."  This usually occurred through either coercion or force.  Historically, Black women were rarely perceived as the "dutiful wife" as there were no legal systems to protect this social designation for the enslaved.  Among other things, marriages was seen as a sign of civilization and social stability.  In this way, Zerubbabel helps by highlighting the strength and social contributions of wives and mothers.
       Contemporary literary critics suggest that the fictional writings of Black women in nineteenth-century America demonstrate a dialectic tension between marriage and freedom....  [E]nslaved Black women were rarely afforded protection or status through marriage.  While Zurubbabel's admiration of women is undoubtedly high, his two images of womanhood are rather narrow.  Contemporary Black women might ask, "Are we only mothers or mistresses?"  Perhaps this serves as a reminder that even the best intention to define women can be insufficient:  no one can define us better than we can.

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above, an excerpt from the chapter "1-2 Esdras," by C. L. Nash, in The Africana Bible: Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora.  (HT David Ker)

Moses ReMix: God as Mommies, as "Other" Daughters

Below is an excerpt from the chapter "Exodus," by Judy Fentress-Williams, in The Africana Bible: Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. HT David Ker
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      The metaphorical language of the Bible is like music, allowing the story of exodus to move from event to tradition and organizing motif.  It can be retold with differing emphasis, resulting in a remix that seeks not to replace earlier accounts but to affirm and respond to earlier accounts.  For example, if the exodus is the point of orientation for Israel's identity and imagination, then the exile becomes the "anti-exodus" and the return to the land is a second exodus, all variations on a theme.  In the prophetic tradition, the familiar language and images of the exodus are remixed to offer a new understanding of who God is.  Take the example of the prophet Amos:

"Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the LORD.  Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?" (Amos 9:7)

      The inclusivity of a remix stands in contrast to the practice of sampling.  In sampling, a small segment of a recording is repeated, or looped, to form the foundation of another song.  Sampling allows a song to cross genres and to fit into other settings.  It is a way for music to live on in subsequent generations, as the example of James Brown makes clear.  However, taken from its original arrangement, the small piece of music takes on a different character.  The inherent danger of sampling is that the subsequent generations do know the song in its entirety, the original artist, or the context....

REMIX 2:
MOSES HAS TWO MOMMIES
....
      Moses's basket is discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh, who not only rescues the baby but hires the child's mother to be his wet nurse.  This story of deliverance stands out from what has gone before because the daughter of the Pharaoh is "other" by virtue of her ethnicity, gender, and position.  Like the previous stories we have examined, her rescue of the child involves the collaboration of others.  What is most noteworthy in this account is the way that Pharaoh's daughter "prefigures" God's action in redeeming Israel.  In 2:6, we read:  "When she opened it, she saw the child.  He was crying and she took pity on him.  'This must be one of the Hebrews' children,' she said."
      Pharaoh's daughter saw the child, heard him (he was crying), and took pity on him.  That action preceded her decision to keep him as her own.  In Exod. 3:7, we hear YHWY say to Moses:  "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.  Indeed I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians."  Like Pharaoh's daughter, God see, hears, and has pity.
      Pharaoh's daughter rescues and names the child, making him her own.  His name, Moses, works across language lines.  His Egyptian mother named him Moses because "I drew him out of the water" (2:10).  In Egyptian, the name Moses is likely derived from Thutmose, meaning "child of."  In Hebrew, it means the one who draws out," not "one drawn out" as Pharaoh's daughter claims.  Here we can conclude that although Moses's adoptive mother had one thing in mind when she named him, there was another plan for his life embedded in that name.
      Thus far, the would-be delivered Moses is delivered again and again by women who model God's act of redemption.  Each act of deliverance tells the reader something about how and why God will deliver Israel.  In the story of the midwives, we learn that God will deliver Israel in defiance of Pharaoh and that God will dupe the Egyptians ruler.  In the second story, we observe that Israel is God's child and that God's devotion to God's people is fierce like that of a mother to her baby.  In the third story, we see that God's act of redemption will be made manifest through the collaboration of unlikely people.  God's act of redemption is not limited by gender or race of any of the lines of division created by humans.
      Moses was nurtured by two women and most likely loved them both.  As a result, he had two languages, two cultures, and two peoples.  His upbringing demanded multiple consciousnesses.  If he was connected to two peoples, how did he understand the prophetic words he uttered, "Let my people go"?  Moses's multiple identities afforded him a perspective that revealed that the work of redemption was about more than two people.  God's work of redemption is relentless in its intentions to work across our designate boundaries so that all of God's people have the opportunity to be redeemed.