Why do boys get the good stuff?

Got some new cycling shoes today. Carbon-soled bling. Once again, I chose to shop in the men's section because the color and functional design in the equipment was better than that in the women's section.

Men's equipment and clothing functions better and looks better. Always. That's because it is designed for an ATHLETE. Women's stuff seems to be designed for men to look at women or for women to really not perform at an elite level. Not even recreate.

I am happy companies are finally beginning to manufacture sport equipment designed specifically for women. Size and anatomy are different. We are not simply miniature men.

But, and this is very common with cycling equipment, the women's specific design (WSD) stuff is usually has at least one of the following characteristics:

1. Inferior componetry--bikes get the crappy, low-level groupos, saddles, etc
2. Looks frumpy--not cool and fast
3. Nasty pastel colors
4. Designed to show skin, not function as athletic clothing, look good in a catalogue or in the coffee shop

Just once, I would like to easily find women's cycling shorts (or compression shorts for regular exercise) with an 8 inch inseam, in the latest high-tech fabric, with a women's chamois, in BLACK. NOT white, not pink, not blue and not with a 2 inch inseam. And I want the shorts to rise ABOVE my hip bones.

I would like my athletic shoes to come in colors that are not reminiscent of a baby's play room.

I would like my t-shirts to be larger than a Kleenex and to be available in colors other than pink and baby blue.

Seriously, it is very hard to find functional athletic clothing that is not designed to make you look and feel like a sexed-up teeny-bopper or a frumpy grandma. I sweat, I move, I work hard. Please give me equipment and clothing that helps me work harder--not look like a hottie.

If you ever see me exercising in hip-hugger capri pants and a spaghetti -strap tank with a paisley print, you'll know I've gone over the edge. And don't even think about a skort. I will fight anyone to the death before a skort touches this body.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Form and Function

Image
Way back in 2002, I scanned these images by Howard Schatz from Sports Illustrated (October 14, 2002). A fascinating array of elite female athlete physiques, heights and weights, eh? These are some of the women featured in his book Athlete --a very cool pictorial essay that celebrates athletic form and function.
Read more

It's About Preparing People, not Preventing Injuries

ACL injuries do not happen in a void. People sustain injuries when their infrastructure is unable to manage a specific set of physical circumstances. To describe the mechanism of the injury without the context of the person and their level/type of sport, is to miss valuable insight. In sport, we prepare the person, to the best of our understanding, to meet the physical demands of that sport. We do not just work to prevent one particular injury; we prepare athletes to navigate the total sport physical environment. By "we" I mean the coaching and support staff -- specifically the athletic development staff.  Athletic development (AD) coaches prepare athletes through the development of physical literacy and movement competencies via movement progressions. It is more than strength, power, agility; it is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors to manage themselves within the entire sporting environment. At the higher levels of sport, AD coaches coordinate wit...
Read more

Strength: Overcoming Tradition & Assumptions

Image
The term "strength" comes with many images and stereotypes. The most common stereotype usually includes intimidating men who look like action figures, in spaces that look like iron jungles. Strength is associated with mass gain, limb girth increases, muscle hypertrophy and maximal force production against an external load. With regard to lower body strength, we speak in terms of multiples of bodyweight (BW), with the ratio of 2x BW historically viewed as necessary and desirable. We have historically trained in terms of 1 RM. There has been a trend recently to adopt a VBT (velocity based training) approach, as we know 1 RM changes on a daily basis and technology now allows us to more finely tune things with velocity as the target within each set. These things can be helpful as we initially learn to measure and document progress. But I think it is important to step back from this narrow outlook, because this view of strength does not serve all of us well, in either the rehab or...
Read more