APPARENTLY, PEOPLE ARE having a hard time telling the difference between men and women in the boxing ring.
At least that’s what Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu, president of the International Boxing Association, says.
“I have heard many times, people say, ‘We can’t tell the difference between the men and women,’ especially on TV, since they’re in the same uniforms and are wearing headgear,” Wu told timesunion.com.
So the AIBA came up with a solution to differentiate women from men – skirts.
The organisation asked female boxers to wear the skirts during last year’s World Championships in preparation for the introduction of women’s boxing into the 2012 Olympic games. Poland even made the wardrobe change mandatory.
“By wearing skirts, in my opinion, it gives a good impression, a womanly impression,” Poland coach Leszek Piotrowski told BBC Sport.
Many female boxers, unsurprisingly, don’t care about “womanly impressions.” They care about pummeling their opponent in the face. And doing so in the same fashion as men.
“Personally, I think it’s more for the aesthetics; nothing practical is going to come from wearing a skirt,” said British lightweight champion Natasha Jones. “The only people who would want to see women in skirts are men.”
The proposal seems rather ridiculous. The sex of the fighters who spectators are watching should be fairly obvious – headgear or not – considering they are actively choosing to watch. There’s also no reason women should compromise their skills to look more feminine.
