Thursday, Sep. 01, 2011
Badminton Skirts Its Sexist Rule
After outcries from both players and women's rights groups, the Badminton World Federation deferred a proposal in early 2011 that would have required female participants to wear skirts during competition. According to Reuters, the proposal was considered in order "to ensure attractive presentation of badminton," but that wasn't reason enough for opponents of the idea, who argued that women who wanted to show less skin would need to either wear long skirts or layer pants underneath in order to comply with the ruling. Additionally, no rule changes were recommended for male players, which led to even more complaints that the skirt rule was sexist and unfair to the sport's female athletes.