KIRO NEWSRADIO

Writer blasted for calling female Olympic athletes indistinguishable from men

Aug 9, 2012, 1:51 PM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 1:14 pm

AP120421160652
United States’ Lauryn Williams gets the baton from her teammate Bianca Knight in the 4 X 100-meter relay. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

A columnist for a Turkish newspaper is getting slammed for a piece he wrote about the Olympics destroying the traditional female figure.

In “Womanhood is dying at the Olympics,” Yuksel Aytug said ‘broad-shouldered, flat-chested women with small hips; [they are] totally indistinguishable from men.’

He said women are forced to look more like men so they can be successful athletes. Other columnists and now athletes are attacking the writer for referring to women like cuts of meat in a butcher shop.

Shawn Stewart, co-hosting on Ross and Burbank, suggests Aytug abandon the Olympics for something more his speed, like the Lingerie Bowl. Not only that, but all body types can be witnesses at the Summer Olympics. The bodies of basketball players, archers, weight lifters, and gymnasts are noticeably different.

Aytug has since come out and said his article was meant to show support for women who might like to be more feminine, but they’re being forced by the pressures of the Olympics.

There is no denying that for most sports at the Olympic level, you must be in the best physical shape as possible. It means an athlete might have virtually no amount of body fat to create the illusion of curves.

Ross says that it’s possible Aytug’s article is merely bringing to light a cultural divide when it comes to the ideal female figure.

“It probably goes back to the fact that in our pioneer [days], women were expected to do just as much physical labor as men were. We don’t really want to treat our women as delicate flowers.”

Or it could simply be that Aytug has never run so hard he throws up and simultaneously feels immense pride. Call us when you have a gold medal draped around your neck, Aytug.

By Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com

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