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Leave it to the New York Times to run (pun intended) an article today about running skirts and just how dainty and frilly and girlish they are becoming. While these skirts have been around for at least the last four years, apparently, it’s becoming more of a trend to want to look stylish when we work out (Runner’s World even nicknamed such females as “stunners”. Get it? Stylish runners?) But to me, nothing could be more detesting than trying to look cute when it comes to running. I just couldn’t take myself seriously while donning a frilly skirt all covered with sparkles and shit.
What’s even worse than the skirt itself (and I do get that some women swear these are totally comfortable), is the fact that they can create a sexist atmosphere on the road or at a race–places where women should be seen as athletes, not girly girls trying to look all adorable. One such runner, Erica Sara Neuman, told the NY Times how she likes the way skirts further divide us in the male/female wars (something I wrote about just last week with a very different opinion):
There’s something fun about running past a guy. They call that chicking a guy. You run past them, they get upset. You’re in a skirt, they get even more upset.
That’s a pretty sexist way of looking at it, if you ask me. How about just passing a guy and earning respect because we’re a freakin awesome athlete?
Adding to the girliness of these, one running skirt designer, Cindy Lynch, said they carry a multitude of bright colors, patterns and sparkles. Sparkles. Ugh.
The skirt appeals to just about everybody. It hugs all of the right curves and covers the ones you don’t want to show. It can even provide a feminine look for a woman with zero body fat and a boyish figure.
I have a boyish figure with little body fat, and I don’t give a damn about looking feminine when I run. It’s insulting that she would insinuate anyone with a curveless physique would want to look any different. Also, when did running become all about body image and “hugging the right curves”? Can’t we just put all of that aside when we hit the road and embrace our bodies for what they do versus how they look? We’re not out there for others to gawk at. We’re out there to get shit done. And for me, that’s in a basic pair of black shorts and a tank.
Photo: jezebel.com
Erica Sara, I am a man who likes to wear skirts from MIDAS CLOTHING, and after reading many comments on the web from women who want skirts exclusively to themselves, it amazes me how they don’t want men to feel comfortable as well (skirts are comfortable on BOTH sexes – I myself hate pants).
Um, I wear a skirt because it’s more comfortable. It is also plain black, like your shorts. Don’t judge using assumptions.
The uninformed state of mind prevailing in most people regarding sex differences in clothes is as severe a deficiency as if in geographic knowledge, people on either coast thought there was only one major ocean. Many women rattle away against suggestions they wear skirts, with epithets such as “badge of servitude” and many others; yet, if men express wish to wear skirts, these same women come on like museum curators guarding the Hope diamond with the attitude that “damn, that’s ours exclusively!” Pants aren’t male, they’re “equestrian,” “arctic,” and “utilitarian.” Skirts aren’t female, they’re “temperate,” “tropical,” “Mediterranean,” “ancient” and “relaxation” attire. There is nothing in physiology supporting skirts/trousers as sex differences, but only as activity differences. The fact that they are style differences allows them to be confused as gender differences. But if skirts are a sex difference to men while trousers are not a sex difference to women, you must select which of only two possible conclusions follow from that postulation—A) Women are hermaphrodites with both types of anatomy, so that they literally cannot “cross dress;” or B) Majorities are always intolerant of minorities, and men in skirts are a minority, (just as women in pants once were as abundantly proved in the vast public record), and majorities always rely on abusive elites (in this case, “mental health professionals,” racketeers of social conformity) to invent repressive labels including “cross-dresser,” to stop half of society from having choice. You should see what psychiatry said about women in pants in the New York Times editorial “A Curious Disease,” May 27, 1876, page 6. Meantime, men have worn skirts as men for 1,000′s of years, without female impersonation overtones, up to the present—Greece, Albania, Scotland, Dervishes in over a dozen Arabic states; Polynesians in the South Seas, and in some Asian nations. These were places where horseback riding didn’t cause men to abandon draped garments for pants! Men who are treated justly as to human rights, will tend more to so treat women as to theirs. You do NOT get any style monopoly on SKIRTS!
Wow. This had to be the most ignorant blog post ever. Why is it sexist to want to embrace femininity while kicking the guys’ asses? It’s great to be smart, athletic, AND cute. I flew helicopters in the army and I NEVER gave up my femininity. I wasn’t ever trying to prove I was a guy, just that I was good at what I did! If you feel you have to look like a guy to fit in to the athletic world, that speaks more toward your specific brand of insecurity than anything else.
I love running skirts. I am a marathoner and I like to look pretty. I like to look adorable 24/7. I look forward to running gorgeous in http://www.runningskirts.com soon!
I hate the way shorts bunch. If I were a runner, I would wear a skirt. I ride my bike in a skirt(skort) and love it. No worries about what is showing and what isn’t. I think you are thinking WAY too much into this, and agree with the first comment. Imagine how far you could have run during the time you spent thinking about this.
Still enjoyed the read, just don’t agree
Think of the milage you could have logged in the time it took you to lament over what someone else is wearing.
Somewhere out there, right this minute, a girl in a skirt is training harder, faster, and further than you are. Are you going to scoff at her glittery pink ass when she passes you in your next race?
why are you so angry?
I must say, this made me really sad because if you knew me (I’m Erica Sara Neuman), you’d know that I’m anything but sexist. I joke around a lot and this was just one joke I made during the entire interview I gave. To suggest that I wear a skirt to create a divide between male & female runners is ridiculous and hurtful. I am proud to be part of an incredible running world in which I do my best to promote community and respect. I wrote a follow up blog post saying just that and explaining that my real view is that women should feel comfortable, empowered and fierce to wear whatever they want to wear running. Running isn’t a male or female thing- it’s something we can all do and be excellent at. I won’t link to my post because I’m not responding to get hits for myself. But I will end by including a quote from my post which sums up the majority of the interview I gave which was not captured in the article: “The fact of the matter is, the most important thing a woman wears is her confidence, in anything she does, whether it’s running, working, being a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, in just living and being.”
I’m glad that you responded to this… I don’t know where the author got the idea that the respect from passing up the boys comes from the fact that you are in a skirt. I’m pretty sure that’s not where you were going with that at all, and I don’t think the majority of people would draw that conclusion themselves anyways. The skirt is essentially a very lighthearted “insult to injury” in my view… yeah, you just got passed BY A GIRL. And she looks cute!
Now, I don’t think most people would actually think that’s much of a stand out event anyways (a woman passing a man- no big deal). But sometimes it is fun to play off the old stereotypes we have all grown up with and have a lighthearted tease.
Anyways, Deborah should lighten up. It’s no some sort of anti-feminist blight to say “Hey I look really cute in this running shirt and it hides my ass cheek cellulite. I like this fact.”
And for me, that’s a black running skirt and a t-shirt. I can run farther and faster wearing a running skirt because I’m more comfortable – there’s no bunching up around my thighs that I have to adjust while running and no super painful chafing. Yes, the language in the article is sexist, but just because it’s more comfortable for me and my body type to wear a running skirt instead of shorts doesn’t mean I’m worried about how I look while I’m running and it certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate my body for what it can do. I’m not trying to look cute, I’m trying to “get shit done” and I do that best in my running skirt – no frills required.
Not much of a runner, but skirts are super-breezy, sounds like a comfy good time to me. Maybe the guys should try ‘em. Then would they be less sexist?
God forbid women actually ENJOY being feminine. I am proud to be a woman, and I like to celebrate the differences between and the ‘other guys’ . It is not ‘sexist’ to embrace femininity – it is sexist to discriminate against someone because of their sex…and I’m pretty sure that the skirts wouldn’t mind if the guys wore them too. Being a strong woman shouldn’t have to mean being androgynous. If that’s your definition, I don’t want to play the part!
Thank you, Angela, for saying that! I totally agree!
I agree. What’s wrong with looking cute? I’ll admit it: I like pink, sparkles, makeup, and feminine clothing. I also work my butt off and am respected for my brains by my male colleagues. There’s more than one way to be a woman. If you don’t like the skirts, then fine, don’t wear them. But if some women like that the skirts make them feel more feminine while running, so what?
I’m running my first half marathon next week and I personally love the running skirt trend and before you call me out as a girly girl or sexist. I work in a career where 90% of the other people employed are guys.
I think its cute and I think about(at least for a second or two) how I look when I work out. Do I seriously concentrate on it, no but hell if i can look cute, be comfortable, and complete my workout, why not? Also I’m super prone to chafing from all shorts, if a skirt helps that, all the more reason to wear one.
I wish there were more articles like this about women’s running and women’s fitness in general. I agree with a lot of what you’re saying–I especially resent the way the New York Times and Runner’s World to represent women’s running apparel (and women’s motivations in choosing their apparel), as though the deciding factor for every woman is appearance and not performance or comfort.
That said, I think that it’s counterproductive to pin the sexist attitude that often crops up toward women in sports and fitness on the running skirt–it’s not the skirt or the sparkles or any particular item of clothing that’s sexist, it’s the fact that very few people challenge the people and/or articles that come out talking about how appealing these items are because of how good they make women look. Let’s point the finger at the people who are espousing the sexist views, the men and women who assume and promote the idea that every woman’s primary concern is looking good when running or working out, and not at the clothes themselves.
As someone who has long struggled with issues related to general body confidence and acceptance, I think it is the right of each and every woman to choose clothing that makes her feel good about the way she looks and the way her body moves. I urge you not to pass judgment on such a trivial issue – these women are runners! They are fit, happy, and healthy, things could be much much worse.
The language you’ve quoted here is very sexist, and you’re right to call the writers on it, but that’s not the fault of the skirts themselves or the vast majority of the women who wear them.
I run in the rain a lot. When my shorts get wet they cling to my inner thighs and chafe, sometimes to the point of bleeding. The skirt doesn’t. End of story.
“We’re not out there for others to gawk at. We’re out there to get shit done.”
Preach it! I’d like to add that this applies not to just when we’re working out, but to our lives as a whole.
Typical big girl talk