Standards?--I’m Outraged!

“This is an outrage! Every woman should protest this move by sending a letter of protest to the president of that committee.” Susanah, from France, was reacting to badminton’s new dress code for women. The International Federation that governs badminton decided that women must wear skirts or dresses to play at the international elite level. One other observer from Germany noted that in reality, the international Badminton Federation’s choice to have the elite women wear more feminine atire was a cultural issue, since the majority of badminton players at that level are actually in Asian countries where values regarding modesty are different. He wondered if by being upset that we, in the west, were in fact placing our values on another culture. The German observer has an honest point!

It’s interesting to me that some of us in the self-righteous west are indignant to the point of outrage over whether or not a professional athlete should wear a certain kind of uniform. In this case the charge is that the uniform sexualizes women and would be offensive to some cultures. Wait a minute? Who are we in the west to protest sexualizing women?! The author of the article even justifies the use of bikini’s in beach volley ball because it’s easier to remove sand from a two piece than a one piece suit! Now if any uniform is sexually revealing and sexualizes women, it’s women’s beach volleyball. Why the double standard?!

The furor over a uniform that is normal, modest, and even attractive, for example, in the tennis world is humerous to me. Then again, even modesty is culturally relative. I’m not trying to be overly critical here (okay—maybe a little bit). It just makes me chuckle when western culture, which is so intent on being open and tolerant, acts intolerant and closed minded to the point of outrage, over things that aren’t really that big a deal. We can’t have it both ways. To me it shows the west’s duplicitous character. We in the west ultimately believe that we determine right from wrong. We in the west know truth from error. We, in our declarations and beliefs, have the world’s best interest in mind. But our overarching cultural naratives communicate that in reference to our own personal lives there is no right from wrong, of course, unless we determine what that right or wrong is. in which case there is a right or wrong, but then, not really, because someone can, at that point, foist their values on us and say we are right or wrong, but then, hey, wait a minute---that’s outrageous. Do you see my point?

All the International Badminton Federation did was expose what everyone intuitively knows—there are standards! Deep down inside we all know (dare I say want?) some standards—a right and wrong. And to say that anything, or anybody, that declares what those standards are places us in a moral straight jacket or violates our basic human dignity or freedom, ultimately means we lose the privilege of legitimate outrage!