Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article - Sports

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Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article - Sports - Nairaland

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Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by naptu2: 10:47pm On Jun 20, 2019

Some people criticise sportswomen because they believe that they are too masculine. They say that sportswomen (especially those that have short hair) look like men and some even allege that all sportswomen are lesbians.

However, sportswomen that show their feminine side by wearing makeup and long hair are also criticised. People say that they should concentrate on the sport and forget about makeup and long hair. This article examines these two criticisms.

World Cup Players Say Muscles and Makeup Mix Just Fine, Thanks

Rejecting notions about how they should present themselves as female athletes, the women are turning to colorful hair and bold lips to showcase their style and enhance performance.

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By Allison McCann

June 20, 2019

For her third World Cup, Francisca Ordega wanted to stand out. She had worn her hair in dreadlocks for her first and had a wavy, blonde ponytail for the second, but this time she wanted something bolder.

“I was looking for green and white,” she said about her search for hair extensions in the colors of her native Nigeria. “But then I saw the blue and purple — and I had to have them.” She expedited an order all the way from the United States and braided the colorful strands into her hair herself.

But after the team’s 3-0 loss to Norway in their opening game, Ordega logged on to Twitter to find that people were blaming the defeat on her makeup, nails and long hair — it didn’t “make her run well,” one user wrote.

Some watching the World Cup seem perplexed that athleticism and femininity could coexist — Is Alex Morgan wearing makeup? Were Sydney Leroux’s eyelashes fake? — or in Ordega’s case, they were irritated. It’s grounded in antiquated notions of how women, and specifically female athletes, should present themselves — strong but not too strong, athletic yet feminine, feminine but not so feminine that they would wear lipstick.

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Credit: Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Photos by Christian Hartmann/Reuters, Loic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, Lionel Bonaventure/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It’s an impossible space for female athletes to navigate, and one that many of this year’s Women’s World Cup players are outright rejecting.

“For the first time in our history, we have a critical mass of girls and women who play sports,” said Mary Jo Kane, the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. “And they finally have a sense of entitlement to playing sports, and they’re starting to embrace that in a nonapologetic way.”

For so long, the visual narrative around women in sports has been “pretty in pink,” said Kane, as the leagues and organizations in charge of women’s sports worked to portray female athletes as ladylike so as to make their athleticism more palatable. Skirted uniforms — impractical for sliding into bases or making tackles — have been part of women’s sports across eras. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League had them in the 1940s, and in 2009, the now-defunct Women’s Professional Soccer league introduced optional wrap skirts.

“At a time when women were penetrating this all-male sacred space, it made their participation less threatening,” Kane said of the decades following Title IX, the federal law preventing sex discrimination in educational activities like sports. “It was a way to say, ‘Don’t worry — even though they’re strong, powerful and athletic, they’re still feminine.’ ”

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Shanice van de Sanden of the Netherlands, playing against New Zealand this month.CreditPeter Powell/EPA, via Shutterstock

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Marta Vieira da Silva of Brazil, playing against Italy on June 18.CreditPier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

Perhaps no one has stood out more this tournament than Shanice van de Sanden, the speedy Netherlands forward whose leopard-print buzz cut is a work of art. Van de Sanden also wears red lipstick when she plays — specifically Maybelline’s Cherry Chicshade — and solid black eyeliner. “I will never play any game without my lipstick,” she said. “It’s what makes me feel the most comfortable.”

Many other female athletes have said the same of wearing makeup — that it helps them feel more at ease or more confident, and that’s important for their on-field performance. The Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, known as Flo-Jo, was one of the first female athletes to talk candidly about this connection, saying: “Dress good to look good. Look good to feel good. And feel good to run fast!”

Cosmetics companies have taken note, making sweat-proof eyeliner and other products for active women. In her Cover Girl ad, Massy Arias — a personal trainer and health coach — runs, crunches and lifts. The spot highlights her muscles and mascara. At the end, she poses a question to naysayers: “What, you don’t wear makeup to work?”

Van de Sanden said she started applying makeup before games a few years ago, a ritual she adopted after getting a buzz cut. She said more people cared about her lipstick than her lack of hair. “Some people said, ‘Oh, that’s weird,’ or laughed about it,” she said. “But I don’t care. I know a lot of people like it too.”

South Korea’s Cho So-hyun — who told me she’s been wearing a “burgundy-orange” shade of lipstick for this World Cup — said she did so to feel more feminine. “I want to show my beauty to everyone, and that I am a woman,” she wrote via text message. Marta, the Brazilian forward who scored her 17th goal in a World Cup on Tuesday — the most of any player, male or female — did so in a dark purple lipstick.

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Cho So-hyun of South Korea, during a match against France. CreditTF-Images/Getty Images

For some players, the decision to wear makeup or dye their hair may not be about wanting to appear more or less feminine — it may be a way for them to stand out or promote their personal brand.

Just like male athletes, these women are engaging in self-packaging as a branding method. The Women’s World Cup is one of the rare moments when the world is actually paying attention, and it’s a huge opportunity for these players to land sponsorships and compete financially. Many of them are making real moves.

“Seeing these elite female athletes have the opportunity to present themselves as they want to be seen is really empowering,” said Vikki Krane, a sports psychologist at Bowling Green State University whose research focuses on gender and sexuality. “If they’re using the little bit of attention and power they have to get themselves noticed — as long as it’s their choice — then they should have the space to be able to do it.”

Megan Rapinoe, the United States forward, has rocked a bleach-blonde pixie cut for years. This World Cup, it’s pink, and so is Canadian midfielder Sophie Schmidt’s. South Africa’s Janine van Wyk opted for lime green.

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Sophie Schmidt, right, of Canada, playing against Cameroon this month.CreditEric Gaillard/Reuters

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Megan Rapinoe of the United States this month.CreditLionel Bonaventure/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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Janine van Wyk of South Africa, playing against Spain. CreditPhil Noble/Reuters

Despite the progress, Krane said the choices for female athletes are still very constrained. If players choose to forgo makeup or wear their hair short, ignoring conventional notions of femininity, they’re often labeled boyish or masculine. And if they do decide to put on makeup or wear colorful ponytails, they are ridiculed for that too.

It’s indicative of the larger panic around female athletes, who upset traditional views on gender. As of last month, Caster Semenya, the two-time Olympic 800-meter champion from South Africa, was ordered to lower her testosterone levels to run in major competitions. The governing body of track sports described her as one of a group of “biologically male athletes with female gender identities.” Semenya described her experience of trying to accommodate their medical interventions as being a “lab rat” and said their description “hurts more than I can put in words.”

“It’s the same guys who come for you,” Ordega said of those who criticize her appearance. “They say, ‘Oh you’re a woman putting on trousers? You cut your hair short?’ You look like a guy.’ But if you try to look different — to show a feminine side — they still complain!”

The self-representation of female athletes is especially important, Kane said, because for so long the only way for female athletes to promote themselves was to be “hyper-heterosexual” — often nude and posing for the male gaze. The Australian women’s national team once sold a nude calendar, and in 2011, members of the French team posed topless alongside a caption that read, “Is this how we should show up before you come to our games?”

The issue of how female athletes should or should not look affects women from all over the world. In our survey of 108 Women’s World Cup players spanning 17 countries, they lamented about their muscular physiques and being mistaken for men.

For van de Sanden, the lipstick and the hair are not just visual trademarks — they are a way for her to express some of her personality outside of soccer. “I really love to play football,” she said. “But I also really enjoy looking good — to have nice makeup on, to have nice outfits — that means something to me too.”

Asked about any players whose style she envied, Ordega immediately said van de Sanden. “The first day I saw her hair I was like, ‘Wow, I wish I could have this!’”

On Monday night, Nigeria lost 1-0 to France. Ordega had taken out her purple braids, and instead wore her hair in two small buns. I asked if her she had switched her style because of the complaints she had received.

“Nah, I needed something new. In fact, I want them to talk more,” she texted me, saying that she was bored of having the same look for all three group games. “If we qualify for the next round, I will have something different then as well.”

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Ordega’s hairstyle against France on June 17.CreditVincent Michel/Associated Press

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/style/world-cup-women-hair-gender.html

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Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by naptu2: 10:47pm On Jun 20, 2019

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Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by naptu2: 10:47pm On Jun 20, 2019

12 Likes 5 Shares

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by naptu2: 10:49pm On Jun 20, 2019

Check out Gail Devers' nails too.

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Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by naptu2: 10:49pm On Jun 20, 2019

Muscles!

Chyna

4 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Nobody: 11:08pm On Jun 20, 2019

naptu2:
Muscles!

Chyna

Wow this should be wonder woman shocked

3 Likes 1 Share

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by PrettyBoyBreezy(m): 11:12pm On Jun 20, 2019

Mehn, you are free to dress and look anyhow u want no matter what you are doing.

Btw, i love these women footballers, they look very differently and yet unique on its own.

10 Likes 1 Share

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by tstx(m): 11:13pm On Jun 20, 2019

This people

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by KingAzubuike(f): 11:13pm On Jun 20, 2019

I see the indomitable tigress of Biafra winning this tournament. In case you're confused I live in a parallel universe and another dimension.

4 Likes 1 Share

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by millionboi2: 11:16pm On Jun 20, 2019

When olosho goes international through football game

16 Likes 3 Shares

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by GloriaNino: 11:17pm On Jun 20, 2019

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Upton: 11:19pm On Jun 20, 2019

Oh boy

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Tonylyte(m): 11:22pm On Jun 20, 2019

That Ordega of Lady is too pretty. She gave the national team a good look, beside that she is a good player. I love her attacking prowes.

35 Likes 3 Shares

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by lilsaint44(m): 11:22pm On Jun 20, 2019

KingAzubuike:
I see the indomitable tigress of Biafra winning this tournament. In case you're confused I live in a parallel universe and another dimension.

and you think this ia funny

9 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by naptu2: 11:23pm On Jun 20, 2019

Meanwhile, my dream came true.

While some people were predicting that the Falcons would be eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup and that they would harvest a basketfull of goals, my dream was that two African teams, Nigeria and Cameroon, would qualify for the knockout stage.

My dream came true.

Cameroon has qualified for the second round for the second time in a row (they also qualified for the second round in 2015).

In a way, the present Falcons have equalled the feat of the 1999 team. Remember that the competition was much smaller in 1999 and there was no second round, so the Falcons played in the quarter final immediately after the group stage.

Africa only had one representative initially, then we had two and now we have three. The fact that two African teams have qualified for the second round has justified the additional slots that Africa has got.

34 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by martineverest(m): 11:26pm On Jun 20, 2019

naptu2:
Check out Gail Devers' nail too.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/8063750_deversnails_jpeg87720ec259d18a3c38cd6f25b7fba2ca

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never been a fan of Gail devers ..tho,she was awesome in hurdles.

Joyner and Marion were darlings

3 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Kingbenn(m): 11:30pm On Jun 20, 2019

Damn!

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Ijawwomaninoyo: 11:33pm On Jun 20, 2019

How dem dey wash their yansh with those nails sef?

20 Likes 1 Share

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by GOFRONT(m): 11:37pm On Jun 20, 2019

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by promiseniqqa(m): 11:39pm On Jun 20, 2019

i wish i can get chance to suck and smuch that nitherland forward (van der saden).....that girl beauty dey scarta my dada....ah dey even mad bcs of her......my preeq wan cut bcs of her

2 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Lamasta(m): 11:39pm On Jun 20, 2019

woMEN in football grin

2 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Kingkun69(m): 11:41pm On Jun 20, 2019

millionboi2:
When olosho goes international through football game

wow most unfunny joke I have ever seen
Well I will give you a like so u will stop trying

37 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Nobody: 11:44pm On Jun 20, 2019

Ijawwomaninoyo:
How dem dey wash their yansh with those nails sef?

oga, toilet dey wey dey wash ur yansh for you. you need not to use your hands to wash your bum bum

8 Likes 1 Share

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by hammedroyabat(m): 11:46pm On Jun 20, 2019

Ijawwomaninoyo:
How dem dey wash their yansh with those nails sef?

tissue paper

2 Likes 1 Share

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Ijawwomaninoyo: 11:47pm On Jun 20, 2019

Oma307:

oga, toilet dey wey dey wash ur yansh for you. you need not to use your hands to wash your bum bum

Woman? Front or back? If yansh dey scratch dem nko?

4 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Ijawwomaninoyo: 11:51pm On Jun 20, 2019

hammedroyabat:
tissue paper

Front yansh for woman I mean.

If yansh dey scratch dem nko ?

1 Like

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by OdefaGirl(f): 11:53pm On Jun 20, 2019

All these ones with long nails, I don't understand them at all. I don't see anything wrong with our girl's hair (Francisca)

3 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Ayobami7(m): 12:02am On Jun 21, 2019

好的

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Nobody: 12:08am On Jun 21, 2019

That girl with long nail is disgusting....

Pukes

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Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by meobizy(f): 12:27am On Jun 21, 2019

You can not pay me to read all that.
If make up is desired by the athlete then she can as well wear it.
It’s always fat lazy women who have rubbish to say about well built females.

2 Likes

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Nobody: 12:46am On Jun 21, 2019

naptu2:
You can talk about stylish female athletes without talking about one of my favourite athletes of all time, Superwoman, the late great Florence Grifith-Joyner.

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Check out her nails!

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hm na wa

Re: Francisca Ordega: Make-up Or Muscles? New York Times' Article by Houseofglam7(f): 12:59am On Jun 21, 2019

People got time undecided

1 Like

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