Salon.com > Gabby Douglas

Gabby Douglas will be criticized for everything

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Ladies! They're all just empty shells whose only value is how they look on the outside. You know, like a Lauren Conrad craft project. You can be the secretary of state, and people will have opinions about how much makeup you wear and how much you perspire. You can be a triple-platinum singer, and your image changes will be seen as a gauge of your mental instability. And you can be an Olympic gold medalist, and your hair will be mocked and derided – until you change it, and then you'll be scrutinized for that, too. Gabby Douglas, come on down!

The Olympics’ schizophrenic gender politics

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000

During the Olympics, we get to watch all sorts of women play all sorts of sports. That is no small deal.

Unlike in our everyday sports experience where men are the assumed participants unless otherwise specified, in the Olympics, events are tagged “men’s” and “women’s” equally. For once, “men’s” is not the default. Instead, pop culture at large invites us to learn these women’s stories, trace their journeys, and praise their accomplishments.

Women’s visibility in the Olympics is a double-edged sword, though.

The Olympics is an event predicated on nationalism, a manufactured collective “us.” People compete as part of a nation and, in turn, the nation embraces those athletes in ways that it fails to do in the day-to-day. The same belief that leads people to desire border fences, to malign immigrants, and to justify preemptive wars is the one that creates a metaphorical umbrella under which all athletes, male and female, find themselves during the Olympic games. Women’s efforts on the pitch or in the pool matter because they help fulfill the uncomfortable need for “us” to be better than “them.”

Ill Doctrine on NBC’s awful Olympics coverage

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Ill Doctrine: NBC's Awesomely Terrible Olympics from ANIMALNewYork.com on Vimeo.

The Internet was abuzz with disdain for NBC's coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, but maybe it was just bad enough to be, well, good.

Olympic women’s burden

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Over the weekend, Jeré Longman of the New York Times published this piece about female Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones. It is, by all accounts, pretty scathing. Alyssa Rosenberg calls it “one of the nastiest profiles” she’s ever seen. David Roth calls the article “unfounded and unfair,” and Isaac Rauch of Deadspin found it so harsh that he goes to considerable effort to tear it apart line by line. Additional takedowns here and here.

Before Gabby Douglas was a household name

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Click image for full size

What's been interesting to track the last year or so are news photos that push the aesthetics or art photographs that somehow wend their way onto more editorial turf. This photo by Martin Schoeller at TIME Lightbox, published on the heels of Olympic gold, seems to fit those terms. It shows Gabby Douglas in the home of the host family she's been living with in Iowa the past two years. Kitsch art meets Olympic mania? I can't really speak to the artistic intent. I have some thoughts about the commercial and cultural politics, though.

No one cries for Lolo Jones

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:03:00 +0000

Jim McKay used to say that every day at the Olympics gave you something to cheer and to cry about. I don’t know if Lolo Jones cried last night after failing to win a medal in the 100m hurdles, and I’m fairly certain that none of her U.S. teammates cried for her, but there’s something about her whole story that is very sad.

You’ll remember that she lost in Beijing when she hit the next-to-last hurdle – and how weird, the next-to-last, not the last when you expect your energy to give out – and just missed out on the gold.

It’s fairly safe to say that of all the American athletes who had yet to win a gold medal, Lolo is the most hyped, making the cover of Time, a spread in Rolling Stone, a semi-nude shot in ESPN magazine, a guest spot on Jay Leno. In fact, she probably received more press than all other U.S. athletes except our swimmers, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Kvelling for Aly Raisman

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 03:38:00 +0000

By the time American gymnast Aly Raisman started tumbling for a medal in the individual floor exercise event yesterday, she was being propelled along by quite an Olympic narrative. Raisman’s story isn’t Oscar Pistorius or Michael Phelps-level operatic, but over the previous nine days she’d put together a pretty compelling arc. The 18-year-old captain of the American team first upset Jordyn Wieber last Sunday night, unexpectedly securing a spot in the individual all-around and introducing audiences to her panicked, anxious mom and dad, still positioned to take the gold in the games’ very competitive “Most Intense Parenting” event. Raisman then anchored the American team as they won the group all-around, finishing her routine with tears in her eyes, only to lose out on a bronze in the individual all-around on a tie-breaking technicality.

Olympic pins, hurdles carnage

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:45:00 +0000

LONDON (AP) — Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:

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BOLT'S SWEDE EVENING

Usain Bolt claims he had a low-key celebration after winning the 100 meters. But what's that on Twitter?

The world's fastest man tweeted a photo of himself and three Swedish handball players in the wee morning hours after his win.

"Whatcha want to know?" he replied after initially claiming he "just chilled."

"I went to the cafeteria to get some food, I saw them and we started talking. They wanted pictures. We chilled. I told them I had a great idea for a picture. So we took a picture."

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

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NO EYE CONTACT

The competitors are in the arena for the final day of individual gymnastics competition, and it's striking how quiet it is.

Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber are going through some warmups on the floor, with Wieber doing her best Rocky impersonation by ripping off pushups and clapping her hands in the middle of each one.

The competitors do not make eye contact, with their teammates or rivals, and hardly a word is being spoken.

It's singular focus, razor sharp concentration. For one more day.

Politicizing black hair

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Full Disclosure: I’ve been natural for nearly 12 years. Many years ago, when I was working on a big real estate project as an entry level project manager, a fellow black woman admonished me for wearing a colorful headscarf. At the time, I wore my hair in double strand twists that I would do myself, a tedious,painstaking project that would warrant me wearing a headscarf for a day or two because until I completed it. She told me that she ‘didin’t want people to get the wrong idea about the project.’ Her hair, by contrast, was chemically straightened, permed in the natural parlance of black hair styles. She occassionaly wore hair pieces as well.

Context here is king: we were black women in a predominantly white male environment represented a contrasting view of black female identity. And hair, is a trait of that identity. I naively assumed that at the dawn of the 21st century, my hair was not relevant fact in convincing loan officers to invest in a real estate transaction.

My amazing Olympics insight

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 16:01:00 +0000

In the P.R. campaign leading up to the 2012 Olympics, Ryan Lochte’s coach, Matt De Lancey, said, “I’ve worked with some tough athletes. There’s none tougher than Ryan. He’s not afraid to throw up.”

Okay – disclaimer. I’m totally afraid to throw up. I have two young daughters and the fear of stomach flu rules my life. But I always get chills when I hear an athlete or coach speak from this passionate place, state how hard they are willing to train and compete — particularly when this kind of comment comes from a woman. I’m motivated by conviction and intensity, athletic or academic, but I grew up in the South thinking I wasn’t allowed to feel that way about anything other than, well, God and ACC basketball. I only discovered this intensity in myself when I got serious about writing a few years ago, when I finally gave myself permission to try harder at the vocation I loved. I have a quote from Beryl Markham (or her ghostwriter) pinned to the bulletin board in my office: Never hope more than you work.

Gabby Douglas’ race narrative

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

I had a chance to chat yesterday with Michael Butterworth, Associate Professor in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green who specializes in the rhetoric of sports. (He also writes for the sports, politics and culture blog, The Agon.) Aware the subject is about a mile wide, we aimed to get a rope around some of the dominant visual and political themes of the Olympic coverage so far.

First, we talked about the dramatic upending of expectations in women’s gymnastics. (As background, Michael described how the all-around winner of the summer gymnastics competition, just like the women’s winner of Olympic figure skating, automatically becomes the newest U.S. sweetheart.) After discussing how NBC was reeling after Jordyn Wieber, the world champion and “odds-on” favorite failed to qualify for the women’s all-around — after her team gold, NBC, still obsessing on Jordan, turned it into a “redemption story” — Michael was very curious to see how Gabby Douglas would fit the role, and handle the marketing windfall.

Did God help Gabrielle Douglas win?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Gabby Douglas is now officially a star. When she won the individual gold medal in women's gymnastics in London Thursday, the breakout darling of the 2012 games, she immediately found herself a celebrity worthy of a cereal box. If her performance in the women's individual all-around didn't blow your mind, you cannot possibly have been paying attention. Yet after her victory, one of the first responses that truly resonated for me was from a colleague who noted, "I would like her more if she were not so, so, so into Jesus." Which raises the question – what is Jesus going to do now for Gabby Douglas' career?

Gymnastics gets joyful

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:21:00 +0000

Since women’s gymnastics started at the Olympics on Sunday night, there has been lots and lots and lots of crying. Of the major gymnasts competing, which, if one is to rely on NBC’s broadcasting judgments, comes down exclusively to Americans and Russians, we have seen almost every single one shed tears. Jordyn Wieber and the entire Russian team from sadness and disappointment, Aly Raisman and Kyla Ross from relief and happiness, and there even seemed to be a fleck in McKayla Maroney’s eye for a few seconds after the team all-around victory. The only gymnast we haven’t seen cry is Gabby Douglas, who has been too focused, composed and fundamentally unhistrionic to go in much for sobbing, and has been blessed with the sort of charismatic, overpowering smile it would be a waste not to use.

When Gabby finished up on her floor routine last night, all but ensuring she would win the individual all-around, she broke into that mega-grin of hers. It was a joyful moment, one made even more joyful against the backdrop of all those other tears. Finally, someone making happiness look happy.

Gabby Douglas wins gold in all-around

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:52:00 +0000

In the 2011 Visa Championships, Gabrielle Douglas fell off the balance beam as she tried to conclude a nearly flawless routine with two back handsprings. The fall stunned her. Though she managed to land on her feet, the slip hurt her in the overall standings. She finished seventh, jeopardizing her chance to participate in the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo.

The experience galvanized Douglas. "I learned about being a competitor," she said. "No one is going to feel sorry for you. No one is going to be like, 'Ooh, you fell.'” Today, Douglas, also known as the “Flying Squirrel,” went on to become the first African-American woman to win the all-around gold medal at the Olympics. To celebrate the victory, Salon offers a few videos of the new champion.

Douglas talking about her training regimen and what she eats, -- ice cream and a brownie after competing.