The following blog post was written by WSAC’s secretary, Sam Hurley!

With the 2012 Summer Olympics approaching fast, the Committee is trying to make last minute changes without causing too much controversy. Sadly, they are doing a terrible job. The most recent fiasco began when all twenty six sports were made available to men and women alike. While that sounds like a progressive step forward into gender equality, it isn’t. Sure, adding women’s boxing to the list of sports made the number of available sports to both men and women equal. However, the number of inequalities in boxing alone is far too high. Women’s boxing only includes three weight classes while the Men’s has ten. Men also have a whopping two hundred and fifty fighters while women have a meager thirty-six. Plus, women’s rounds will also be an entire minute shorter than those of their male counterparts. Shortly after the inclusion of women in boxing was announced, Cuba announced that they would not have a women’s team because, “Cuban women should be showing off their beautiful faces, not getting punched in the face.” If this wasn’t disgusting enough, the Amateur International Boxing Administration (AIBA) made it mandatory for female fighters to wear skirts in the ring. The President of the AIBA said the decision was considered because he believed with players wearing head-gear; it was difficult to distinguish between male and female boxers in the ring. After international petitioning took place, the decision morphed into a choice. Now, female fighters will decide for themselves whether they’ll wear skirts or shorts in the ring. Although it was a step in the right direction to make all sports available to men and women, it is still nowhere near what it should be. Thousands of people should not have to protest the objectification of a group of people in order for it to cease. Committees ought to follow rules of equality without being instructed to do so by the international community. Men and women should be treated equally no matter the sport, and dress-code should follow the same protocol of equality.