How you play the game.

Hurray for the GB Men's Gymnastics team with their Bronze medal, the GB equestrian eventing team and women's cyclist with their silver, and for the GB Women's Pairs Rowers with their Gold.

Shame on the badminton teams who did not give it their best go. And shame on the American Coach who suggested foul play because a young swimmer excelled herself, and knocked the American competitor into second place.

Shame on the Twitter user who tweeted vile messages to Tom Daley.

 

At high level sport, of course, the eyes of the world are upon the athletes, and you want your team to win big. Top athletes aspire to Gold medals. Gold is what everyone wants, but, not everyone can have it.

I am very, very pleased for Helen Glover and Heather Stanning (GB rowers) who earned a very well deserved Gold medal. But we should be equally proud of the achievements of those who won Silver and those who won Bronze. The media's lamenting the lack of Gold medals thus far seems to me to miss at least some of the point. To have made it into the Olympic finals at all is a stunning achievement.

I have no doubt that Tom Daley's father would be bursting with pride at the efforts and dedication of his son. (Vile Tweeter is surely alone in his thinking and his comments). Daly and Waterfield put in a tremendous performance in the synchronised diving events, and fourth place out of a world of competitors is not bad at all. And they can say they worked their hardest and did the best they could on the day, at the time. The Chinese, Indonseian and South Korean Badminton teams can't say the same.

There is, it seems, no evidence at this time to suggest that Ye Shiwen won her swimming Gold medals using unfair means. She has been drugs tested at least three times. It is unjust to detract from her achievement in the way that the American coach did - and, indeed, that various news commentators have implied ('Could she have found ways around the current testing?' 'Of course she could') without reasonable evidence. You can't cheer for Gold medal winners and then, when a young girl outdoes herself and all of the other competitors, say that, to be that good, she must be cheating. Perhaps she really is just that good?

A major part of the campaign to bring the Olympics to London was about creating a legacy. No one is quite clear what this means, but it seems, in part, to be about inspiring young people to participate in sport, and to aim high. Focus and dedication in a career - althetics or not - is a good aspiration.

We should, though, bear in mind - and make sure that others do too - that sport isn't all about the winning. Good sportsmanship is as important, whether it is being gracious in defeat, performing a more cautious routine to ensure points for the team rather than showing off, playing your best (whatever the outcome)congratulating others' achievements or just in acknowledging the effort.

It isn't whether you win or lose; it's how you play the game.

Beautiful Beliefs (3)

I believe that...

beauty magazines promote low self esteem.

OK, those are not really my words; I've borrowed them from Savage Garden's song, 'Affirmation', but that doesn't meant I don't believe them to be true. 

This morning, on the radio, I heard the news that a committee of MPs has proposed compulsory body image and self-esteem lessons in schools, in order to combat the poor self esteem and body image of youngsters. I find this proposal completely bizarre, for two reasons:

1. It does not really address the reasons why young people have poor self-esteem.

2. Encouraging self-esteem and a positive body image should not be confined to one lesson a week in school. It should be something that is integrated into their everyday life, naturally.

I am very lucky. I have a pretty balanced view of my body (could tone up a bit, perhaps cut down a little on the cakes... but otherwise, pretty good). Sometimes I look in the mirror and think 'Not as slim as you used to be...', but then, does that really matter? All is in proportion, and I am far from overweight, health-wise. 

Some of this balance, I am sure, is down to a loving and supportive family throughout my childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and to a boyfriend who freely offers compliments on my shape - and on days when I've noted to myself that my bum is bigger than it used to be, this is a good boost. 

But I believe some of this balance is due to the fact that I do not aspire to be celebrity- / model-thin, but then I don't think I've ever really aspired to be a celebrity or a model.*   For me, success is not purely related to what I look like (and I'm grateful to my family and to my school for fostering this belief). Raising the aspirations of girls and young women beyond 'being like Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole' is a connected, but different, problem that also needs to be addressed in our celebrity-obsessed culture.  Celebrity women are often held to be the perfect shape. Most of them, to me, are alarmingly and unhealthily thin. 

When gossip magazines catch celebrities looking human - sweating, without make-up, with zits, or otherwise not camera-ready, they draw attention to such 'flaws' and, rather than saying 'Hurrah! These women are really like us', they say something that amounts to, 'Look at Celebrity X - she needs to work harder at her appearance'. This does not promote a healthy relationship with real bodies. It's a form of bullying at a distance.

More than this, though, as adults we know that celebrity, girlie and fashion magazines have images that are heavily doctored / airbrushed. Not even the models and celebrities can live up to the unrealistic expectations that such images raise, and it is this that we really need to explain to children and adolescents (and to some adults!). 

(* I think I once wanted a very slim waist because Victorian ladies used to have them, but then I realised they were artificially created through corsets too...)

We also, I think, need to be much more careful about the way in which the media presents the 'obesity crisis' in the country. Curvy does not have to mean fat. Healthy eating and exercise - yes; diet until you are unnaturally skinny - no. 

I remember seeing an episode of Supernanny that dealt with a pre-teen who thought she had to match up to magazine images to be pretty. Not true.  But this must be a belief that so many young people have because of celebrity culture - and I don't think this is only a problem for girls. Boys are increasingly under a similar sort of pressure.

The report from MPs notes the media's unrealistic body images as a cause of the problem, but does not seem to suggest a way to tackle it beyond 'get schools to do something'. That isn't enough.

Of course, building confidence through encouraging children to like who they are and what they look like is important, but this could - and should - be done consistently at home and at school through praise, encouragement and an absolute crack-down on bullying of any kind.  Encouragement towards, and praise for, academic, sporting or other achievements, along with education on eating healthily and taking balanced exercise, could go a long way towards combating poor body image and self-esteem problems in children / adolescents. But, tackling poor body image in young people cannot be done without addressing the causes of it, and the magazine industry and celebrity culture are some of these causes. 

A legally enforceble ban on airbrushing could, I think, be more effective than compulsory school lessons in self-esteem.



This post is connected to Amy Palko's Beautiful Beliefs writing circle.

Irresponsible TV.

Bullying does not make good TV.

This might seem like an obvious statement, but it was provoked by a programme I watched yesterday evening. I usually enjoy 8 out of 10 Cats; the panellists are witty and play off each other very well. There is sometimes a certain amount of good natured banter, but no real harm is meant. For last night's festive edition, the panellists were Sean Lock, Micky Flanagan, Jon Richardson, Greg Davies, Liza Tarbuck and Jedward. Very little of the show was funny. I was disappointed.

I don't like Jedward, for several reasons. I don't think they are particularly talented as singers, dancers or performers in general. (I also don't like that as twins they present themselves as one entity, even conflating their names, but that's a separate issue.). I also don't like the 'celebrity' culture they represent: they are, actually, famous for their lack of talent, promoted by the UK X factor show. They are young, and have been thrust into the spotlight with managers/agents who get their faces on anything and everything they can. X factor expoited them for viewing figures - not to listen in awe to their vocal brilliance, but to see what new crazy thing they would do - and they continue to develop their own particular 'brand' in this way. It might be good for their publicity, but I doubt it is good for the boys themselves. Last night's programme was a good example of this.

Most of the programme consisted of the other panellists (and the host, Jimmy Carr) joking amongst themselves about how terrible and how stupid Jedward are. There was a lot of name calling, and a lot of highlighting their 'faults'. And the boys just kept pushing through. They kept trying to join in in answering the questions, but each time they were made to look extremely foolish at best.

I don't think they did themselves any favours on this front. And I don't think that their managers / agents / parents are doing them any favours either in encouraging them to keep doing these things. There is a limit to how long they will be able to continue presenting themselves in the way that they do, and they will also struggle to create careers for themselves when the 'Jedward' bubble bursts - which it will, sooner or later.

But, the 'grown ups' on 8 out of 10 Cats (their term, not mine) did not come across any better in their dealings with the boys. The funniest moments were those of quick wit, mostly directed at other targets than Jedward. There is nothing quick witted about verbally bashing or humiliating an easy target. And the boys themselves, although they kept smiling through, looked at times like they were genuinely hurt by some of the comments. There was nothing funny about grown men (I'm excluding Liza Tarbuck, because she actually said very little, and would add that Jon Richardson behaved better than the others) bullying teenage boys.

Jedward were well out of their depth. They knew it. The host and other panellists knew it. And I knew it. And it made for very uncomfortable viewing. .

The TV programme that created 'Jedward' was irresponsible to do so. They are not well equipped for the world that either loves or loathes them, and whilst they are 'good sports', there is a limit to what they ought to be expected to take in the name of publicity.

Presenting this as a Christmas comedy programme gives out the wrong message. It suggests that bullying is witty, or funny. It isn't. If those sorts of comments were made in a different forum we would all agree it was bullying and wrong. But because it was a comedy show - and because Jedward are Jedward - such behaviour is allowed to pass by uncriticised. It shouldn't be.

Such blatant bullying on TV is not funny. It is cruel and it is irresponsible. And it should be far beneath the witty comedians who made two teenage boys their target as part of festive fun.

Essay questions

My Shakespeare students have essays due at the end of term. The course convenor set the essay questions - they have a choice of about 12 - and I think they are really interesting and thought provoking questions. The students do not, at this stage, have the option of making up their own questions, so we make sure they are offered a variety of topics. Nevertheless, I have never had so many students email me to ask if they can change the questions as I have had this year on this course.

In some ways I might consider this a good thing - students thinking about ways in which they could talk about the texts, pursuing their own interests. However, most of the changes they want to make are ways of making the questions we have set easier. They are not pursuing new, interesting areas of research. Now, these are final year students. On this course they only write one essay and then have an exam at the end of the year. The essay questions are meant to be challenging. I am happy to look over my students' plans, and to discuss their possible approaches to the questions with them, but - even if I could, and I can't (I don't have the authority to do so) - I am not prepared to make the questions easier.

And I truly don't believe I would be doing my students any favours if I did.