The world of gymnastics is getting a ton of attention these days, but for all the wrong reasons. Following the sentencing of Larry Nassar, the new USA Gymnastics CEO stepped down after just five days on the job (and after gymnastics superstar Simone Biles called out her anti-Kaepernick Tweet). And now, the International Federation of Gymnastics (or FIG), the governing body of the sport, has just placed a ban on “heavy makeup” during competition.
It stems from a gymnastics routine at the 2018 European Championships in August, during which Dutch gymnast Céline van Gerner competed with a floor routine inspired by the musical Cats, complete with the original music and hair and makeup to match.
From her scores, she didn’t appear to be penalized for her costume. “It’s not like we’re used to makeup like this in artistic gymnastics, but for me, it was like… I’m doing this routine based on the musical Cats, I’m wearing a cat-like leotard,” van Gerner said afterwards in an interview with Luba Baladzhaeva of gymnastics news site Gymnovosti. “We checked the rules and there was no restriction on makeup, so we just went for it.”
There weren’t any restrictions then, but FIG has since changed that. This week, van Gerner posted a screenshot of an apparent rule change for the 2018 World Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar. It reads: “Face-painting is not allowed; makeup must be modest and not portray a theatrical character (animal or human).”
Gymnasts and those who follow the sport alike have expressed their disappointment in the policy change, which seems to set a double-standard and undermines the fact that the gymnastics world has more pressing matters it should deal with. Plus, the word “modest” both is gendered and can have insidious implications when applied to how one looks or what one wears. (In fact, Olympian Aly Raisman called out this very thing in a moving Instagram post earlier this year. “Women do not have to be modest to be respected,” she wrote.)
This isn’t the first time that makeup has received unwarranted attention and policing. In fact, it’s far from it: During the 2016 Summer Olympics, two male hosts on Fox News discussed whether female athletes (namely gymnasts) should or should not wear makeup, for reasons still unknown. And the peanut gallery on Twitter took it upon themselves to critique Gabby Douglas’s (perfectly sleek) ponytail during the 2012 Summer Olympics. We’ll take a wild guess that for the 2020 Summer Olympics, someone’s going to whine about the skin looking too luminous.
Last we checked, wearing makeup doesn’t prevent you from being a serious, talented, or seriously-talented gymnast.
Glamour has reached out to FIG for comment and will update this post accordingly.
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