An athlete designed by a committee
Feb. 22nd, 2005 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksIt was snowing hard this morning as I walked in the dark along the north side of Trafalgar Square. The Olympic madmen have erected a tent, a large plasma screen and a 25-foot high plaster-mould athlete who is carrying a gigantic fluttering union flag. I reckon that if we enter this athlete in any of the comps he/she will win. The 100m would be about four strides and the hurdles could be crushed like matchsticks.
Why do I write he/she? Well, this model, like the elephant, is clearly an athlete designed by a committee absolutely desperate not to upset anyone. The skin tone is coffee-coloured, that kind of tone that you see often in "African"-Americans (who have about as much African heritage as I do) but a tone that might, just might, be Asian, or Latin-American, or the result of a heavy fortnight for a white person on a Florida beach.
The hair is swept back and straight. Natural or artificially straightened? Hard to tell. So, no clues there. And are those breasts? I think so, but they are very small. Maybe they are overdeveloped pecs.
So, here we have an athlete who is neither white nor black, male nor female, muscular nor whippet-like. The only thing that is definite about it is that it is 25 feet tall, which I think I should use as an excuse to claim that it is biased against short people. Are the Olympic campaigners really that scared that denoting an athlete as being of any one particular race will signify racial prejudice? Jeez, what a load of wankers.
Why do I write he/she? Well, this model, like the elephant, is clearly an athlete designed by a committee absolutely desperate not to upset anyone. The skin tone is coffee-coloured, that kind of tone that you see often in "African"-Americans (who have about as much African heritage as I do) but a tone that might, just might, be Asian, or Latin-American, or the result of a heavy fortnight for a white person on a Florida beach.
The hair is swept back and straight. Natural or artificially straightened? Hard to tell. So, no clues there. And are those breasts? I think so, but they are very small. Maybe they are overdeveloped pecs.
So, here we have an athlete who is neither white nor black, male nor female, muscular nor whippet-like. The only thing that is definite about it is that it is 25 feet tall, which I think I should use as an excuse to claim that it is biased against short people. Are the Olympic campaigners really that scared that denoting an athlete as being of any one particular race will signify racial prejudice? Jeez, what a load of wankers.
