Here is a question for the lawyers out there.
Do FINA regulations supersede US federal anti-sex discrimination laws?
Granted, I am not sure I know what the latter are. However, if I were to show up at a USMS swimming meet, wearing a perfectly legal women's swimming suit, one of the zipper-free kneeskin type models that also covered my ample boobage, and the officials rightly disqualified me for wearing this get-up because it is against the FINA/USMS agreed upon New Order, could I then turn around and sue under some federal statute prohibiting discrimination because gender?
In my mind, the new FINA rules are going to end up making swimming even more of a dying sport for boys in the US than the unintended consequences of Title IX, etc. Girls, especially in the younger age groups, can often beat boys in swimming, and in fact our own Mr. Qbrain got a top 10 time in the men's 30-34 LCM 1500 this summer. His wife, if I am remembering correctly, beat his time but failed to make the top 10 in the women's category.
If anything, it is we men who are now at a disadvantage. I say make the dystaff gender wear thongs and let us wear body suits fashioned to look like very streamlined tuxedos.
Suits for women now remain pretty much unchanged by the new FINA ruling, with the exception, that is, of getting rid of zippers and getting rid of non textiles. But that means women can continue to swim in what are still arguably very fast suits--FS1's, for example, that are very close to the short john types that helped loads of people get their best times. Men are prohibited from wearing anything but jammers.
Chicks, in other words, get 2004 technology; guys are back to the 60s. Why not let us go back to the 20s instead, when Johnny Weismuller wore a full body suit, albeit of wool?
So, in the spirit of Larry David, who recently concluded an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the line, "I'm Larry David, and I am comfortable in women's underwear"--I propose that any men who want to join me in the latest civil rights battle of our time show up at nationals this summer in women's suits and accompanied by our class action lawyer, and join me in echoing in a collective voice that rings out in natatoriums all across the fruited plain:
"I am a male USMS swimmer, and I am comfortable wearing women's suits."
Provided I can find an esquire who will agree to take the case on a contingency basis, I say this to the USMS sexist powers that be:
See you in court! Suckers!
I think by that you mean a "proper" Southern Xmas party, no?
I don't believe that song is about that sort of party. ;)
Definitely not, but I don't think it is about southern culture either. Redneck culture, yes. I feel it my duty to dispel folks of the myth that the South is nothing but a bunch of rednecks. I lived in the D.C. area for most of my youth, and learned that most people from there, unfortunately, think redneck culture is the only culture that exists in the South.
I'd hate for our non-southern friends to come all the way to Atlanta and be disappointed when they don't see the type displayed in the video walking around near Georgia Tech. If we sent them just a few miles over towards Buckhead, why they might think they had been abducted by aliens and taken out of the South.
Back to the suits - if I wasn't such a big fan of Chris S., I would tell everybody to just boycott the suit ban and swim in the suits anyway. If everybody felt strongly about it, we could all get DQed together.
So, if somebody does decide to swim in the suit and doesn't care if they get DQed, will they be permitted to swim in the suit for the rest of the meet? In other words, they are allowed to swim, but the time won't count.
I guess this could be like the time I swam on a team with three guys. There were only four of us and we really wanted to do a relay. They let us do one in the men's relay event, but we got DQed.
I think by that you mean a "proper" Southern Xmas party, no?
I don't believe that song is about that sort of party. ;)
Definitely not, but I don't think it is about southern culture either. Redneck culture, yes. I feel it my duty to dispel folks of the myth that the South is nothing but a bunch of rednecks. I lived in the D.C. area for most of my youth, and learned that most people from there, unfortunately, think redneck culture is the only culture that exists in the South.
I'd hate for our non-southern friends to come all the way to Atlanta and be disappointed when they don't see the type displayed in the video walking around near Georgia Tech. If we sent them just a few miles over towards Buckhead, why they might think they had been abducted by aliens and taken out of the South.
Back to the suits - if I wasn't such a big fan of Chris S., I would tell everybody to just boycott the suit ban and swim in the suits anyway. If everybody felt strongly about it, we could all get DQed together.
So, if somebody does decide to swim in the suit and doesn't care if they get DQed, will they be permitted to swim in the suit for the rest of the meet? In other words, they are allowed to swim, but the time won't count.
I guess this could be like the time I swam on a team with three guys. There were only four of us and we really wanted to do a relay. They let us do one in the men's relay event, but we got DQed.
