re: the "just... disturbing" link.

In all fairness to George Bush (and if you'll please allow me to recompose myself after having typed "In all fairness to George Bush" and meaning it), he was placed in something of a no-win situation when Misty May-Treanor offered her, as the AP put it, "bikinied rear."

I managed to find video of it somewhere last night, and you can almost see him gaming out the consequences of different actions, and I guess he did about as well as hes capable of given the amount of time he had to think of what to do. It really is a pretty awkward situation to find oneself in.

Its a little weird/creepy that she offered said rear in the first place, but I don't know, if I had the opportunity to embarrass George Bush in front of a zillion cameras/people, I might take it.

Good that they reconsidered, but you can see how this happened.

"Digger" to many means "Volleyball Player"

"Digger" also means "Australian" to millions of people down under.

It was SMH's idea of highest praise ... sigh.

risa b

Now that I read the comments, what risa says makes sense. Maybe the term gold-digger doesn't have the same negative connotation as in the US. I didn't even equate digger with volleyball player.

My first response was WTF?! Why does it seem like all the coverage of the Olympics seem to be so superficial?! They are professional athletes and the coverage is cutesy, fashion centric (blue carpet), or blatantly sexualized (see NBC coverage of women's volleyball).

i read "digging" to mean to really like something, in this case a gold medal. my friends and i say things like "i really dig the new REM single. the electronic remake of "how soon is now"....not so much" all the time. i thought of it as an overly cutesy play on words, but not offensive.

and am i the only one not exceptionally bothered by the women's beach volleyball uniforms? to me, to play in a swimsuit just reflects the sport's beach origins. (the men play in swimsuits, too, from what i've seen, though sometimes with shirts as well.) i don't think the women's suits are really revealing; most bikinis i've seen show off more. i think it would be different if the athletes have indicated that they aren't comfortable or that the uniforms impede their play, but i haven't seen that....am i missing something? entirely possible.

FYI-In Australia "digger" is slang for "soldier" and has an empowering connotation.

The arts/culture/design/fashion blog that I share with two friends is named Gold Digger.

The friends are both male and gay. I'm a straight woman. It sounds somewhat ridiculous to say we have reclaimed the word, but in a way we have. The word evokes mining for gold, searching the internet and other media for wonderful and/or beautiful things to share with others. It's aspirational and occasionally materialistic, but still very generous in spirit.

The name is cheeky, but I've never considered whether it was harmful. Obviously, be reclamation of the word isn't understood by others.

totally unrelated, but why is there a videochat window with a 21 year old showing cleavage as an advertisement on this feministing thread? It seems out of place to me...

Hi I was the one who submitted this and I've discussed it with a variety of my colleagues - all of us work in the media.

I believe that the original intent was to make the positive connotation between them being Aussies and 'Diggers' - as in the Australian soldiers who fought in WWII. BUT the fact of the matter is that adding "Gold" in front of it changes the meaning and EVERYONE I have spoken to (though I know that doesn't mean 100% of Australians) know what the phrase "Gold Digger" means. Also, all my colleagues have agreed the phrase would never have been used for male athletes. The term was poorly constructed and poorly used, and particularly younger readers would have missed the WWII connotation and just seen it as gold-diggers. This is probably also why they ended up changing the term they used. Also, why are we using military terms for Olympic medallists anyway?? Shouldn't it be about cooperation and friendly competition between countries and not, y'know.. war??

Anyway in my opinion, nothing to apologise about Ann ;-)

Also, have you noticed how the photos of the allegedly underage Chinese gymnast are all of her with her legs wide open in splits next to the word "Underage" (like the one on the front page of HuffPo right now). Like a shot of her face wouldn't be more to the point?

Agree with Goanna. Australians know _exactly_ what "gold-diggers" are and how derogatory and gendered the term is, and that the compound phrase bears no relationship to the term "diggers".

I think military folk would also agree that using "diggers" for non-soldiers is also completely disrespectful.

What we have here is a case of poor editing, where the more general understanding of the term "gold digger", ie a person (usually woman) who marries for money, was overlooked, no matter how incredible that seems. To Goanna: The term "digger" actually dates back to WW1, and is particularly applied to the soldiers who fought at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli against the Turks - and lost. Now digger is more generally applied to mean any soldier. As for your assertion that young people in Australia would be unaware of this, the ANZAC story is taught religiously in schools as an integral part of Australia's history and the development of a national identity. April 25, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is a national holiday on which ex-servicemen and women march in major cities and towns in memory of their fallen comrades. I would like to add that this day is just as important for our close ally and neighbour, New Zealand, whose soldiers were fighting right there alongside Australia. Hence the term digger has also come to mean a person who keeps fighting even when facing the most extreme odds. In that light, it can be seen how this headline came about. This team was not expected to win but absolutely blitzed the opposition, also creating a new world record by a huge margin, hence winning them gold medals. There is no excuse for the editorial team of "The Sydney Morning Herald" not picking up the double meaning of this headline, but as an Australian, I can see where they were coming from, however clumsily. As for the new headline, "The Fab Four", they didn't try very hard on that one. I can remember it being applied to a (male) gold-medal winning Australian rowing team a number of Olympics ago. I guess they were desperate to remove the potentially offensive original headline as quickly as possible!!

Sorry for sounding like an Australian history zealot, but the use of the word "digger" has even earlier origins than WW1 as a term for soldiers. The development of the colony(later state)of Victoria and its capital city, "Marvellous Melbourne", as it was known then, was largely due to massive gold-rushes which occurred here in the 1850s. The miners became known as "diggers" and endured unbelievable hardships in their quest to strike gold. One of their pet grievances was the imposition of a license to mine by the British colonial government of the time. The cost of this was out of all proportion to the income of most diggers, and did not take into account whether they even found gold. Diggers were also subjected to constant, random license checks as a form of harassment. Diggers did not have the right to vote either. The unrest resulted in an uprising by diggers against the colonial government called the "Eureka Rebellion". It was very quickly over, but the political and social ramifications were enormous. The leader of the rebellion, Peter Lalor, eventually became a member of Parliament. I write this to present yet another link between the use of the words "gold" and "diggers" in the Australian context, and what may have been in the mind of the journalist writing the article. However, to overlook the obvious derogatory meaning "gold digger" also has, particularly beyond our own borders, still remains an example of poor editing.

AliCat - That was my bad about the WWII reference! I'm Australian too and went to a selective school and my mistake shows that even the most well-educated Australians sometimes miss the full history and meaning behind the term "digger". I too was schooled like crazy on these things, but in my experience if a kid doesn't care about something, they don't learn it - that simple. And to be honest, a lot of kids at my school didn't seem to be paying attention even as much as I did. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that a lot of them would miss the meaning, especially given the way that EVERYONE knows that "gold-digger" song.. I'm willing to put money on the fact that THAT is what the younger audience thought of when they saw that headline, before they fully considered the rich history behind the term.

Yes it was bad editing, and I am glad they corrected it - but I have no doubt that they were aware of the double-meaning.. they probably just found it mildly humourous (you know how much the media love their puns and word-play in headlines!).

On that topic, I am getting SO fed up of seeing these puns being used for swimmer Stephanie Rice, I mean really it's getting ridiculous!
"ThRice taking the medals!"
"white-hot Rice has been blitzing the tally!"
"And furthermore, she's a dish!"

AliCat and Goanna, thanks for the Australian history info!

Over here in the U.S., I somehow had got the impression that "digger" specifically meant an ANZAC veteran of both WWI and WWII. So, thanks for clueing me in!

In even more sexist Olympic related news, anyone want to talk about the fucking uniforms?

Unless you did already and I haven't scrolled far enough down the main page.

^^ Never mind.

I just noticed the post above this one mentions it. Apparently I was drawn to the big colorful picture instead. lol

This photo turns a negative term on its head. It is an affirming headline that says that women can succeed without taking advantage of men. Those who are upset are falling into the long standing stereotype that to be a feminist is to lose all sense of irony and humor.

Sorry BalletBoy but this was not an attempt at humour, and there was certainly no undertone of "women can succeed without taking advantage of men" - I think that's already pretty clear in the Olympics so there's no point to be made there. This was not an ironic or humourous headline, it was a hard news story. If you have any understanding of the media industry you would know that the way in which headlines and stories are generated depends strongly on the type of news story. A breaking news story on an olympic win is only grounds for a humourous headline IF the athlete has a name which they can turn into a pun of some sort. Otherwise, hard and breaking news generally go with direct headlines. Also to suggest that the Sydney Morning Herald is a subversive publication with ironic headlines is to show a profound misunderstanding of its content, editorial guidelines, and history.

Hey Goanna, no worries!!!! Due to being a teacher, I am probably overly optimistic about how much attention kids pay to their lessons about ANZAC Day. I am particularly aware of the history of the gold-rush for the same reason, but also due to having lived in Melbourne for many years, and of course, visiting Ballarat, Sovereign Hill and the site of the Eureka Stockade.

With regards to Sydney's newspapers, one would expect better of "The Sydney Morning Herald". However its tabloid competitor, "The Daily Telegraph", outdid itself during the Pope's recent visit to Australia for World Youth Day. Regardless of where one stands on the views of the Catholic Church and its leader, the Pope, the newspaper outdid itself in its hypocrisy and objectification of women. In one issue, which carried an article on the Pope's message to youth, which focused particularly on the increasing portrayal of sex and violence on the TV and Internet, was another very large article featuring model Gisele (spelling?) in a very brief bikini with the headline screaming, "Is this the hottest shoot ever?" The next day, appeared a very solemn editorial supporting the Pope's views, basking in the glory of his visit and the fact that this newspaper was a sponsor of World Youth Day, but later in the paper was an article featuring "The World's Sexiest Catholics". All were women but one, and were featured in very brief clothing.

Again one has to question the reasoning of the editorial team. Are they stupid and incompetent? Do they not care about how they are perceived and the messages they send out, in this case, completely contradictory? Do they consciously choose to place such articles in the newspaper, begging the question of why? The fact that this newspaper also enjoys the higher circulation of the two is worrying. Is there an unquestioning and uncritical audience for this garbage?

All this is off the topic of the Olympic article, but outlines the continuing negative way women are portrayed in the media, including mainstream newspapers, and the choices editorial teams make in allowing particular stories to run in a form which is belittling and offensive to women.

Apparently, another paper in California has gone and done the same thing: http://is.gd/1KRT... Now where's the excuse for THAT one?

Apparently, another paper in California has gone and done the same thing: http://is.gd/1KRT ... Now where's the excuse for THAT one?

Whoops, sorry, can you delete that first comment? The link was broken.