Triathalon

First of all, I just wanted to put it out there : To think that a marathon is a great feat!!!! I seriously take that one back. To top it all off, when Erin said she had completed nine of them and is preparing for two more, I was kinda off awestruck. Participationg in nine triatholons (even if placing last in each and every one of them) as a women, is still a great feat in my eyes. Wait, did i just say that? As a women? placing last? Well, that's sexist of me ( and to think that I am a female myself) but what can I say, it's true. I really like the perspective Erin took during her lecture; looking at women participating in trialthons and how they have been potrayed was very interesting. It seems as though its never a simple, black-or-white ordeal when it comes women. Erin stated that female althelism is a split between the athletic and sexual body. A woman althlete must be conscious of how she potrays herself as a woman and as an althlete, with no doubt that these two tasks clash often. The Iron Man, the most harsh of the trialthons, stuck with me. I thought it was hilarious how the female version of the Iron Man was adverstised. The female version, read Iron Girl not Iron Woman ( in pink, haha!!) and there were pretty, soft images of flowers and a duck. The Iron Man logo has no flowers, ducks and the letters are bold and big, conveying a message of strength and presevervance, how nice. Watching those clips and seeing how these participatants looked like they were natural disaster or war victims being carried away from the scene was terryfing for me. The pain that they have to go through is astronomical and I can't even bare the pain of a pinch.