The Politics of Sportswear
Baseball Uniforms
The sport baseball was created by and popular among middle- and lower-class American men in the 1840s. Because of this, it was not viewed as a “gentleman’s” sport. Baseball did not have the same respect as British sports like cricket and croquet, and the managers of baseball teams wanted to change that. Part of the plan to make baseball more respected involved white pants. Of course, white pants have multiple uses in the game. Baseball is a summer sport, and played outside, so wearing white keeps the players cool. It also helps players and spectators differentiate between the home team (in white) and the away team (in dark grey). But white pants have another, less obvious, use. After all, it doesn’t make much sense for players to wear white in a game that involves sliding in dry, dusty, dirt, does it? Initially, one of the reasons that Baseball players wore white was to show how clean their uniforms were. This was intended to go against the stereotypes surrounding Baseball as less clean, respectable sport. Because the home team could clean their uniforms every day, the plan worked. The away team, on the other hand, wasn’t able to clean their uniforms every single day. In the past, many travelling teams would wear the same uniform multiple games in a row without cleaning them. Dark pants were able to hide stains from previous games.
Basketball's Pre-Game Dresscode
In the MBA season of 2005-2006, a pre-game dress code was created. The dress code forced players to wear “business casual attire” pre-game, as well as during any league-related activities. The code banned “headgear of any kind” as well as “chains, pendants, or medallions worn over the player’s clothes.” The dress code was created due to the incident known as the “Malice at the Palace,” a fight between multiple players and fans after, with less than a minute left on the clock, a player for the Detroit Pistons was fouled. The incident received lots of media attention, and not in a good way. After the fight, team managers were desperate to ‘rebrand’ the MBA and improve their reputations. However, when a dress code bans chains, baggy pants, durags, and other articles of clothing popular in hip-hop culture at the time, it’s clearly about race. At the time many basketball players were upset about the dress code, with Stephen Jackson saying it was “definitely a racial statement,” and Jason Richardson that it was “taking away [the players’] self-expression.” Many players continued to wear whatever they wanted and were fined as a result. With time, players began to adhere to the dress code. At first most of them wore plain suits, but a few found ways to express themselves even with the dress code. Soon, designer suits a flashy patterns became the norm- helped by the fact that in 2014 the previous commissioner, David Stern, was replaced and the dress code subsequently became less extreme. Pregame has now become a time for players to show off their individuality. As basketball player Tyrod Taylor said, “if you want to show off your sense of style, the opportunity is pre-game." The dress code accidentally ended up having a huge impact on fashion, unintentionally turning basketball into a runway.
Tennis' History of Privilege
The tennis uniforms that exist today are derived from the mid-1800s lawn tennis- a sport specifically created for women to be able to play. In lawn tennis, women wore floor length gowns with long sleeves and high necks. The dresses, inspired both by cricket and by the lawn parties popular among wealthy women of the time, were all-white. The all-white outfits were useful for a few reasons. Firstly, lawn tennis could be played by both men and women, and so it soon became popular among the elite as a means of courting. Tennis is an active sport, and the white clothes helped to hide any improper -and less than romantic- sweat stains. Secondly, the elaborate white outfits helped the upper-class keep poorer people from joining in on the game. Finally, as Robert J. Lake, the author of A Social History of Tennis in Britain, said, “white was a symbol of purity and virtue.”
The history of tennis sportswear still impacts the game today. When tennis player tennis player Suzanne Lenglen wore a calf-length skirt and bare arms to the Wimbledon open of 1920, the press called her “indecent,” but her shocking outfit generated a lot of interest, so the tennis dress code was changed. In the 1980s, Anne White wore an all-white full-length catsuit. This was deemed to be “non-typical tennis wear,” so her match was postponed, and she was asked to change. In the 2016 French Open, Serena Williams wore a black catsuit. The suit was designed to prevent blood clots, a health condition that caused serious complications after she gave birth to her daughter. The French Open subsequently banned the suit, with the president of the French Tennis Federation, Bernard Guidicelli, saying that “one must respect the game and the place.” Serena Williams has repeatedly faced discrimination in her career. Tennis began as a mainly white, wealthy sport, and these ideals have continued to be a part of the sport in modern times. White femininity continues to be upheld as the ideal. All women must wear skirts, and all players must wear white, a tradition that began because “white symbolizes purity.” Suzanne Lenglen got in trouble for showing too much skin, while Serena Williams, by wearing pants instead of a skirt, was punished for not showing enough. Tennis federation officials benefit from the sexualization of women's bodies, yet continue to shame women for their bodies- bodies that they, the federation, profit from.
Resources:
https://littleballparks.com/why-do-baseball-players-wear-white-pants/
https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-baseball
https://brobible.com/sports/article/nba-dress-code-impact-fashion/
https://time.com/5667447/tennis-clothes-history/
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2018/09/25/the-tennis-dress-code-racket/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/women-athletes-uniform-changes-1.6122725
