You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
-Lurid Crime Tales-
It's Not Blame-Shifting To Ask Where The Parents Were In The Gymnastics Sex Abuse Cases
2018-01-30
[The Federalist] In the wake of the U.S. Olympics Gymnastics scandal involving the sexual abuse of hundreds of young athletes by team doctor Larry Nassar, some people are asking where the parents were when the abuse was occurring.

In a recent column for NBC News, Bethany Mandel argues that to do so is to practice a kind of self-righteous public shaming of those involved: "It’s a common response when tragedy strikes a child: Where were the parents? How could they let this happen? After a child is hurt or killed, online mommy-shamers inevitably swoop in, incapable of offering enough empathy to appreciate that sometimes bad things happen even to children with the best parents. In the wake of the Larry Nassar case, as scolds tend to do, they’ve swooped in again."

Mandel compares the "scolding" of the young gymnasts’ parents to that experienced by other parents in recent years whose children fell into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo or were grabbed by an alligator at Disney World. She sees the focus on the parents as a distraction that ultimately accomplishes nothing:
Posted by:Besoeker

#8  Male gymnasts are probably at different schools -- they use different equipment than the girls, except for the floor exercise, so there would be no cost savings to having them train together, and too much distraction, Skidmark. Not to mention that boys continue to develop strength well into college and beyond, while the top girls often struggle past eighteen or so, as their bodies settle into a more womanly form skewing the strength to power ratio.

Finally, any girl who allows herself to be distracted by the idea of boys will lose to those keeping their eyes and efforts firmly focussed on gymnastics, however nice a boy in the hand might be.
Posted by: trailing wife   2018-01-30 17:39  

#7  Didn't we just have a long discussion about absent parents working long hours and it's effect on children?

You make good points TW.

As the earlier article suggests and you reinforce, group bonding by adolescents also fosters competition. Sure the girls wanted to 'sparkle' more. I wonder if there also weren't 'trophy' males to conquer.
Posted by: Skidmark   2018-01-30 14:14  

#6  The same place the parents of aspiring teen age actors/actresses were/are.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2018-01-30 13:40  

#5  You could ask the same question when it comes to the horrible 'public' education K-12 students have been 'receiving' (or not receiving) these past twenty years or so.
Posted by: Raj   2018-01-30 11:16  

#4  The leotards used to be much simpler and more modest, AlanC. The trend toward skin and sparkles came gradually, as it did in women’s ice skating —probably in part coming from the girls themselves.

One thing should be noted: the girls were sent away from home to board at the training facilities at a fairly young age, and are themselves highly disciplined and driven to endure a great deal in order to succeed. As far as I am aware, none of the girls allowed the sexual abuse to prevent them from reaching for gold, and often enough attaining it, over the years.

Meanwhile, the parents were working long hours to afford the high costs of the gymnastics boarding school, and very likely hearing nothing from their daughters, just as they didn’t hear serious complaints about torn muscles, strict diets, and trying to find time to do schoolwork amid the long hours in the gym.
Posted by: trailing wife   2018-01-30 11:04  

#3  I've seen college gymnastics on TV the last couple of days. All I could think of was the trick of making a dog hold a treat on its nose.

Of course the perp is the only one responsible, but dang, the temptations are sweet and plentiful.

Who designs and specifies those costumes/uniforms anyway?
Posted by: AlanC   2018-01-30 10:17  

#2  Fame (same as Hollyweird hopefuls who 'knew all along')
Posted by: Procopius2k   2018-01-30 09:58  

#1  Embrace the power of "and".
Posted by: gorb   2018-01-30 09:07  

00:00