Controversy erupts over sports bra ban at US university
A university in the United States has been forced to overturn a ban on sports bras in the wake of overwhelming recent backlash.
When New Jersey’s Rowan University attempted to enforce an outdated rule banning sports bras on its women’s cross country team, one athlete wasn’t having it.
Gina Capone — who is listed as a member of the 2017 women’s cross country team at Rowan University — called out the policy in an article on a popular online student publication.
Capone explained the reason the members of the team prefer running in sports bras, and called the policy a result of “rape culture.”
“I’ll have you know the real reason women run in sports bras, and it’s not to show off our hard-earned abs,” Capone wrote.
“Women, whether they have a six-pack or not, run in sports bras because, quite frankly, it’s hot outside.
“We run in sports bras because our workouts are demanding, challenging, and vigorous. We run in sports bras because we are confident, hardworking student-athletes.
A post shared by gina capone (@ginancapone) on Nov 9, 2018 at 6:43am PST
The student was vehemently protesting a rule the university enforced, that prohibited athletes wearing just sports bras, even in practice.
“Rowan’s Athletic Department has had a longstanding verbal protocol that all athletes must wear shirts, even during practices,” the university’s president, Ali Houshmand, said in a statement last week.
“The verbal policy was adopted as a matter of keeping a level of standards throughout its men’s and women’s programs.”
However, the school has now been forced into a backflip after the article blasting the policy picked up steam.
A recently published article raised questions about the possibility of Rowan’s women athletes being restricted from wearing sports bras without shirts during training. pic.twitter.com/RyxJ0RlxdY
— Rowan University (@RowanUniversity) November 9, 2018
Rowan University released a statement allowing its female runners to wear sports bras during practices.
In the statement, the University says the rule has been around for some time, but admitted that it “does not accommodate today’s training practices across sports.”
Confusion about the rule began after the women’s team had to relocate practice to the track at Rowan University while the football team was still practicing, a school spokesman told NJ.com.
That crossover led to discussions about field use between coaches, and someone brought up the unrelated shirt requirement, noting the female runners had violated it.
The sudden resurgence of the rule and its enforcement led to student outcry.
In Capone’s post, she noted that all 15 members of the women’s cross country team — even those who “don’t partake in shirtless runs” — believed runners should be allowed to wear sports bras during practice.
With Yahoo US
