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The bullying of Gabby Douglas says something ugly about America

Gymnast Gabby Douglas being interviewed.

Of all the rampant sexism being flung around during the 2016 Olympics, the most hateful may be what’s happening to American gymnast Gabby Douglas, who is suffering a thousand cuts at the hands of highly fickle social media, which can damn as quickly as it praises. That sexism is also deeply bound with racism, a grim reminder that Black women will always have to work harder for less credit than their white counterparts. What’s happening to Gabby Douglas says something very ugly about the United States, and it’s a horrific end to what has been a stellar career.

In 2012, Douglas was America’s sweetheart, dominating at the London Olympics and blazing a trail for Black women in gymnastics, like her teammate Simone Biles, who has become a crowd favourite this year. Biles is an outstanding gymnast, and watching her in motion is utterly captivating, but her teammate isn’t too shabby. It takes serious talent to land a spot on the US Olympic Team, something that people seem to be forgetting as they take to social media to trash Douglas for not performing to their satisfaction.

The height of absurdity may be the complaint that she doesn’t hold her hand over her heart while listening to the national anthem, as this is apparently grounds to attack her quintessential ‘Americanness,’ despite the fact that few people in the United States hold their hands to their chests in an awkward outthrust gesture of nationalism while the Star Spangled Banner plays. In fact, that Douglas was doing — something that’s being elided from much of the coverage of this nontroversy — was standing to attention, which is what members of the military (like her family members) do. She’s rendering honours to the national anthem in a manner that’s acceptable for the armed forces — the people often trotted out when people are trying to one-up each other on patriotism — but apparently it’s not good enough for a hungry U.S. public looking for blood.

The anthem-related hatred was really the culmination of careful propagandistic machinations over the last week, as NBC and other media outlets carefully tried to construct drama where there wasn’t, suggesting that all wasn’t well on the U.S. gymnastics team. These tactics are common in an era when people don’t like to buy things without a personal story, a brand, some sort of bathos to work with, and NBC gave it to them: Olympic gymnastics, with a thrilling side of girl fights and bitter jealousy. They made sure to use footage of Douglas that would perpetuate the idea, and their efforts certainly worked, judging from the ‘Crabby Gabby’ nickname that sprung from the heads of brilliant wits on social media. NBC wanted to make Douglas look sour and unsupportive of her team members (despite all evidence to the contrary) because NBC wanted ratings, and the network didn’t care about what that might do to Douglas as a person — for them, she’s a brand. A product. Something to be packaged.

That was really brought home during the resurgence of puerile commentary about her hair, which was a point of fixation in 2012 as well. Black women in the U.S. are constantly deluged with messaging about their hair which boils down to ‘your hair isn’t white enough,’ and even in a sport where athletic ability should matter more than appearance, judgmental comments about an athlete’s hair are apparently fair game — especially if she’s a woman of colour.

Perhaps the public that turned so savagely on Douglas after adoring her in 2012 only has room in its mind for one talented Black gymnast?

This was already a bittersweet Olympics for Douglas, who knew she wouldn’t be back in 2020 in a sport where time matters, and many contestants are in their teens. But it could have been one to celebrate, particularly on social media — the number of people interacting on social media has exploded since 2012, with so many more outlets to explore. Olympians have been all over the internet with their firsthand accounts, from celebrations of their teammates to pictures of their dorms to discussing their excitement about upcoming events. It connects world-class athletes with the world, and the world with those athletes, too.

Douglas, though, is being treated to the ugly side of the internet, the part that turns cruel and vicious, hounding you to the point that you hide from the internet because it becomes too much to deal with. Rather than enjoying time online with her fans, she was trying to stay away from social media, even as the hatred and abuse bled through. The fact that some people on the internet have nothing better to do than harass a gymnast over not meeting their grand internal vision of exactly what a gymnast should do and be is rather tragic, but what it did to Douglas is even more tragic.

It’s also a reminder that whatever people are doing to combat cyberbullying, it’s not enough. Douglas isn’t ‘fair game’ because of her high public profile. She’s not tough and able to take it simple because she’s famous. She doesn’t deserve it because she’s a well known public figure. She’s a human being, and human beings get hurt when people are cruel. When that cruelty is accompanied with a sharp edge of racism and sexism, it hurts even more, a reminder that people are attacking you because of who you are on a very fundamental level.

It’s dismaying to know that all it takes is a few little seeds planted here and there for hatred to grow into an unmanageable mass of people spiraling utterly out of control. It’s also troubling to think about the fact that for every Gabby Douglas, there are thousands of unnamed Black women receiving the same abuse — and much worse. Her situation speaks to the fact that social media can be dangerous, and that words really do hurt.

Photo: WEBN-TV/Creative Commons

One thought on “The bullying of Gabby Douglas says something ugly about America

  1. This piece was so beautifully written. As it points out some very harsh realities, its sheer honesty about an all too common human experience evokes a sense of hope that we can collectively evolve toward a higher level of demonstrative conscientiousness and fundamental regard for others. With its “enough is enough” resonating sentiment, it’s the kind of article that unites all people of good will to take a firm and revolutionary stand against all hate (whatever its form). Good people of every racial, color, national, socio-economic, and other so-called defining background deserve good things in life. They deserve to be treated with fundamental respect, kindness, and courtesy. Good people (and you know in your hearts who you are), let’s stand with the author of this article, Gabby Douglas, all who’ve been targets of unfair and harsh treatment, and all who fight against hatred. Let’s denounce hatred and demand a higher standard of humanity in all interactions.

    Thanks so much, S.E. Smith, for writing this article! There’s nothing more inspiring than truth and genuine regard for others.

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