Tinny Weasel Words Verboten

Women hold up half the sky
--Mao Zedong

If she won't be a slave,
we say that she don't love us
If she's real, we say she's
trying to be a man
--Woman is the Nigger of the World,
Yoko Ono

When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
--Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,
Monty Python (Life of Brian)
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Perspective is all. The Wall Street Journal proclaimed what a victory the Beijing Olympics had been for women, showing the determined grimace of Bahrain's 200-meter runner Roqaya Al-Gassra, "dressed head-to-toe in a Muslim hijab. . . [i]n stifling heat." Note the freedom and placid expression of the woman running next to her (A Woman's Place is Here.)

From the Journal's perspective, things are peachy. "Of the 10,500 Olympians competing this month in Beijing, 42% are female." But in addition to those women constrained by head-to-toe garments there is the small matter of countries like our friends in oil the Saudi Arabians, who fronted precisely zero females to participate in this Olympiad, the same as every year.

With typical restraint, they say Saudi Arabia is "opposed" to female athletes. Opposed sounds like George H.W. Bush's view on broccoli -- he was opposed to eating it, but others surely could. In S.A., there are no sports programs for women or girls, so their attitude toward women in sports would be better served by a woody word like "prohibit." Saudi Arabia prohibits female athletes. That is a true statement.

There is something hypocritical about dealing economically with a nation which oppresses its women, while claiming to fight wars elsewhere to liberate them. Early on in the Afghanistan invasion, one of the main justifications was to liberate women from those medieval Taliban who kept them under abayas. In their impotence, women can be exploited or ignored, as befits those in positions of power.

But the good news is, hijab-compatible sportswear is a growth industry. "Nike, Adidas AG and other sporting good companies are aggressively targeting [these] women athletes."

Always look on the bright side.