The Psicobloc Masters Series was one of the most hyped and viewed climbing comps in recent history. By many measures it was a success, but some have spoken out about the treatment of women during the event. Kristin Horowitz, the Executive Director of SLO Op Climbing Gym in San Luis Obispo, recently published an article on the sexism of Psicobloc’s emcees.
Originally Published at all-events.com
The Importance of a Good Emcee: Psicobloc Masters Series and sexism
At the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, Utah, there was a big climbing competition. What is usually a very high-production and live-streamed affair went big time this year. Walltopia designed a beautiful wall over the Olympic training pool for skijumpers, effectively creating a deep water solo competition up in Park City. The crowds ate it up. All of us watched the promotions for it, even if we weren’t into comps, and imagined either being there, or, if you’re an event producer who climbs, producing it.
Unfortunately, I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth after watching the real thing from home. The event was rampant with disrespect for the viewers, the competitors, and, most importantly, women in the sport.
Emcees have an important role in events: they keep the energy up for spectators – explaining what’s happening, color commentating on events or athlete backgrounds, make the competitors feel good about themselves, and are the face of the entire event for the public.
Keeping the Energy Up
During the course of the 20 min clip below, the emcees let dead air hang – only to be punctuated randomly by competitor’s names and words of enthusiasm like, “Yes!”
When they did announce the action, it was in simplistic terms – there was no clarity for those of us watching, “Those of us out there, sport climbers know about the flash pump – it is not a fun thing.” What’s sport climbing? What’s a flash pump? Tell me, please!
Again, Colette tries but fails: “Everyone should keep in mind, these are hard routes. They’re bad holds, people that maybe don’t climb a lot, it looks like they just reach up and grab the thing.” Really? That’s the best you can do to bring me into the experience? Can you tell me about the holds, about what it feels like, about what makes a hard route? Make me experience it. Use the climbers moving to help me envision it. Tell a story.
Very little was said about the athletes themselves except when one gal had an ear injury and catch up on that, or if they were scared. The emcees would grab the competitors before and after, prompting things that were really vapid or simply ignorant: JT, “It felt a lot different from last time, right?” Competitor: “Not really.” Sigh . . . expand on it, people, make it interesting to us. Why did you assume it was different?
Make the Competitor Feel Good
JT put words in Alex Johnson’s mouth, but she handled it well. When it was her heat-mate’s turn to talk, JT gave her nothing but a “good luck.” Alex got all the attention and Nina, none of it. While these are prime athletes and slights like that should roll off their backs, his interactions did nothing to encourage focus and competition.
The dominant conversation theme with the women was their fear, not so with the men. Ask any sport psychologist – focusing on a competitor’s weakness isn’t going to empower them.
The Face of the Event
Both JT and Colette announced the event like amateurs, disconnecting themselves from the event’s producers, saying things like “Whoever put this on . . . “ Ditsy comments; unorganized, badly timed comments. Bad interviews. It all felt like a terrible afterthought while I watched. You could laugh it all away, except these two were the representatives of Psicobloc and climbing to the general public. Whoever asked them to be a part of this really didn’t respect what they were putting out there or the people that competed or put it on.
But there was a much bigger problem, more problematic to the climbing community than bad emceeing: rampant sexism.
Events Send a Message to the Public
Colette at one point exclaims, “I LOVE Andrea’s tan! I’m jealous.” Do golf or football announcers do things like this to serious athletes they’re commenting about? What about Andrea’s movement? Her form? Her commitment?
At another point, Colette introduces an extremely sexist conversation point, complaining about the comp rash guards given to the women, “I can’t see their cute tops underneath!”
JT picks up on this and says he’s going to “File a complaint because yesterday they were climbing in string bikini tops – so, whoever’s organizing this thing: come on!” No, YOU come on. Unless you’re going to file a complaint that Chris Sharma’s not climbing in a Speedo along with it. In later clips, the men are WAY more dressed and . . . it’s JUST NOT FAIR. I want to see muscles!
But, it’s very easy to lay all the blame on the emcees they hired, but there’s a bigger factor at play, as revealed by the female emcee, Colette, 20 minutes into the clip: “Originally, they were going to cut out some of the women climbers. There were too many women climbers and they sent some of the women home, but in the end, all the girls said, ‘You know what, we want to compete, we’re all here – we’re going to compete’ and they ended up bringing all of the women back.”
“They” decided there were too many women and they cut out the women? Thanks a lot, event producers. Climbing is very much a male-dominated sport, but the women climbing achieve at an equal level to men across most disciplines. Fans of climbing can likely name as many famous, accomplished women climbers as men. It’s not the WNBA here (a counterpoint to a long history of male-dominated sports, and an ineffective one), and there’s no reason to foster that attitude in the nascent climbing events distributed to the greater public worldwide.
Sponsors of this event, do you hear me? Prana, Walltopia, Adidas, Clif, and all others – do you support the sexism displayed in this event? Will you continue to support marketing, media, and events that do not show a commitment to the equality and ability of your professional climbing women? You have the power to change this dialog – now is the time, before it’s too late.
This is not the 1950s and 1960s. Our mothers were on the walls and in Camp 4 alongside the men so that we could be in these competitions today with the men. And not a single one of them would have let the guys treat them as badly as this comp treated their granddaughters. You can blame it on the emcees, but this goes a lot deeper and deserves some intelligent conversation.
A link to the analyzed clip referenced in the article:
