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Friday, March 5, 2010

Spandex

What do football players, Dutch speed skaters, and bobsledders all have in common? Spandex, an anagram of the word expands.

In a football fashion sense, spandex "works" when worn by the backfield. When trying to contain the girth of certain lineman, though, spandex reaches its maximum level of expansion tolerance as shown in close-ups via select television camera angles.

Camera angles also showed television viewers more than they wanted to see during the Olympics. The full-body speedo worn by the Dutch speed skaters should have come with the warning, "Due to the graphic nature of the following program, small children and people with weak hearts should leave the room."

Bobsledding wasn't much better. Many of those competitors had silver tracings on their spandexed backsides. The silver was probably specially added to give their uniforms a touch of flash, but cameras focused on the bling just a touch longer than was absolutely necessary, IMHO.

Two nonverbal communication concepts apply to spandex. Rules dictate what is an acceptable appearance, and clothing can deliver messages that offend. Elliott School faculty need to keep those clothing rules in mind before donning uniforms for next year's Comm Week whiffle ball game against the ESC students. Can you imagine any of us in spandex? Yikes!!

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