ASHE SCHOW: Thoughts On Olympic “Othering.”

I get that this title sounds like something from the Guardian, Jezebel or Vox — something more likely to come from the minds of social justice warriors than from me — but the absence of those other outlets picking up on this is precisely why I’m writing this.

There’s a lot of outrage going around this week over the Chicago Tribune’s decision to congratulate gold medalist Corey Cogdell by mentioning in its headline that she’s the wife of Chicago Bears lineman Mitch Unrein.

Cogdell won that medal on her own merit; it’s just an interesting tidbit that she has a famous husband. I see where the outrage is coming from, but let’s face it, trap shooting isn’t the most popular Olympic sport, so connecting Cogdell to a bigger local sport helps the story.

But there’s a lack of outrage over the way the media are treating Ibtihaj Muhammad, who is competing in fencing. Muhammad was the eighth-ranked saber fencer going into the competition, but merely being talented enough to make the Olympics isn’t good enough. She had to be singled out because she would be the first American athlete to compete wearing a hijab.

Every article about her led with this fact. If the ultimate goal is to normalize such occurrences, calling so much attention to this information is probably not the way to go. It’s saying: “Hey, look at her! She’s different!” It also takes away from her accomplishment.

Well, they’re not doing this because they care about her.