08-14-2008, 08:36 PM
Quote:Chinese newspapers had reported ages of 13 -14 for He or whatever her name is. I find it interesting that such reports were either removed or "corrected." By the time this Olympics is over, I don't see any validity at all to the games. Same crap, different arena.
This whole "contraversy" is just an epic failure on the part of the media. They have the opportunity to actually inform and educate their viewers and instead at every opportunity they just turn to tabloidism and insinuations.
Is it possible that china has created fraudulant ages for these girls? sure. but it is equally possible that these girls are in fact of legal age. To actually talk about these gymnists, however, the news sources would have to talk about how the success of any of these gymnists is based on their body types and when they achieve menarche. Because the transistion to menarche is based on % body fat gymnists tend to achieve menarche much later than the general population. Given genetics and the fact that these chinese girls are many times taken as low as age 3 to work in these programs it is entirely within reason that these girls biological advancement to menarche could be pushed back to age 15 or more.
Of course why would we want to actually inform people or educate them about biology when we can intimate and use inflammatory journalism.