Page 2 | Janice Turner in Times - women will never accept sports being rigged

Crcohetmonster · 02/04/2022 14:57

[quote zanahoria]^In the first game of its kind, a team of 11 transgender women is taking part in a football match today to mark this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV).

Amongst those making history will be Paula Griffin, a 57-year-old player for TRUK United FC, a team set up to support people in the transgender community.

The encounter will see Paula and her teammates take to the pitch to play a friendly against the South East London club Dulwich Hamlet Women’s team.

And stepping in to help manage TRUK United FC is none other than former England striker Peter Crouch, who joined Dulwich Hamlet FC’s board of directors in June 2021.

^

metro.co.uk/2022/03/31/how-peter-crouch-is-helping-make-history-on-trans-day-of-visibility-16380100/[/quote]
So it can be done. This is a good thing. Trans people can have their own teams. I think this should be lauded as progress and replicated.

Truthlikeness · 02/04/2022 14:56

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus - that's an interesting point - also seen in gymnastics where powerful tumbles have replaced grace and artistry. And the iceskating example is very pertinent as the only women who can do the high scoring quads are pre-pubescent girls with the physique of a man - skinny, no hips. When puberty hits (usually late as they are often also anorexic) their careers are over.

Truthlikeness · 02/04/2022 14:53

@BunnyBerries

Brilliant article, Janice.

@Truthlikeness I often think about this same thing - what if sport had been designed for women's bodies instead of adapted from and kitted out based on men's sports for women. What kind of different rules, equipment, pitch sizes, sportswear would there be now?

Until very recently - the last 5 years or so - there were no football boots made for women (our feet are shaped quite differently from men's - who knew...?). Most of us have had to (and still do) play in men's shoes. I've never actually seen a pair of women's boots for sale in a shop - as far as I'm aware they're just available online.

I also play mixed-sex softball and the women hit a smaller ball than the men to help compensate for our lower upper body strength. I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference in practice - the men still hit theirs far further, but they are trying to introduce some fairness to the game.

BunnyBerries · 02/04/2022 13:38

Brilliant article, Janice.

@Truthlikeness I often think about this same thing - what if sport had been designed for women's bodies instead of adapted from and kitted out based on men's sports for women. What kind of different rules, equipment, pitch sizes, sportswear would there be now?

zanahoria · 02/04/2022 13:10

^In the first game of its kind, a team of 11 transgender women is taking part in a football match today to mark this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV).

Amongst those making history will be Paula Griffin, a 57-year-old player for TRUK United FC, a team set up to support people in the transgender community.

The encounter will see Paula and her teammates take to the pitch to play a friendly against the South East London club Dulwich Hamlet Women’s team.

And stepping in to help manage TRUK United FC is none other than former England striker Peter Crouch, who joined Dulwich Hamlet FC’s board of directors in June 2021.

^

metro.co.uk/2022/03/31/how-peter-crouch-is-helping-make-history-on-trans-day-of-visibility-16380100/

SpringLobelia · 02/04/2022 11:21

Just wanted to add my voice to the appreciation of Janice Turner's article.

Innocenta · 02/04/2022 10:48

@Queenoftheashes

What so because men can’t do it we can’t have it as a sport? Bullshit.

Men can do it; there is a nascent interest in rhythmic for men. But it isn't at Olympic level yet. Sex inequality between sports is something the IOC looks on unfavourably - obviously when women are disadvantaged by this, we'd all want them to be against it. Part of the reason why they've allowed the seeming inequality of rhythmic for so long is probably because of the baked in imbalance within artistic, whereby MAG always has more medals than WAG (6 individual events vs 4).

I'm personally in favour of rhythmic continuing as a single sex sport (at least, if they can sort out the Russia debacle, which is a big "if"). Just clarifying some of the issues with the IOC.

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 02/04/2022 10:21

@Queenoftheashes

Yes women are not crap versions of men. Let’s see a trans woman try to make the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team

My expectation is that the women's categories in several areas will rapidly undergo a scoring change and shift in criteria to valorise moves and athleticism that is more typically associated with men.

E.g., in ice-skating, the complexity of the technique, height of jumps, number of turns etc. will start to matter more than grace and style.

There's already been some shift towards this in ice-skating where failing something complex now counts for more than a flawless lower complexity (it wasn't always that way, iirc). This link gives an overview of what I mean here.

www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/14/17004314/figure-skating-scoring-winter-olympics-2018

I also expect changes like this in gymnastics in general where some non-binary and transgirls might jump higher, perform more twists etc. Remember this video from 2018?

Queenoftheashes · 02/04/2022 08:00

What so because men can’t do it we can’t have it as a sport? Bullshit.

Innocenta · 02/04/2022 07:42

(Sorry about all my typos! *its, etc)

Innocenta · 02/04/2022 07:41

@Queenoftheashes

Yes women are not crap versions of men. Let’s see a trans woman try to make the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team

I understand what you're saying, @Queenoftheashes and I totally agree that women are not crap versions of men. But rhythmic gymnastics isn't a great example because it's already in a weak position with the IOC, precisely because it's a single sex (at Olympic level) sport. The IOC doesn't like that sort of imbalance and in combination with the scandal in rhythmic at Tokyo, plus it's heavy Russian bias, the future of the sport seems a bit shaky (although the schedule for Paris has been released, including rhythmic, so it's not imminently on the chopping block).

MamaSaidTheredBeDaysLikeThis · 02/04/2022 00:11

I also enjoyed her calling out Emily Sheffield who supports Emily Bridges. Emily Sheffield being former editor of the Evening Standard and sister of Samantha Cameron.

Janice Turner in Times - women will never accept sports being rigged

ScribblingPixie · 02/04/2022 00:05

I just came on to say how much I enjoyed her description of the trans football team as "mainly portly, middle-aged pub team players". Keep telling it how it is, Janice!

Redshoeblueshoe · 01/04/2022 23:56

Thanks for posting. I will read this in the morning

MrsOvertonsWindow · 01/04/2022 23:52

Two wonderful articles:
Janice's eloquent yet furious article alongside Lucy Bannerman's in depth analysis of how democracy can be undermined by the extremists in the trans movement (who) sought nothing less than to reclassify how humans are categorised across every part of public life, in sports, prisons and hospitals.

zanahoria · 01/04/2022 23:41

Women are not just hobbled men, smaller men, lesser men, men who have popped pills. We are not helpmeets for men, created from Adam’s rib. Women are our own selves

I love her too.

So much power and beauty in these sentences.

ilovebencooper · 01/04/2022 23:32

I love her. I feel that she is the journalist who has shouted loudest and longest on this. I'm so grateful to her. She's so eloquent and just cuts through all the nonsense. And she's right about how angry we are. Politicians / policy makers haven't got it yet.

Clymene · 01/04/2022 23:29

She carves her narrative by slicing up the misogyny in every single sentence.

Beautifully put, Datun

I also love Janice's writing.

Datun · 01/04/2022 23:04

Ooh JellySaurus, you called her icily cold, and I called her icily furious.

It's a testament to her writing, that her emotions are so readily recognised.

teawamutu · 01/04/2022 23:02

@Truthlikeness

The sports we play are optimised for the male physique. I do wonder how things might have turned out differently if not for the patriarchy. More equestrian sports perhaps, ultra endurance events and things that require a high pain tolerance.

Do you know what, even immersed in terfiness as I am, I've never even thought of sports being fecking designed for male bodies.

Mind. Blown.

Datun · 01/04/2022 23:02

Janice Turner, icily furious. There is no one better at her marvellous, literary spitting.

And she does what a lot of men do not.

She carves her narrative by slicing up the misogyny in every single sentence.

The hundred year gap between men's cycling and women's cycling. The fifty year banning of women's football. The disgusting accusations of deceit aimed at women who don't want to be the victims of voyeurism or exhibitionism.

She exposes the motivation. Shows it's not accidental.

She supports women in every word she writes.

CrossPurposes · 01/04/2022 22:57

@JellySaurus

She sounds so calm. A furious woman gets discounted, but Janice Turner is expresses her disgust at the situation in sports with icy coldness.

Can anyone make a share token for the article mentioned below it? How activists used a veil of secrecy to rewrite biology

See this thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4519391-An-excellent-article-in-the-Times-this-evening

JellySaurus · 01/04/2022 22:50

She sounds so calm. A furious woman gets discounted, but Janice Turner is expresses her disgust at the situation in sports with icy coldness.

Can anyone make a share token for the article mentioned below it? How activists used a veil of secrecy to rewrite biology

HomeHomeInTheRange · 01/04/2022 22:46

That is clear, authoritative and incisive. With care for all stakeholders. Needs sharing far and wide.

Queenoftheashes · 01/04/2022 22:38

Yes women are not crap versions of men. Let’s see a trans woman try to make the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team