Simone Biles attacks Riley Gaines

The execution is awful, agreed. But it illustrates the point, doesn't it?

Why is it relevant to the question of whether she is right or not?

I know left wing politicians who are regulars on Fox News segments. I don’t know why it is an issue that Riley Gaines is on Fox News.

Is the issue that she is on Fox? Or is the issue that she is regularly giving interviews on any news service?

No, I know they are there. It’s a terrible image.

In reply to “Fox would have loved to have her on” - it’s relevant. She’s on there all the time as she’s a regular contributor.

I mean, it's quite obvious, isn't it?

Simone Biles, having enjoyed a stellar athletic career in which her global dominance was completely unimpeded by men believing they were entitled to compete in her category, is criticising other women and girls who aren't minded to be tolerant or inclusive of men and boys in their sporting categories. Biles should be on the side of female athletes, not male athletes who want to compete in female categories.

Riley Gaines is working to ensure that all female athletes have the same opportunity that Simone Biles did: to compete on a level playing field against other athletes of the same sex. It doesn't matter whether you are Simone Biles the "greatest of all time" or Riley Gaines who tied for fifth place. The principle is the same.

And when you are nine or ten you don't yet know whether you are going to be an Olympic champion like Simone Biles or a moderately successful athlete like Riley Gaines or get absolutely nowhere.

Saying to other women, "I never had to be inclusive of boys in my sport, but if you object to boys in your sports you're nasty and bigoted" is very much pulling up the ladder after you.

Did Riley Gaines consider all of the above before retweeting an image that accurately depicts the impact of a champion calling a women's rights campaigner a 'sore loser' and body shaming her?

Let's see.

I mentioned whether Simone would be prepared to answer for her tweet.

Would Riley be prepared to answer for posting this image? I can easily assume that yes, Riley would have a prepared answer for just that purpose because it would be a version of why Riley has reacted as she has. ✔

Would Riley be prepared with an answer for what she did between the tweet and the apology? Of course. ✔

Then I mentioned past statements and tweets showing that Simone understood the impact of male people in female sports events and answering questions about the topic and her opinions on this.

Would Riley Gaines be able to address past statements and tweets that she understood the impact of male people in female sports events and answering questions about the topic? Of fucking course. ✔

Would Riley Gaines have considered how to address why she reposted that image and any negative impact on Simone Gaines? Yes, I believe she would be able to address that very clearly. ✔

Then I mentioned that Simone Biles should consider whether she had a strong defendable position on women's and girl's sports before doing any more social media content about it or interviews.

Would Riley Gaines consider that she had a strong defendable position on girl's and women's sports before continuing to do interviews and tweets and to defend that image she reposted? Another easy yes, I believe she would. ✔

Next I mentioned potential cancellation.

Would Riley Gaines carefully consider and understand the future ramifications of her reposting that image on her campaigning? I do believe that she considered that, yes. ✔

So, to answer your question: did Riley Gaines consider all of the above before she retweeted this image?

I would say, I would think she did. yes.

Or do you mean for Riley to have considered whether Simone had considered all these things for herself? That Riley should have considered these issues on Simone's behalf?

Is that something else that Riley needs to do to be considered worthy enough? To always consider whether another person is ready to address those issues before responding that that person's attack?

Fuck... that is one fucking huge burden that she would be expected to take on there, if that is the case.

But isn't it interesting that you have portrayed it as a negative towards Riley Gaines throughout this thread that she carefully considers her work because she is a professional, yet you posted this question as if it was some type of gotcha? So in your mind, is she to be denigrated because you think she is a professional AND you also now believe that she is incompetent in being professional too?

As to what she was hoping to gain from it? Well ... she reposted an image with the intention of pointing out that sometimes when women are at the top, they do and say things that make it harder for those still trying to reach the podium. Simone Biles' tweets did that for other female athletes. Riley Gaines was pointing that out by reposting the tweet.

I didn't think it was all that hard to understand why Riley would post it.

With this post, I can now only assume that you really do think that women need to just take abuse and absorb it all.

I think you actually believe that to be worthy of having her work considered valuable and to be valued as a voice in campaigning for protecting female sports, Riley Gaines should never respond or post anything that another person may consider unkind or negative.

I don’t believe that you, personally, follow that rule. Yet you seem to have set that bar for Riley Gaines. Do you wonder at your own hypocrisy?

I will add it to the list. This list is pretty much compiled from things you have used against Riley Gaines on this thread.

A worthy woman seems to be:

one who chooses to take a large cut in earnings at the start of her career to cover the vital campaign to protect female sports categories.

will pay for all her accrued costs out of her own pocket unless she gets donations, and she cannot actively seek donations or provide any merchandise or content for those donations.

will take abuse and never discuss it publicly lest it might be seen as unkind to the abuser, or capitalising on unasked and unprovoked abuse from public figures, or just merely unkind, likely unwomanly.

will remain silent unless the media or campaign supporters who are perceived as having the exact credentials takes an interest in her campaign.

will always remember that she never gained Olympic medals and she was just a sore loser in 5th place.

will never mention any other issues that she is interested in.

Is on the speaker circuit and has her name with various agencies where she talks about … stuff not related to swimming.

will just absorb any abuse she receives and not respond publicly at all, not even mildly.

This is an odd post. It's not immediately obvious why Riley would be thinking about Simone's future interviews and PR endeavours when deciding what to tweet, for example. Is she supposed to be doing unpaid, unasked for branding consultancy now? And some of the points on the list, like Simone having started it, are all the more reason why Riley might want to respond in kind

So this is not a very coherent post. Rather like Simone's original attack, reads like there's someone you want to criticise, but you can't manage to get the right words together.

Actually it looks like two of the AI girls are missing an arm and there's an extra disembodied arm floating in the air.

I wonder whether AI images will get better or they will stay the same and people will get better at spotting them?

Right now they're so obvious and yet most people still don't realise it because they are conditioned to see a photo as a photo and not notice extra limbs and so on because they don't expect to see them.

....I'm assuming that she wants to suggest (correctly) that Biles is pulling the ladder up behind her? She's presumably wanting to point out that fact.

I'm actually surprised you haven't mentioned the extra arms in that image (once seen, can't unsee!). The dangers of AI created images.

It's just an overarching attempt to smear her I think

How is this relevant?

Perhaps you should look into engagement farming. It is far more than simply “someone on social media speaking about an issue”.

Riley Gaines is already a Fox regular guest.

What did Riley Gaines consider all of the above before she retweeted this image? What is she hoping to gain by it?

And good "activist" would, Biles' poorly thought out post opened up a whole section of people that would just have ignored Gaines before this.
And RG is making two very good points
1/ men don't belong in women's sports.
and
2/ Even if you support trans people in sorts and don't tow the line you will get battered by the TRAs

Yes. She is in a no win situation that is also not really defendable by logic. Only emotional appeal. Hence why would she be having interviews that will end up reflecting negatively on her. Remarkable to try to use it as a comparative defence.

Plus she will simply continue to alienate both sides of the debate.

Sane, decent people who do not want to see men competing in women's events.

AND

TRAs who think the very mention of a third/open category is transphobic.

🤷‍♀️

Absolutely. She would be on the back foot from the start and having to then discuss the apology and expand on her opinions.

It is an absurdity to think that she would do interviews.

And as far as continuing to post, which posts would she prioritise to reply to? It would not be a wise decision to simply post something more about the topic because that would indicate that she wishes to discuss it further. And answer questions.

Absolutely. Simone's PR people would have to be the most incompetent to have ever walked the earth to allow her anywhere near an interviewer at the moment! If they did have anything planned for her over the past few days, it would need to have been hurriedly cancelled!

Nor SHOULD Biles give interviews on the debacle.

Those tweets were what she came out with when she had time to sit down, engage brain and think of a balanced, considered way to put across her argument across to RG.

Imagine what she could hit out with when put on the spot during televised interviews. 😬

I think it would be difficult to justify or even pedal back from a comment in which you publicly told another person that nobody is safe in sport with them around. That kind of remark is usually reserved for Larry Nassar types. She may be scared of litigation now.

Whereas Riley Gaines has a great deal of experience now in dealing with interviews, including hostile questioning, about this very issue. She can handle it very well. Just like Sharron Davies and Dr Emma Hilton can.

She can very easily answer any question from any aspect of the discussion with clarity and consistency.

There is actually no comparison between the two women in regards to who would be able to handle the interview and any negative impact arising from the interview. Riley Gaines does this pretty much every day as part of her campaigning. Simone does not.

There really is no symmetry in saying that Simone at least has not been doing interviews and tweeting since.

Talk about engagement farming? As someone said elsewhere;

Simone Biles starts a high-profile online spat out of nowhere.

Simone Biles also has a new documentary coming out.

A pure grifter.

What would Simone be saying in interviews?

Because her tweet showed just how little she understands about the topic that she chose to comment on. If she went on to do interviews and more tweets, what would that have shown? She has obviously not got carefully considered answers.

She also was the person who personally attacked Riley Gaines!

What the fuck would she be saying in these interviews? Any interviewer that was doing a serious segment would be asking her to explain why she said what she did about Riley Gaines. They would ask her why, as someone who had campaigned against body shaming and for body acceptance, she chose to post those tweets. They might even ask what she did and thought about during the days between the tweets and the apology.

They would then present her with other tweets from her past that shows that she really does understand that male people in female sports events would be unfair.

If I was Simone Biles' PR agency, I would be very clearly stating that she should NOT be doing any interviews that would put her in such a difficult position if she didn't have a strong position with carefully thought out arguments. And to take care in any social media posts.

So, I don't think that Simone would be doing interviews or continuing to tweet about this topic because it would likely produce more negative attention for her. If she had a strong argument and could do more than argue what she has already, it would be a different situation.

However, if Simone Biles clarified that she didn't think that male people should be in female sports events so there was no doubt about her position, would Netflix pull her series? Would publishers pull her books?