Torygraph blog on the wrongs of women's judo

[AnnieLobeseder]

Here

Everydaysexism has a bit of a Twitter campaign going to get an apology from the Torygraph.

Do you ever have a day when the sexism is just everywhere, you know, even more so than usual? Today has been one of those days, I've been arguing with misogynistic knobends on the internet all day, and I just want to crawl into bed and weep at the attitudes people still hold. How will we ever get any respect as human beings? I just can't see it.

judo is great. I did it at county level as a schoolgirl. Had excellent fun. It's spurred me on to look up judo clubs for my sons. (dd is 20m so still a bit young to be splatting people onto the floor...)

Wow, really northern? She sounds amazing. Her mother also must have been pretty special. I heard her mother had died, but not that Gemma had had quite such a fight - and she came into it as the underdog, they were amazed she got past the first round, and here she is with silver.

I hope she knows she's awesome.

So this man has some kind of psychological problem which means he can't cope with the sight of women competing in the martial arts. This is news because? Dear Mr Telegraph editor, were you struggling to fill space today? Talk about scraping the barrel

The BBC reporter inroduced her as "Gemma Gibbins, girlfriend of X" (another athlete). DD (18) pointed out to me that they wouldn't say of a male athlete, "X, boyfriend of..." would they?

I read the Telegraph at the weekend. I'm ashamed of this piece.

I saw her fall to her knees and say 'thanks mum' when she qualified for the seminal. It was incredibly moving. What an athlete.

I suspect in the daughter's guts you can see the courage of the mother LRD.here is the piece about her in the Torygraph. They publish this and they publish the blog crap. Makes no sense at all.

He struggles with women bruising their limbs in Judo. How does he feel about women getting killed in Afghanistan?

Fuxache.

I used to love kickboxing. I'm obviously not feminine.

Well said BonnieBumble!

miranda - I wonder if he's now X, girlfriend of medal-winner Gemma Gibbons?

tom - I saw that. I got a bit teary - and I am not a teary type.

northern - I agree.

I do think it was wonderful to see her hug the American winner, who has also had such a hard time.

My impression of the bronze match, btw, was that the French woman who eventually won, who'd just lost to Gibbons, was so upset after she won her bronze because she felt she'd not won it in a 'good' way, she'd won it by beating an injured competitor. I think you could see it in the way she fought - she seemed to be cautious to start then finally decided enough was enough and ended it, but didn't seem proud she'd won.

I thought she and all the others showed a huge sense of good competitive spirit - not wanting to get there unfairly. That seems a really big thing and impresses me nearly as much as their strength and skill, which makes this bloke's nasty underhand attack so much worse. Because he compared it to ladette culture, a pub fight, and it was nothing like that, it was clearly a competition between women who respected each other hugely.

Good point bonnie! I wonder what he thinks to the women rowers who got silver?

Have you seen the readers' comments at the bottom? Was most relieved to see that they also thought he had travelled in time machine from 1850 to write this article about 2012 Olympics.

Clearly I am wrong to let my daughter do judo....I shall cancel her lessons immediately!
What a load of tosh.

LRD - I think you mean gold, and GB's first of the games at that! All that rowing can't be very ladylike either I wonder if Zara Philips and co should have competed side saddle?

Oops, I do! I still had judo on the brain. I didn't mean to demote them, the were amazing!

Sorry!

PMSL at the image of Zara side-saddle, too.

Even more disgraceful when you think of how hard some of the female athletes have had to fight to be included in their national teams.

Well, as a Mum to a girl who is a county-level judo player, I have to agree with Mr Brown in finding women's judo hard to watch. It does feel horrible watching your little girl grappling aggressively and getting hurt. It does feel kind of wrong.
The difference between me and Mr Brown is that my son also does judo, and it feels exactly the same when I watch him being pulled around and splatted. Gender has absolutely nothing to do with it. It is a very physical sport.
Proper judo is impressive in terrms of technique, determination and tactics, but I personally don't find it easy to watch, whoever is on the mat.
However, to Mr Brown, I would say, just be quiet. I would rather my daughter be the strong, fierce, determined child that she is, than a soft-limbed lady who must make sure she doesn't unsettled any easily-shocked men by being good at sport.

Best of luck to your DD and DS, remotely.

I can totally understand why it wouldn't be fun to watch, gender aside.

Does he know there's women's Boxing now?

GO KATIE!!!

What a sad little man. He's getting an absolute (& wholly deserved) drubbing in the comments- very uncharacteristic for the DT.

"He would probably go green if he knew that I (and my 7 and 4yo DDs) do karate because I think judo is too soft!!!"

Right with you there, Annie

Bless the poor little man and his sensitivities. Maybe you or I should invite him along to a class and properly shock him.

Honestly, I didn't think people like him still existed (well ok, apart from my mother, who still refuses to come to a grading because she doesn't want to see her ickle baby get hitted ) but he did make me laugh.

Soft limbs, indeed.

Annie and Shodan - my dc's do judo because karate is too soft. Hardly any contact, just a lot of wafting in the air and kicking cushions

I try to avoid going to competitions, I have to say. I just want to pull the opponents off my kids, epecially when they are bigger/heavier/more experienced. Thankfully DD and DS are quite good, so they tend to get the upper hand most of the time .

Ds2 does Tae Kwon Do and I have to say it shocked me the first time I saw him fight. Somehow, the part of my brain that should have told me that if my son took part in a martial art, he would probably get the crap kicked out of him at some point had not been functioning when I let him join. But it's because he's my child regardless of gender that I find it hard to watch. And he has been beaten by girls!