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.

Does he know that women give birth?

Ha!, good point math.
My DD1 who is a wee dot of a thing, is zooming through her Judo grading, and I am really proud of the physical and mental strength she shows, and her massive determination.

I imagine he's one of those men who judges women for shitting when pushing out a baby Math. I mean that's not feminine at all, is it?!

Wonder how he feels about female soldiers? Female cops? Female prison guards, fire fighters?

Not sure I want to know.

I really like martial arts, IMO it is not about violence but more about control and respect and strength and agility, both mental and physical.

It is a great sport for boys AND girls IMO.

This has made me so angry this morning. If my dd's were older I'd go straight out and sign them up for judo.

From what I saw yesterday its an amazing sport executed with fairness, dignity and a sense of sportsman ship.

I keep seeing comments about how BBC is reporting the female events, referring to them as girls, girlfriends of X etc etc.

Has there been any complaints?

Judo is an absolutely fantastic support for anyone. I practised Ju-Jitsu for many years (Judo is a derivative of Ju-Jitsu) and loved it. My DS1 will start Judo as soon as he is 5.

This guy is a twatus maximus who has not clue what he is writing about. Telegraph should be ashamed at publishing such ignorant, sexist shite.

I'm getting quite a lot of amusement from the mental picture of Zara, Mary King, Tina Cooke and Nicola Wilson being told they should ride side saddle. These are tough and brave women who enjoy belting round a cross country course with big jumps and steep drops. They would be little left of the chauvinist who proposed that......

How old is he? Sometimes I find it can be a reflection of someone's age.

DP's 80 year old aunt told me recently that she loved watching tennis, however she hates it when women make these horrible noises.

Women in competative sport was something rather unusual 50 and 60 years ago, and it seems important to her that they look good rather than achieve their best.

Ha! Good point math.

Please can someone go post that on the telegraph article (if it's not there already).

I'm still WTF about this having read it last night.

Wow what an ignorant man. I hope that maybe people sometimes read this sort of hogwash and it opens their eyes to the sexism still prevalent in our society and becomes a catalyst for them to make a difference. We need to make a stand against this, every time it pisses someone off it is a little win!

Utterly fucking unbelievable. But what would you expect from a middle aged male suit writing for the Telegraph. I had a photo printed in the paper last year - they did not credit it to me by name but actually called me "MrAriel's wife" because he was with me at the moment I took it.

Judo has been in the Games forever. Has he only just noticed it? And they are not "beating each other up" or they would be injured and bleeding. "Soft limbs"? Fucking hell. Words fail me. Well, obviously they don't entirely, but you know what I mean. Prick.

I play roller derby, and this man would probably require a chaise-longue and smelling salts if he saw what that can to a woman's soft limbs!

I think girls should be encouraged to do sports, as it teaches discipline and helps them to understand that their body is for something other than being looked at. The attitude that sport is unfeminine is still quite prevalent, but this man does appear to be an extreme case.

I wonder what he would think of the soft limbed black belt that kicked me in the head in a karate competition.

Soft limbs battered black and blue indeed.

Poor chap obviously doesn't realise that there are lots of women out there who don't spend their fragrant lives drifting between flower arranging classes and the hairdresser.

Damn fool

I must admit I was a bit annoyed when Steve Redgrave referred to the women rowers as "girls" but I let him off when he referred to the male rowers as "boys".

If you are going to use a diminutive for one sex then make sure you use it for the other one too.

Personally I'm really enjoying seeing the Olympics as fiercely contested by the women as the men, and finally seeing some strong capable women on the box rather than the usual underfed, weedy, fake-breasted variety that usually gets airtime.

"twatus maximus"

I think that pretty much sums him up!

For fuck's sake. I have an old friend who coaches karate and is a 2nd Dan herself. I'd like to tell her all about this twat. Let's see whose 'soft limbs' end up black and blue then.

What a prick.

I practiced Judo for many many years as a girl and it was a big part of my life. I competed nationally and, until I was injured, I was apparently quite a promising fighter. I'm not particularly feminine (what does that mean anyway?) but so what? It's a wonderful sport and I will be encouraging DCs to get involved if they want. Male or female.

Judo means "the gentle way", btw, and the sportsmanship shown by competitors is fantastic. Footballers ought to take note.

What a prat, I suppose he thinks it's time we went back to dying in childbirth?

I used to do karate, compared to childbirth it was a breeze and a lot more fun!

However, attitudes like his are why women had to fight every step of the way to even get into the Olympics and it is a reminder that we still have to fight against such crap and we can't be complacent.

Everyday Sexism here - thanks for picking up on our campaign!! So far around 500 people have got behind us on Twitter, either by retweeting our complaint to the Telegraph or tweeting them with their own thoughts- lots of fantastic points being made about the inappropriateness of the article and some great support from men and women who are avid Judo fans. But absolutely no response from the Telegraph.

I'm finding it incredibly frustrating that throughout these games our major newspapers have got away with printing reams of this kind of misogynistic nonsense about female athletes (particularly on the subject of the beach volleyball) without any kind of censure or acknowledgement of the utter unacceptability of such commentary. It has featured in the Times, Guardian, Evening Standard, Mail, Sun, Mirror and Telegraph at my last count and I'm sure many others too. What a sad yardstick of how very very far we still have to go...so much for those optimistically called these the 'equality games'...

laurawriter I'm not on twitter - but if you start on those petition things or can find us an email address so we can contact the right person at the telegraph let us know

Not on twitter either, But laura, fantastic job and fantastic site!