The Guardian - AFL weight restrictions 'body shame women'

[MawkishTwaddle]

No, Guardian. AFL weight restrictions stop women being killed.

For fuck's sake.

unbelievable

Guarding male egos since at least that ridiculous article about Cologne!

Eh? I thought it was more a case of the Guardian defending their pro immigration stance by turning a blind eye to the less savoury individuals taking advantage of Merkle’s open border disaster and them not willing to admit that all new comers to Germany were not doctors and engineers as promised but instead hundreds of thousands of men with less then enlightened views putting women at a risk.

"Other sports, such as boxing, have weight categories for similar reasons.

Ms Mouncey ostensibly weighs 110kg. Serena Williams, surely one of the most powerful female athletes competing currently weighs, according to the internet, somewhere between 70 - 85kgs, some 25kgs less than an average man.

It would be very unlikely that a female AFL player would be anywhere near the height and weight of Ms Mouncey."

The average weight for an Australian man is 85.9kg. Tennis isn't AFL. Neither is boxing. Compare like for like, with correct numbers, or the comparisons are irrelevant. Female rugby players frequently hit the 85 - 95kg mark. There is no upper weight limit in the mens' game either, hence the strong possibility that a 85kg fly half could get tackled by a 130kg+ prop.

So HM is way above the average weight even for a man?!

Even comparing individuals of the same height and weight, a male will still have greater upper body strength, denser bones that are harder to break, etc. So even if every woman in AFL was 110 kilos it would still be a bad idea to let Mouncey play with them.

It's an even worse idea given the size differential.

Someone posted about two different body types for men in these Aussie sports earlier this week. Mouncey is on the bigger side of the two types, yes.

I will go find it.

I posted a link to this article at the end of the other HM thread. This bit stood out for me:

I’ve already spoken to a number of friends of mine, all cis women, about this part of the policy, and to a person their responses have been the same. The first question is always: “why does a panel of men get to decide if a woman is too big or too heavy to play football?” The irony is we know full well that our society would never tolerate a panel of women deciding if a man’s body was too small to play football

Firstly, why do these female “friends” of Hannah’s assume the deciding panel is all male? Where does it say that? Who is on the panel? Or is HM assuming that women couldn’t possibly be on the panel. And it’s not “ironic” that a panel would decide that a man’s body is too small [note the lack of cis or trans before man ] because that is not something that is even an issue. A panel of women deciding a man’s body is too big for women’s AFL would be very appropriate though.

I don’t think HM understands irony. I find it ironic that a 100kg+ person who wants to smash into women thinks it’s a policy that restricts that from happening to be harmful.

I believe that panels of men (the team owners, scouts, coaches, etc) have been deciding that some men were just too small to play sports where strength is very important since those sports began.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3352435-Hannah-Mouncey-Australian-womens-football

This thread, third page:

This made me so fucking angry. It's male supremacy in action. Women's sports are so unimportant that it's fine to turn them into a kind of cruel gladiatorial joke as long as the spectacle of male bodies triumphing over and risking harm to women's bodies validates and entertains the boss class.

: “why does a panel of men get to decide if a woman is too big or too heavy to play football?”

Fair question. Same applies to the IOC for sports more globally - IIRC the panel which determined the parameters for a TW being able to compete as women consisted of 7 men, 1 XY intersex, one TW and only 3 females. A quarter, not even a half, on an issue which mostly impacts women. Well, there's a surprise.

This is one of those issues where people are being told "believe me, not your lying eyes".

Unfortunately for them most people continue to believe what their eyes are telling them, which is why comments are closed.

Transwomen in women’s sports is the best way to get the GC viewpoint across to men, I’ve found.

My husband (did a bit of fairly serious MMA training in his younger days) was absolutely outraged by the Fallon Fox debacle.

I don’t know if it’s women’s socialisation that makes HM’s female friends so accommodating or if it’s men’s socialisation that makes them instantly aware that male bodies have no place in women’s sport (because they are raised as the aggressors) but frankly, whoever made this decision made the right call, to my mind.

Risk assessment saves lives!

I'd literally go Tonya Harding on her, in my sport if I thought she would now beat me because she had a biological advantage of being a male build, meaning she could skate faster, jump higher and was ultimately stronger. If a woman started banging out quad and triple combinations like a man does, she would win on technical points. But figure skating is a bitter/dangerous sport and I was always highly competitive 😂

In this instance it's also wrong, she could seriously injure someone in a contact sport environment. What are they going to say when she causes a significant spinal injury to a 70kg woman!

What are they going to say when she causes a significant spinal injury to a 70kg woman!

They'll say that it's proof that women shouldn't play strength based sports and they should stick to knitting and cake decorating.

Well if Hannah is so worried by the awful body shaming, there's a really simple solution: have everyone play with their appropriate biological class.

Oh sorry, silly me, that actually wasn't Hannah's issue. Hannah just wants to use their superior muscle mass, lung capacity and size to smash into women half Hannah's size. What a hero.

I heard about a female teenage child in a country with self id who was identifying as a boy and demanding to play one the boys' rugby team. Teachers and pupils are horrified but there's nothing they can do.

It's like an adult version of the toddler who insists they don't want to wear a coat on a freezing January morning because the sun is out and has a tantrum because you're being 'mean'.

I'm being generous by assuming that Mouncey doesn't understand that protecting women from Mouncey's greater physical mass and other sex based advantages is nothing to do with being 'mean' to anyone.

Of course, the less generous reading would be that Mouncey's pouting bottom lip is because Mouncey is a nasty cheaty type who has worked out that this line of argument will get them all the plaudits plus extras. But I would like to accuse Mouncey of anything, so I will just go with them being a bit thick.

The Guardian has become a joke. It is almost funny, how ridiculous the articles are now. I stopped buying it a while ago, because they trot out crap like this. I buy the Times instead, far better journalism, without the patronising, gaslighting sexism.

You'd think that in a time period where newspapers are dropping like flies they'd try to improve the quality of their product.

What a fucking offensive article, and not just because of all the 'cis-ing'.

Using the very real issues about women's body image to argue that men who are built like a brick shit house should be able to play rugby with women, just because they say they are women, is so self centred I can't even. Is there anything these blokes won't appropriate? How dare he.

Loads of sports have weight categories. Do you see fucking jockeys, boxers or formula 1 drivers going on about how having weight parameters affects their body image?

Fuck off Hannah. And fuck off The Guardian.

This is the slight, transitioned Hannah Mouncey. As you can see, her muscles have all but wasted away

There's a scene in 'There's Something About Mary' in which Matt Dillon plays American Football against a group of people with learning difficulties, with guessable results. At least the Farrellys were just playing it for (bad taste) laughs. As it is, this is a prime example of dogma literally colliding with reality.

Unfortunately I suspect it'll take broken limbs (at the very least) for sense to be seen.

@Orchid yes she clearly has the figure of a muscular female 🙈 if that ran in to me I'd die. And I'm a muscular 82kg!

Also I can't stand cis woman. No I'm a woman, why must they continue with this stupid label!

Is Hannah really so obtuse?? How many women will the new rules affect? None??

Of course it's about making sure that transwomen who weigh twice as much as female footballers aren't allowed to play against them!

What a tool. And shame on the Guardian for publishing this pile of self-serving shite.

Does Mouncey have no shame at all?

Hannah really is a piece of work isn't he? Whiny dickhead expecting to get what he wants simply because he wants it.