Sandra Forgues: becoming a woman was a victory more profound than the Olympic title

[MrsSnippyPants]

Sorry, can’t get the share token to work, maybe someone else can? This might be in the sport section.

Wait what, women don't move chairs? I moved 150 bales of hay on my own last weekend. I should have demurely sat about waiting for a couple of men to come and do it for me.

I know, CAAKE. You might have broken a fingernail or something serious like that. Best to let the menz do it.

The whole piece is ludicrous and the Times really should ban their journalists from responding on their own comments section - it's unprofessional and doesn't inspire confidence.

I wonder if they have a rule about this. When the Guardian first launched Comment is Free, they actively encouraged their writers to engage below the line. Quite a few did so reasonably enthusiastically - people like Hadley Freeman and Zoe Williams. But that seems to have stopped now, though one or two, like George Monbiot, occasionally venture btl. I think their columnists must have made it clear to the paper that they don't appreciate having to engage with people who are hurling abuse at them.

Gheerbrant probably drank the KoolAid during his time at the BBC

jamesgheerbrant.contently.com/

Congratulations, James, you have these MN reviews of your work to add to your CV as well now.

I can't decide on whether the writer is taking the piss (as Janice Turner seems to imply with her phrase about "the performative aspect of trans") or he's deadly serious. I have a horrible feeling it might be the latter.

"fundamentally neurologically different" How does that work, especially when claiming that what makes a woman is the feeling of being a woman?

How long will it be before people stop treating these people as sparkly heroines?

Just reread his responses to the comments. He thanks the posters who congratulate him on an outstanding, educational piece of sports writing.

A lesson in how to self-identify as a prat.

an outstanding, educational piece of sports writing

Translation: overblown, oblivious, sexist drivel.

The effusive praise and encouragement towards enlightenment shines out.

Jeez the article is just awful
Such drivel
Now it’s stunning and brave
It wasn’t. Badly written and patronising
Drivel dribble
And yeps sound# like it was a trolling piece

Men, eh? They read sexism and interpret it as sensitive.

My reading of this is that the journalist absolutely did NOT see Sandra as a woman, but desperately wants to be woke so has massively overcompensated with an avalanche of offensive sexist cliches. Now it's out there he's rightly embarrassed by his ridiculous overblown prose. Hence defensive comments.

James, I'm embarrassed for you.

Interesting to note (see above) that John Holmes subquotes from the Twitter account he also runs for Sports Media LGBT+

from their website, 'About':
"Sports Media LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) is a network group for industry professionals and newcomers who are members of the LGBT+ community.

The network also welcome our allies working in sports media – those who are straight and/or cisgender, and who are supportive of all LGBT+ people, their rights, gender equality, and inclusion in sport.

After an initial meeting in August 2017, the network was formally launched in November 2017 by Jon Holmes, who serves as network lead. Jon is Home Page Editor at Sky Sports, where he co-ordinates Sky’s support for Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign.

Through the power of media and journalism, the network seeks to advocate for athletes, coaches, officials, administrators and all others involved in sport who are LGBT+, by amplifying their voices in order to highlight the benefits of authenticity and inspire others.'
sportsmedialgbt.com/about

I am wondering more and more about this article & the context from which it emerged

Ha, I like your train of thought, R0 . Get a young woke sportswriter to do the puffpiece interview....

James, are you sure you haven't been played?

I've never seen an enormous espresso cup: the whole point of espresso is that it's small and concentrated and served in a small cup. And where else is going to raise it to? His elbow?

This reminds me of the Red Lemonade take down of 50 Shades of Grey.

What an sexist pile of claptrap. It's one thing for Sandra to rationalise her transition by clinging to sexist cliches, but it's quite another for the bloke interviewing her to extend them even further without even pausing to examine why they're so rooted in old school misogyny. (And LOL to the comment about most people being dwarfed by chateaux.)

Before she would automatically have lent a hand; now she demurs bashfully as the photographer and I haul them up the staircase

My grandmother was 5'2"- and a real little beauty- but she would happily move the entire household furniture about on her own. How do they think (god forbid) working class women or women in manual jobs manage?

What an sexist pile of claptrap.

It's amazing that such sexist article would be published in 2019.

It's obvious from his comments blt that the reporter doesn't see his own sexism, but I would have hoped someone else in The Times would have noticed.

I just don't understand why it's OK for a man to tell women he feels like a woman and for women to accept it. How could a man possibly have the slightest clue how it feels to be a woman? At the very heart of this is a mistake that all women feel the same, that there's a singular essential experience that women (and also "women trapped in the wrong body") have. Its all such nonsense and we shouldn't put up with it!

I just don't understand why it's OK for a man to tell women he feels like a woman and for women to accept it

Or a man to convince another man who then tells & shows all the women how clear it is and that those who are unenlightened must surely realise their mistake should they not accept it.

Before she would automatically have lent a hand; now she demurs bashfully as the photographer and I haul them up the staircase

I wonder if a lot of people like James think that women-only households don't even exist? Because if they realise some/many of us live in households without men (and work in workplaces without men), they'd have to realise that we don't call in blokes off the street when furniture needs moving.

I'm 5'3" and my female partner is 5'1". We do all out own heavy lifting...

when doing the Olympic medal stuff the spotlight was on him
it was all about his struggle his battle, his obsession to dominate

now that phase is over and it's time for another struggle, another battle, another obsession
the main point in both sagas is that it's all about him

On one level, this article is brilliant because it draws back the veil in a way in which Janice Turner, wonderful writer that she is, could not have done.

I am in little doubt that the journalist, who comes across as naïve, was set up by The Times. Even so, I hope that he gets to interview McKinnon. Hope he knows who RM is

This reads like a Private Eye spoof