Why aren’t male athletes standing with their female counterparts?

[OVAgroundWOMBlingfree]

We have seen more and more female athletes come out to discuss TW in female sports and the matter of fairness and so far the only male athlete I have seen come out in support is Daley Thompson (good on him).

Where is the usually mouthy crisp snatcher on this matter?
Why aren’t they supporting their fellow sportspeople?

The silence is deafening.

I think because the issue doesn’t affect them.

The England women's football team won the "She Believes Cup" yesterday, which suggests they will be the favourites going into this summer's world cup.

It would be so, so, disappointing if any of the stronger teams field transgender players with a distinct physical advantage. Not because of who wins, but the fact that it would render the whole exercise pointless. Apart from tennis, this may be the biggest women's sports event in the world. I caught the manager Phil Neville being interviewed on Radio Five last night. No mention of this, and no questions. Yet he must know....

What finfinty said.

Doesn't affect them so they don't give a shit, just like everything else women suffer.

They'll get branded with the transphobia label and are too scared of thusly losing 'll that sponsorship money...

Doesn't Gary Lineker work for the BBC? I would be very surprised if he did anything to jeopardise that contract so I expect he will just stay out of it.

It is making me so bloody angry.
I know men generally don’t give a shit about women but the replies under links to big recent articles and tv/radio programmes have been filled with men being drawn into the debate and spotting the obvious unfairness. And yet silence from the sportsmen.

Doesn't Gary Lineker work for the BBC? I would be very surprised if he did anything to jeopardise that contract so I expect he will just stay out of it.

He has been very loud mouthed on a lot of issues, particularly Brexit of late.

I expect they will have agents and managers advising them to avoid the issue like the plague.
As it will never affect them anyway as individuals, they have no interest in risking their PR over it, or losing sponsors.

It is quite worrying because, and maybe I'll get flamed for this, but men are listened to more, have more power when asking for change etc, and without men agreeing somewhere along the line of change things rarely do change for women. We can complain, we can fight, we can campaign, we can shout, but you'll just be branded hysterical or mad unless men with status agree with what you're saying.
It's the same for lots of groups of people unfortunately.
Disabled, bme, sen, they've all needed somebody who wasn't part of that group to be listened to. Nobody cared before other people, like men with status, had similar opinions to them.

I'm not saying women can't do anything, women have done a lot throughout history and changed the future and made things better for us all, just that men are listened to much more.

Because a lot of them are probably closest misogynists, that are secretly getting a thrill out of women losing out.

Why would you be asking Phil Neville about trans athletes, it's a completely different sport? He's the manager of England's women's football team.

*closet

Why would you be asking Phil Neville about trans athletes, it's a completely different sport? He's the manager of England's women's football team.

I take it you’re new to the feminist pages?

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

S1naidSucks thanks for that needed a chuckle today, genuinely
Re the last post: Transwomen are "evil?". Okay then, I think I'm out on this one.

I think the obvious answer is they don't care enough to be drawn into it and face losing jobs or sponsors for wrongthink.

I'm fairly sure privately most agree with Martina et al's stance but whatever the outcome they don't perceive it as affecting them.

Until it does of course because I wouldn't be surprised if eventually TRA's come up with some ingeniously batshit demands of mens sport to accommodate TIFs. Which wouldn't hurt men's sports in the same way but may well annoy and inconvenience them.

You know rightly that’s not what WineGummyBear, is saying. Either you’re deliberately being obtuse or you need to do some reading, regarding men in women’s sports.

"Why would you be asking Phil Neville about trans athletes, it's a completely different sport? He's the manager of England's women's football team."

An athlete is any sportsperson.
It has already happened in football, in Scotland.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/47438175

Because it doesn't affect them, pure and simple.
There was a thread recently from an OP describing her DH as woke and unable to see her view at all. Similarly, my normally rational and reasonable DH has struggled to get on board because he sees it as a distraction from the more important political issues from his perspective. I have told him that as an aspiring politician, he is being spectacularly naive if he ignores issues that affect 50% of the population, and that he needs to broaden his viewpoint. He is listening at last.

It's because anyone who speaks out gets insulted, threatened, pressure put on their sponsors etc. It takes guts, and if it doesn't directly affect someone, they're going to be less inclined to do it.

1. They probably haven't done the reading required
2. They're probably not really interested in doing the reading anyway
3. They're considering their own position
4. They may not want to be seen to jump into a "women's issue" with both feet

I wish they would though. I wish they'd do some reading, take the lead from Sharron, Kelly and others, and follow their pattern. Support them in the way that they're signposting their need for support.

On a slightly different note has anyone seen or heard any trans men on these radio/tv discussion panels?

McEnroe clearly backs biology but I've not seen him comment recently? www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/john-mcenroe-my-girls-dont-think-i-can-beat-serena-williams-201788/

Olympic silver medalist (long jump) Chris Tomlinson on Twitter @LongJumpChris

Chris has trained in mix sex training groups since he was a teenager. He knows the difference.