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

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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.

There would be no patriarchy if misogyny and sexism wasn't prevalent.

No rape, no DV, no sexual assault, no cat calls, no sexual harassment, no #MeToo - which, incidentally, ran to 11,000,000 posts in under 24 hours.

As someone has put it on Twitter, the reason why a lot of men are not sticking up for women, and why it mostly coming from men, is misogyny is intoxicating.

And yes, misogyny comes from some women too. They get their cookies where they can.

And all of the nit-brained men who say ‘ha ha you wanted equality feminists now deal with it ha ha’ are too stupid to realise that ‘equal’ doesn’t always mean ‘the same’.

I really can't understand how anyone can be so thick as to think this is what feminists have been fighting for. Wanting to have the same human rights as men doesn't always mean being treated exactly the same as men. It's about fairness.

Has any feminist, ever, demanded an end to sex segregation in sport?

I would say that most men are probably typical of my dh. He kept saying "nonsense" when I was telling him about this issue.

I think they think it's not going to happen, so it's trivial, and also, they don't see it in such a personal way. People like Martina and Sharron know that they'd never have won anything if they'd had to compete against men, so there's a much more personal angle to it.

For men, it's always someone else's problem, even if that someone is their daughter, their wife or their sister. They're always going to be one step removed from it.

If a male sportsman comes forward, the tweeters will just hear them saying "I'm better than the women..."

Also this. How can they support us without being condescending?

Matthew Pinsent's commented

Pincent's way of doing it seems pretty good. A lot of ex sport star men just publicly saying 'I support you in doing this' to Sharron Kelly Paula Martina etc would really help I think.

It's not a fucking tricky subject, Matthew Pinsent!

Christ. They cavil and they cavil and they cavil.

Some more things that aren't tricky subjects: putting males into women's prisons, having males in DV refuges, males on locked women's mental health wards, etc ad infitum.

Sport isn't a special category where suddenly women are worthy of sticking up for but only if you cavil about how fucking tricky it all is. All this tricky fucking subjecting just means the women at the bottom of the pile, such as those above, who don't have a voice and a platform, get ignored yet again.

It's not a fucking tricky fucking subject.

No it's not a tricky subject.

But I wonder how many men think there is more to it other than some magic words.

The trans lobby continue to make it as complicated as they possibly can.

Humans cannot change sex. Rachel McKinnon included.

There are only two. Male and female.

I can't remember if I'm allowed to join the dots.

But Pinsent can. And he also might reflect on why I am not sure if I'm allowed to say it.

It's tricky only if you don't have the courage to speak up, Pinsent.

And yes, even making that comment is him taking a stand.

But, for fucks sake, It's a really, really low bar.

It's tricky only if you don't have the courage to speak up, Pinsent.

This is very, very true.

Speak up and engage. Talk. Ask the questions.

If you haven't even got the guts to do that...?

Everything any women who states she is a feminist does is used to "give feminism a bad name". It's ridiculous and used as a cheap shot.
Yup.

I think you need to choose the men in your life a little better if this is your opinion of them. I can see why many women in my life don't consider themselves feminists if this is what they associate with being a feminist. shock

If I yawn any harder, I’ll get lock jaw. I was married to a wonderful man, who treated me with utmost respect. It doesn’t mean that some men aren’t misogynistic.

If that’s all it takes for you to slate all feminists, then you were never likely to understand the impact of misogyny on women and children, in the first place.

I have a horrible feeling that a lot of men aren't getting involved because they see this as two sets of women arguing with each other. You know, c*s females and the other type of female.
I hope I'm wrong.

I was married to a wonderful man, who treated me with utmost respect. It doesn’t mean that some men aren’t misogynistic

Abdolutely.....some men is the key term.

The poster said

I know men generally don’t give a shit about women

Generally means in most cases or usually. It's not right to say 'usually men don't give a shit about women'.

But, for fucks sake, It's a really, really low bar.

It really fucking is. And I'm afraid to say that I'm long past the fucking point of not expecting it to be raised a lot fucking higher.

Not even close to saying thank you for these feeble efforts. Let alone fawning over the painfully few fucking men who even make it as high as the lowest of low fucking bars.

Have I said fucking enough yet?! No, not nearly enough.

But, for fucks sake, It's a really, really low bar.

It really is. He's just climbed onto the history fence and is waiting for women to sort it out.

It is a low bar but we aren’t just fighting for female sport, we are one step back from that and fighting for the right to discuss these issues without being threatened and labelled a bigot.

Acknowledgement from more people that it isn’t bigoted to want to discuss this is actually very helpful, even if I would prefer he went further.

Christ Pinsent - what the fuck was that?

This doesn’t affect sports men so they don’t give a shit.

Once again, men causing problems and all the other men leaving it to the women to sort out.

This is not a ‘woman’s problem’. This is their sex behaving appallingly while other men look the other way.

Pinsent's next Olympic event will be fence-sitting. He will take gold.

For the men.

As much as it grieves me to say, Chris Evert will take it in the Women's.

Generally means in most cases or usually. It's not right to say 'usually men don't give a shit about women

I said it because I believe it to be true. My DH is great, my sons are great, your partner might be great but in general most men don’t give a shit about the way the world is shaped for women. Yes they don’t want women to be battered, perhaps they don’t want us to be raped but most men think we’ve got all the rights we’re entitled and we should shut up now.
If I work a 12-16 hour shift and come across oooh 180 men then I can I can guarantee you all but about 10 of them are in the “don’t give a shit category”.

Perhaps all the male sportspeople are waiting until International Women’s Day to come out in support of women on a big reveal.
Or maybe they are just bloody useless.

For fucks sake men, MAN UP* AND SPEAK UP FOR WOMEN.

*i realise this is probably a sexist term now, and used it somewhat ironically. Only somewhat though.

They are. In similar numbers to their female counterparts i.e. a very very small number.
What, 2 or 3 females and 1 or 2 males speaking up? Big name ones that is.
More don't speak up for the same reason more women don't - career suicide, threats, shame, etc.

And this IS an issue that male sport should own, instead of shunting it to the women. Make male sport more inclusive and welcoming of gender non-conforming men, and leave us alone.

most men don’t give a shit about the way the world is shaped for women

I think most men don’t have a clue about the way the world is shaped for women. Never given it a thought.

I