The backlash against female athletes

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

I am trying this a second time as my last version was deemed to be ambiguous - ironic, I suppose!

I will state again - I am not discussing this specific athlete, she, as an individual, is not the point. The public opinion, some of the comments, is the issue.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9172327/Incredible-moment-University-Michigan-freshman-track-star-makes-stunning-comeback-4x400-relay.html#comments

Now... given the Biden rescinding of various Trump statutes, the all pervading misogyny of some, and the backlash from various other corners of the globe,... it seems that any woman who excels in a sport simply must be a man... or on perfomance enhancing drugs, etc. Because we can't simply be good at sport, can we?

I'll be honest. I shocked myself! I had a second thought... I am ashamed of that and very, very angry that various law makers, sports scientists and TRA agitators have so changed the very essence of female sport that the question need even have been asked.

If the comments here are to be taken as on anyway representative, and the DM was just the one first one I found without a paywall, then female sport has been traduced and no female will be free of this accusation if she excels.

That can't be allowed to stand. But how the hell do we overcome the seemingly innate misogyny of many?

I think it's visible in other spheres too OP, not only sport. For instance, BBC misogynists excluding women from their 100 Women of the year lists in order to include men, meaning all the women who are on there have their stellar accomplishments diminished by being compared with an over-privileged underachieving male.

I also found myself wondering about this. It's a great pity that women's sport is now being devalued. Perhaps women in sport should lobby for a third category, perhaps called 'menstruators' or suchlike, and then woman can move over into that category and have a level playing field again.

True Maud.

I was just incensed over this as I was a sport science lecturer for many years and the 'revocation' of Title IX under Obama and now Biden infuriates me... even more as it meant I actually agreed woth Trump about something! But mostly because it's downright ridiculous

The US Court of Appeal decided that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is discrimination "on the basis of sex" and is prohibited under Title IX (federal civil rights law) and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Read that again... it is sex discrimination to refuse a man entry to a woman's sport if he declares himself female!

Countered by the House of Representative who passed and Act that would block schools from receiving federal funding if transgender girls and nonbinary people are allowed to compete on girls' sports teams at those schools. Ludicrous!

And now all up in the air again because Biden repealed the repeal .. or some such.

What America does today the rest of the world considers tomorrow... so it does matter

@ginghamstarfish

I also found myself wondering about this. It's a great pity that women's sport is now being devalued. Perhaps women in sport should lobby for a third category, perhaps called 'menstruators' or suchlike, and then woman can move over into that category and have a level playing field again.

That wouldn't work! Many female athletes become amenorrhoeic because of their training!

Let alone reducing us all to bodily functions... [hollow laugh]

Maybe something more clunky like "Never had a penis in my life" category