Anyone read Megan Rapinoe's autobiography?

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I read this recently.

I was struck by how brilliant she sounds. A really strong, compassionate, sensible, brave gay woman.

She's very aware of her privilege being white and American middle class and she uses her public platform to support causes including BLM and LGBT+

She talks at length about systematic bias against women, namely the discrepancy in pay between the much much more successful and lucrative, and watched women's football game and the less successful men's game. This was interesting to me as in Europe the men's game is much more watched.

She also talks about biology. She mentions how she and her twin sister (also an amazing footballer) played at age 6 in the local boys' U8 team and were the best players in the team. She then says as they got a bit older they joined a boys U10 team; there were no local girls teams.

Biology had taken over by age 10 and the boys 'shellacked' them, which clearly meant the boys' strength meant the girls were no match physically and could not sensibly compete any more, so their dad set up a girls' team, and give or take a few twists and turns history was made.

Megan talks at length about having a very strong internal sense of fairess in sport. Megan clearly knows what a woman is.

This book was published in 2020 (? Covid had just started in a final note) so is current.

The word trans is not mentioned ONCE. A gay woman writing about sport, fairness, politics, pay, and being an LGBT+ icon, which she is very aware she is, says A LOT by not including a single word about the trans debate.

I then Google her and see she's made various tweets etc in the last year or two and is...twaw, people belong in sports according to their self-id bla bla

I was utterly defeated to read this.

How can someone who is so brave as to risk her career to take the knee long before it was fashionable. And who knows exactly what a woman is, still feel the need to parrot this harmful mantra?

I am a huge admirer of Megan but would love to understand why, once again, this one special group yet treated so desperately differently from the rest of us plebs.

She's all for pulling the ladder up and letting transwomen in women's sport. So, no, she's got more work to do to make me appreciate her. I'm really disappointed in her really. She should talk to Martina

No, she's an absolute cop out.

Everyone should talk to Martina.

I know I would love to.

It is so gut wrenchingly disappointing.

I'm torn between thinking "well I don't speak publicly about this either, and feminist thinking is harder in the US" and then "but how can I recommend her as a role model for my niece when she'd happily subject my niece to males in the showers, males taking her place on the team and males in unfair opposition".

I think what jarrs is the suspicion it's a career saving tactic. She's happy to use feminism when it suits her and dump it when it doesn't.

I agree Funny.

I just feel so disappointed she was willing to be brave and stand up / kneel down for what was right in the case of BLM, but doesn't seem to show the same fortitude for standing up for women's rights.

I mean, with BLM it was fairly clear cut- there were goodies on one side and badfies on the other generally, whereas woth this topic a lot of people I've previously viewed as 'goodies' seem to be through the looking glass, and there are most definitely some real arseholes who for various bigoted and non bigoted reasons have ended up on the right side in the trans debate.

However Megan talks about how she's read around issues and formed opinions through education

And from the book contents it is really clear she's deliberately left any mention of trans out. If she were a real, genuine trans cheerleader she would have explained why. I'd have been really interested to read that.

So disappointing

Well I am sorry to say that I think that this is not that different than jumping on the "taking the knee" bandwagon without much reflection.

And her complaints about women's pay in sports also seem a little lacking - surely she must realize that in entertainment industries salaries are determined by revenue generated? Is she suggesting that women's sports be subsidized somehow? That isn't actually how we treat other private industries.

I do share the disappointment but wonder whether we perhaps underestimate just how frightening it is to be in the public eye and dependent on sponsorship / income from organisations in the grip of this ideology. It's frustrating to see women athletes who know the facts about sex differences parroting TWAW, but look at what happens to JKR, Martina etc, the bullying of women swimmers forced to compete against Thomas & bullied into remaining silent with this silencing being repeated in every sport where women's sport is not valued.

It's heartening that she's written a book and ignored the trans issue. I expect that's as much as she dare do.

She knows, we know, the majority of people know that it's an unfair nonsense. But until the grasp of this toxic ideology is removed from institutions, then free speech, facts, safety and safeguarding will always take second place.

She's retiring, this is her last season. And she isn't afraid of speaking out - she is full on behind medicating children and throwing teenage girls under the boy bus.

"I’m 100% supportive of trans inclusion. People do not know very much about it. We’re missing almost everything,”

“Frankly, I think what a lot of people know is versions of the right’s talking points because they’re very loud. They’re very consistent, and they’re relentless.
“At the highest level, there is regulation. In collegiate sports, there is regulation. And at the Olympic and professional level. It’s not like it’s a free-for-all where everyone’s just doing whatever.”

“And I think people also need to understand that sports is not the most important thing in life, right?"

“Life is the most important thing in life. And so much of this trans inclusion argument has been put through the extremely tiny lens of elite sports. Like that is not the way that we need to be framing this question. We’re talking about kids. We’re talking about people’s lives."

“We’re talking about the entire state government coming down on one child in some states, three children in some states. They are committing suicide because they are being told that they’re gross and different and evil and sinful and they can’t play sports with their friends that they grew up with. Not to mention trying to take away health care. I think it’s monstrous.”

Yeah, she could fly under the radar if she was worried, she's not worried.

She's flat out afraid of losing her livelihood if she does anything other than bow to Men's Rights Activists.
I mean, I understand that in a normal person but she's supposed to be a feminist icon.

This is not hiding and towing the line from fear. She is actively attacking measures taken to protect fairness for women in sports. She must intellectually know that’s not right , it’s really hard to understand why she takes this line.

*toeing

I understand that in a normal person but she's supposed to be a feminist icon.

Right, but most "feminist icons" are really just "popular, successful women", aren't they? Ie "a sort of role model for the sort of thing feminists are supposed to want."

Doesn't mean they're actually feminists themselves. As you see here.

Actual feminists are generally a bit less popular than "feminist icons", what with them asking tough questions sometimes.

By actively kowtowing to this nonsense, she's being fearful, in my view. Martina, on the other hand, is utterly fearless. I'm as in awe of Martina now, as I was when I first saw her play at Wimbledon.

Mangy have you read my posts? Have you read the book?

I state that Megan explains how she likes to read around subjects and educate herself before forming an opinion.

I stated Megan took the knee long before it was fashionable.

She was one of the key people who was doing this before the bandwagon existed, she did not jump on the bandwagon unthinkingly.

I also mention that in the US (according to the book) women's football is more watched than the men's game, and how this is interesting as its in stark contrast to Europe where the men's game dominates.

And yet you've managed to put across a viewpoint which slags her off for jumping on a bandwagon and suggests she's asking for her unsuccessful sport to be subsidised. This is not the case in the US.

Keen to hear your opinion but fgs base it on the conversation taking place or bring some alternative sources in rather than just get loads of stuff wrong.

Sigh. Another traitor to women. So disappointing.

She is a woke woman from California, land of the wokest. Of course she took the knee! She knows exactly who her fans are.

It doesn't necessarily matter if women's or men's football is more watched by Americans, what makes a difference is how much revenue they generate. They are related but not the same thing at all.

Look at it this way. Say you have a hairdresser who has a shop for men, and another who has a shop for women. These two people are not related in any way. The shop for women charges more per haircut and brings in more income, so the owner and her employees make more money.

Would you suggest that in order to be fair, somehow the people working in the other salon should be subsidized? Who would pay for that?

And I don't really care if she was an early adopter of "taking the knee" it's still evidence that she totally buys into identity politics. It should not be a surprise that she would also buy into gender id pol.

The women's team generates more revenue than the men's team. They have also been more successful in competition. This has been extensively covered since audited financial statements were submitted at trial.

Some women are indeed traitors to other women.

There’s a whole lot more to that US Womens Soccer pay situation than ever gets analysed these days. The deal they regretted turning down years ago, that they were ruled against in court and didn’t “win” their case and that the current equal pay is achieved mainly by pooling the mens FIFA prize money. Mens World Cup $10.5m just for getting there. Womens World Cup $4.0m for winning the whole thing. Rapinoe is one of the lead BS merchants on the topic.

Bugger this traitor shit. It's just stupid.

The organization attributes the difference in pay mainly to things like broadcast rights. And I imagine the fact that women's soccer being more popular being fairly recent is also a big factor. The players have every right to hold out for more money and if they do indeed generate that kind of revenue they are likely to get it - that's just good business.

The men seem keen to say they are happy to revenue-share, whether that would be ultimately good for women's sports is debatable.

But the fact that Rapinoe believes all the standard things that middle class id politics people believe hardly makes it shocking she would support gender ideology. It's just what you should expect.

Do people seriously think that anyone who doesn't hold to one viewpoint on this stuff is a "traitor"? Like, my country, right or wrong?

I believe it is a luxury belief. She can afford it as she's near the end of her career. The young women following in her wake who are losing out on medals, scholarships and being able to enjoy the unique atmosphere of being in a single sex space, are being cancelled for standing up for their rights.

So yes, I do think she's a traitor because her voice could be powerful. But she simply doesn't give a shit.

Yup. I was actually surprised when speaking to some gay relatives in the states who I thought would have thought she was great - but they general consensus was that she was a sell out to lesbians (and a pain in the - was well as being well up her own - backside)