THANK YOU MATTHEW PINSENT

[PermanentTemporary]

On the Beeb now saying clear as day that the entire controversy over the boxing was wrong, it was the IOC's own fault and it needs fixing in the next Olympics cycle. No mention of individual athletes - the blame squarely where it belongs, with the mess the IOC allowed to happen.

I was a rower so he's a bit of a God to me anyway, but to say it so clearly and simply when I've been infuriated by practically everything I've read or heard about it, whichever angle it was from, was just AWESOME.

Just watched (well, listened, as for some reason the video wouldn’t show up) to that clip of Blythin. 'There are girls [on the team] with longer arm-spans than I do'…..really?
I won’t put up a picture as I know that’s frowned upon but I wonder how many 6ft + team-mates there are? I’ve seen a photo of Blythin with two others and it’s, well, instructive.

Either way, my point was that Clare Balding supported this person’s win of Women of the Year. I wonder if Clare Balding supports male people with DSDs that lead to any degree of virilisation to participate in female sports categories now.

Serena Williams, Sharron Davis,, Martina Navratilova, Daley Thompson, Caitlin Jenner.

Pretty powerful people in the world of sport.@RethinkingLife

And all the brave US women who have spoken up about male swimmers in womens swimming, male runners in athletics, male basket ball players, I say brave women because not only do they face appalling abuse online and in person, but they risk losing valuable sponsorship, scholarships and other funding for speaking out, but they know that if this generation of women and girls doesn’t take a stand then the women and girls who follow will often find themselves losing the race at the start line, or even worse being knocked unconscious or seriously injured as happened to several high school girls in a basket ball match recently. Their coach was so worried he took the unprecedented step of halting the match.

Here’s a thing to think about, if there hadn’t been grassroots outrage about Emily Bridges, coupled with the strong rumour that the UK,s very well regarded and well known elite women cyclists threatened to boycott races, then the UK Olympic Cycling team could have been in the same position as Algeria ie supporting a man in a woman’s team. And it wasn’t for the lack of effort, Bridges ( and mother) really pushed for their inclusion.

Strongly disagree. The use and meaning of words and phrases have a history and it matters.

Littlewhingingfucker wasn't rude or patronising. The proper response is "thanks" OR description of an alternative.

Pretty powerful people in the world of sport.

My specific response was to the specific claim that more people are speaking up in the wake of the Olympics. I asked "Who?" beyond Nicola Adams and Matthew Pinsent (and beyond the people who've been speaking up for some time).

Mark Foster is new (to me, at least). I'd welcome knowing about more.

As indicated in my previous posts, my profound pessimism is grounded in the ongoing indifference to the point of wilful ignorance of clinical and scientific colleagues, professionals, and professional associations. That's my (skewed) perspective that reflects my cognitive biases.

This may have been thrashed out by the time I post, but Blythin is a standard MCW.
I remember cricket fans at the time saying their bowling was super hard. Much harder than women bowl. Women's cricket can feature highly talented girls and they bemoaned that for safety reasons, adult males are not allowed to bowl at boys in cricket, but this adult male was allowed to bowl at girls because they claim to be a woman.

He said inclusion and equity, I think, meaning women need a different starting point to men as there is an imbalance between the sexes. Pretty sure that's what I heard.

It was rude.

Clare Balding was one of the slebs that literally said TWAW on Twitter a few years ago. I remember because it made things seems so hopeless.
She definitely knew that Matthew Pinsent bit was coming though - it was clearly planned. It makes me think even less of her, that she's just swimming with the tide.

In one of the photos, the Blythin person certainly appears to have an Adam’s apple. Maybe ‘she’ll’ get it shaved, and it would be as if it was never there. It seems to be the era of storytelling. Only for the lads, though. Only for the lads to tell you it is raining whilst they are peeing on women.

Cailleach1

Oi! Madam's apple to you.

I don’t know why female anything seems to be the ‘miscellaneous’, or ‘also ran’ class. That just makes the male class protected. And they are under no threat.

There should be an ‘open’, for all non-women. And then have female as the protected class. You have to be positively female to enter that. No ‘I am a male, but then something went wrong during my development’. That does not a woman make, and who knows what residual advantages one has, even if something went awry during their development, because of their actual sex class. It is women who are at a disadvantage if there is no gate-keeping.

The piece from the Mail Online posted on page 4, gives a transcript. MP said: "It has been totally of their own creation as they can't have both equity and inclusion".

What made it powerful was that he criticised the IOC and not the individual boxers.

It seems to me men as a class often come up with a way to shore up their own protections, and push their advantage, at the expense of women. If you view this as a zero-sum game and you want women to remain the support class at home in the kitchen and doing the cleaning, then this does constitute a threat.

That's what I think too, the vibe is men's sport is the true elite category and women's is lesser. But Seb Coe said that the women were 'box office' and carried some of the sports, so I think/hope he will use fairness to get himself the top job, and go further than he has in the past.

Well now that women's sports are getting more popular and taken more seriously, there's going to be more money at play, as well as more scrutiny, so we probably will see more "chancers" (that's a UK term I wish we used here) hopefully followed by more regulations.

Oh i love MP

Snort!

I think there are so many intersex/DSD conditions, that it's actually possible she has XX chromosomes but has gone through male puberty. Although she could very well have XY chromosomes, internal testes etc.

All of the tests suggest XY chromosomes.

If he had XX chromosomes he would have take the test!

I thought it was a very well said piece. And I think anyone would struggle to argue against the points he made in a very calm and non-inflammatory way. (Although they might try).

I think it was actually also more powerful because Balding hadn't said anything. It wasn't a chit chat between presenters, it was a serious piece AND she tee'd it up reminding everyone he brought home the only Gold from Atlanta.

FWIW, to add to Pinsent's impressive CV and how he speaks from a position of first hand experience, he is also a qualified rowing umpire for the governing body of world rowing. (Not sure if he's retired from that now though) so he's well drilled from both sides about the importance of fairness.

that it's actually possible she has XX chromosomes but has gone through male puberty.

What condition would that be? Genuine question.