Protest the BBC giving a man “women’s footballer of the year” December 17th

[fromorbit]

On 17th December we will protest BBC Sport for their decision to award a man “women’s footballer of the year”. Two protests will take place. One in London outside Broadcasting House and one in Salford outside the ‘Sports Personality of the Year’ event. Details to follow. Join us.

Follow here for more details
https://x.com/twelve0fiveUK

Not wanting men is womens sports is racist too now?
There are very good reasons why people with DSD are likely to come from developing nations and objecting to people who have been through male puberty competing with womens sports is not racist, accusing them of it is a not very good attempt to shut them up.

Do all women have blonde hair?
Do all women have a ponytail?
You are being ridiculous if that's how you define a woman. Faux outrage.

The majority of the English women’s football team have blonde ponytails.

Why on earth do we need a world footballer for women category sponsored by the BBC is beyond me. Before this, who had heard of her? She plays for Orlando in the USA I assume and Zambia! For most people she’s really not a front line sports woman (or not!). It’s such a stupid decision to include her (him) on the list in the first place. There are plenty of other worthy women!

Oh nice slide from race to geography there. Did you do it on purpose or was it unconscious bias?

The differentiator here is not the person's race but where they were born and raised.

A Black man with a DSD from a developed nation like Australia would most likey have been diagnosed shortly after (or even before) birth, but at worst at puberty when periods etc did not start, and so would never have been in elite women's sports in the first place.

A person of any race born and brought up in a developing nation without that level of medical oversight may well not have known and may have believed themselves to be a woman excelling in their sport until they got high enough up to run into sex testing. Which is, of course, why regions that have higher levels of certan DSDs and lower levels of routine medical checks are targeted by talent scouts.

But don't worry too much about our poor Australian man! He always has the option of pulling a Hubbard and simply claiming to identitfy as a woman and taking a woman's win away from her that way.

Now the really interesting question about race which you haven't asked and probably doesn't occur to you is why are so many of the actual trans women (men who identify as women without a DSD) in women's sports white?

Imane Khelif boxed an Italian, a Hungarian, a Thai and a Chinese woman to "win" Olympic gold. Not an Australian.

Not sure which match @Echobelly was watching.

anniegun · Today 13:44

So are we against women who look a bit like men? This is a WOMAN. Just because she is not blond with a ponytale. How hateful that people want her banned because of her looks

No, he was banned by the African football authorities, because he's a he, a male man, with a DSD. See the post by:

arethereanyleftatall · Today 16:06

Tell that to Erika/Erik Schinegger, the Austrian champion skier caught out by a similarly undiagnosed condition in the days before European healthcare got better at diagnosing DSDs in infants. The difference being, he didn't double down like Semenya and tell women they should simply train harder - he actually arranged for his Olympic medal to go to the top woman in his race. And also, this was a truly tragic case in that his times were actually good enough to make the men's squad, if the sporting authorities at the time hadn't been too bigoted to nominate him after his true sex was discovered.

Can we have info about the protest and how to attend that is not on X please?

I'm not too far from Salford. I wouldn't mind going along.

Will post here when details drop. You can also keep an eye on 1205 website here:

https://twelveofive.uk/events

Also has some info videos on campaign so far.

@fromorbit thanks so much

If Banda is a women could you explain how their testosterone levels were so far out range that they were ineligible for the Africa Cup of Nations even after taking medication to reduce their testosterone?

ps no women has testosterone in the normal male range even with conditions like PCOS.

I want them banned because they have a sex based advantage due to their DSD.

I don't believe Banda has got to this point without knowing they have an unfair advantage and should not be competing. So I don't feel it is personal, or unfair, to protest their decision and where it has led to. Presumably they were aware of the nomination and happy to stand. I would support an in person or virtual protest here.

It’s the Women’s Footballer of the Year award and unfortunately Banda is ranked as the second most expensive women’s footballer of 2024.

The most expensive is Rachael Kundananji, also from Zambia, and also ruled ineligible to play in the women’s Africa Cup of Nations by the Confederation of African Football on the basis of ‘naturally high testosterone’.

Funny that.

Excellent. Any of the UK's hundreds of deserving actual women playing football should have won instead of putting everyone through this pathetic political power play. What's the point of a competition if you just give anyone (who doesn't even meet the entry criteria) the trophy?

Just a reminder that the BBC didn’t vote for her, the public did. Can’t you find something else to be angry about?

I can be angry at more than one thing at once, self-righteous scold not rate anger though, so your safe.

The BBC deliberately walked into this by including Banda on its five player shortlist. They could fairly plausibly have omitted her. even the guardian's recent list put her at seventh (https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2024/dec/03/the-100-best-female-footballers-in-the-world-2024)

Both transfer and goalscoring records strongly imply that the DSD players are a lot better than suggested by the guardian list, suggesting to me that the compilers of that list deliberately made an adjustment of some sort, as well they might.

If you don't realise how serious this all is, then you are really not paying attention.

Note telling women on Mumsnet to stop being angry has a track record of backfiring. See everything that has happened in the last 8 years or so. They think they can take football away from women again so there is more space for the men other men reject. It isn't going to be happening this time.

This is just the start. The only reason they get away with this is ordinary people don't have a voice.

There is no way the public voted for this, this stinks of BBC wokeism

Bonmati should have won it. Or Caroline Graham Hansen.

But I don't think the BBC rigged it so much as the TRAs did, despite probably knowing as much about women's football as I do about moto gp. He shouldn't have been on the list at all though.

If someone is under the impression this player is female, this looks like a phenomenal and inspiring sportswoman well deserving of a vote.

Whether the results would be the same if it were clear this is a man with a DSD is a very good question.

(I believe there were a lot of social media campaigns also)

TizerorFizz: There are plenty of other worthy women!

Actually there are plenty of women worthy of winning the award, an award for women, ahead of Banda, who must be disqualified because he is a man. Not 'plenty of OTHER worthy women'.

Language is important. If you say 'she' when you are talking about a 'he' you are lost and the facts are lost. This is a man with a DSD who has gone through full male puberty who is playing women's football and winning women's awards. Don't fudge this.

I cannot remember the BBC having a world footballer of the year of any sex. Did they line up Lionel Messi for it? I think these awards should be organised only by fifa. The bbc is just a minnow in this and now they have added in this footballer knowing the issues that will arise.

I have given up on SPOTY these days too. It’s become a bit of a joke. Eg the darts world champion is Luke Humphries. He’s English. Yet Luke Littler is shortlisted! It’s not a feminist issue but it’s symptomatic of the stupid BBC.