Simone Biles attacks Riley Gaines

[ItsCoolForCats]

Simone Biles has come out in defence of males in women's sports, and has attacked Riley Gaines for fighting against it. She said on Twitter:

"@RileyGaines
You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!"

So, so disappointing. Both my daughters do gymnastics and are huge SB fans, so it is awful for her to show such contempt towards RG, who is fighting for a level playing field for women and girls in sport. And to suggest a separate category as if nobody has ever thought of that and tried it 🤦🏻‍♀️

Agreed.

I am also uncomfortable with people calling Biles vile or nasty. I disagree with her on the issue of the inclusion of males in women's sports but she is allowed her own opinion, even if I think that it shows a lack of background knowledge around the issue.

(Edited to clarify that the issue I am referring to is males being included in female sports)

I believe that some people are calling out Simone Biles’s personal attack when they refer to nasty. It was not just a disagreement. It really was a personal attack and the body shaming was hypocritical considering I believe that Biles had done some excellent previous work about body shaming athletes.

But the personal attack was nasty. She likened Riley's body to that of a man's, in a way clearly meant to be insulting (and not just to Riley, given that most TW will be over five five).

And actually, Simone's view on males in female sports is still not very coherent. She seems to want a magic third solution, didn't know why this isn't considered acceptable by the people she sees herself as defending, and has yet to tell us what she thinks should happen when these third categories don't work.

We know more about Simone's feelings on mannish appearance and the acceptability of pointing this out (she can do it, other people shouldn't) then we do about her opinion on males in female sports. That's her choice.

It's interesting that SB hasn't made any further comments. She might decide not to say anything else and hope it goes away, but inevitably she will get asked about this the next time she does an interview. And if she backtracks at all, she'll invoke the wrath of the trans mafia.

It's so frustrating the way some people on this thread have derailed it to be a character assassination of RG.

SB wasn't criticising her about her politics or her views on reproductive rights. She made some really unpleasant personal comments saying that RG's entire campaign to protect female sports is driven by being a 'sore loser' and that it's RG's job to find ways to include trans people in sport, such as third categories (because nobody has ever thought of that 🙄). And then she said RG looks like a man. What do these posters think of this? Because that is what we are actually discussing on this thread.

I don't agree with RG's views on abortion, but I admire her tenacity and the amount of work she has done advocating for fair sports for women. The way she is viewed by sone just illustrates how polarised American politics is. People on the left won't agree with anything someone on the right says, no matter how much sense it makes. It's pathetic.

It is. Yesterday she retweeted the first message criticising Riley, but not the height one. But nothing else. Whereas Riley made some content directly addressing Simone, on multiple platforms.

It would be interesting to know whether Simone has now found out that her trans category proposal is a no goer. Looking around on social media, she was getting a lot of grace for that from people who appreciated her having a go at RG and who felt sure she'd come around to full self ID in sport in time.

Interestingly, Simone Biles' X account profile describes her as "Wife. Olympic Champion".

I'm intrigued by this. It sounds almost trad wife to put "wife" in there, never mind before " Olympic Champion". I wonder what she was trying to convey.

I would have thought she was trying to come across as pretty conservative. But here she is taking the liberal position on trans sports.

Riley Gaines is married but it isn't in her profile.

It is all pretty strange imo.

Apologies. I worded that poorly. I meant more the comments (here to a lesser extent and on other platforms) along the lines of 'she's always been a nasty wee thing', where there's no evidence that she's previously gone on the attack like this against other women's looks/height etc.

Biles' comments about Gaines' looks are unpleasant and the comments about Gaines height are just odd (and it seems, factually incorrect).

Wouldn't you agree that most people on FWR probably support women's right tp a career or to be a SAHM, are GC & pro choice, oppose porn & all the other stuff I said?

I have repeatedly said from the start that I DO support Gaines' stance on trans issues and respect her courage, and condemned Biles' behaviour in several posts. I mistakenly thought she definitely held anti lgb views, it's actually not clear & I have apologised.

Criticising her views is not a character assassination. I stated that I strongly disagreed w her positions on other feminist issues, but that I respected her trans advocacy. That is not a character assassination, it's a balanced judgement, albeit one made on faulty evidence. It's good that unlike the TRAs, GC people are able to critique and discuss advocates.

I like Riley's response to SB's attack on her.

She has just got married, hasn't she? Maybe that's why? It is odd..

SB was married in April 2023. RG in 2022. So neither of them are newlyweds.

Very good! I hope Biles sees the light one day...

Biles has actually been caught up in a nasty incident last year. I wonder if there is a spiteful attitude towards others that we haven't seen much so far.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ex-gymnast-mykayla-skinner-begs-33410293?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

That is true about the sexual abuse against SB. I do understand a child is more defenceless than older teens and young women. However, that doesn’t lessen the cruelty and sexual offences heaped on the young women on the swim team. Without any consent they were subjected to a male being given carte blanche to expose himself to them. I don’t know if he wandered around with erections, but they couldn’t complain without consequences even if he did. Also, without their consent, he was given the right to commit voyeurism on them changing into their swimming costumes. They have to do that naked, and the tight costumes take a while to put on. They were told if they (or even their families) made a peep of a complaint about what amounts to being the victims of such sexual offences, they would be thrown off the swim team. 18 times every week! This would damage their position in the college, funding if they were in receipt of a scholarship. Not to mention they would be damned as ‘hateful’ for exposing the situation and for saying they didn’t consent to be the subjects of such sexual offences by males. Exposure and voyeurism are sexual offences.

And, that is not even going into the discrimination of being denied fair competition. So, SB herself seemed to have no sympathy for the RG wrt the sex offences committed against her and other swimmers. With the full force of enabling, collaboration and collusion by the officials in the university/swim team.

It was nasty, it was personal, and it a basic misogyny that Biles herself has faced. That black sportswomen face at higher rates. She should know better.

I think Simone Biles' attack on Riley Gaines was personal and spiteful. I still find the comments about Biles not reporting her sexual abuse earlier objectionable. To my mind that kind of argument is coming from the same place as attempting to use Gaines' republican support against her. It's this idea that, because you don't like their views about some issues, then everything else they've done has to be tainted as well - it really pisses me off. I think it's infantile.

I'd also like to say that I appreciate that @AliasGrace47 reconsidered some of her comments in the light of what she later read on this thread. So many posters double down in that kind of situation so it's refreshing to see.

Edited to add that Barack Obama's Twitter profile goes, 'Dad, husband, President, citizen' - I don't think Biles' profile is that unusual

Yep, I probably disagree with her on almost everything. But she's right on this. That's the bottom line. Ultimately attacking her other views out of context undermines this one no matter how much people want to say 'but I already said I agree with her on this'. You're doing opponents work for them by allowing the correct position to be undermined.

It's also fucking irrelevant who likes who.

Those are very general, unqualified statements. I would imagine most people who call themselves feminist, brand-FWR or other, would have a range of views within those topics. Not sure it has anything to do with this thread though

Biles's personal attack was very nasty, and won't do her status as a role model for young girls any good. Any idea what prompted it? Has she got something she wants to promote?

I believe there's a Netflix documentary, RoyalCorgi

Most likely...but I'd imagine the only item in that list that Riley Gaines may disagree on is abortion.

In spite of what many Democrat/progressives might say to the contrary...the focus on family values is pretty central to the American psyche and culture...except not when they are espoused by Republican voters, or voiced with the 'wrong' kind of intonation or expression.

Every big American movie, especially the feel good, Christmas ones are all schmaltzy....... Mom, Home and Apple pie.

I think in terms of Simone Biles and the abuse she experienced, and the public nature of the fallout, there's a point to made about respecting other women who put themselves out there right at the forefront and make themselves targets in the name of standing up for women and girls. If Biles can't see that in Gaines to the point that she will publicly make the kind of comments about her that Biles herself has received, then that's disappointing and frankly is a failing, even if she disagrees with Gaines.

But I don't think that point needs to be in the form of criticising Biles for not speaking up sooner. That's an awful angle.