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 🤦🏻‍♀️

Trans women don’t want a transgender category. That would involve accepting they aren’t women.

You appear to be saying that RG ‘asked for it’ - re. that r to rely personal attack by SB.

Was that your intention?

The solution is that males are males and can already compete in male competitions.

You appear to have missed the nasty attack on RG s appearance and unfounded accusations of bullying?

I would have thought after all the appalling sexism and racism Biles has suffered which often takes the form of suggesting she is male that she should be the last person to post this

bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male @RileyGaines

(also I think gaines is around 5ft 5 so no not male sized at all!)

I did see a comment saying that account is a fan run account and not SB herself - don't know how true that is though.

Ok, well why hasn't it been done then? Having a female category is the inclusive measure, because the biological differences between men and women means that women and girls are at a disadvantage in sport when they have to compete against men and boys. The female category needs to be ringfenced and protected, and this is what people like RG are fighting so hard to do.

Protect the female category, and let men figure out how to make sport more inclusive for other gender non-conforming males.

RG highlighting these cases.may seem like bullying to some, but how else are we suppose to highlight the egregious harm that is being done to women's sport? We can't do it by staying silent.

Is Biles seriously rubbishing athletes who don't win? Is she in such an elite position that coming 5th in an event deserves scorn and ridicule, to the point where you are not supposed to take part in public life and presumably crawl under a stone instead?

She has shown herself to be wholly unpleasant with this comment. Then the body shaming. So disappointed she has done this.

I don’t mind a high profile twitter spat where both parties want separate sports events for women.

It's a longer story. Catlin Clark a white amazing basketball was discussing how despite many black women in basket ball she has been hyped. She basically said the wnba was built on black women but they are not as well sponsored or showcased as she as a white woman has been. She called on sponsors etc to support black women too. Gaines clapped back on that saying Clark shouldn't be taking any position on this.
It comes from a longer issue where the moment Clark hit the court right-wing news stations have been using her to put down black basketballers

Simone, of course, has the rare luxury of a sport designed around female bodies. Women's and men's gymnastics are actually separate sports with different governing bodies, so she's in a much less vulnerable position than women athletes who do the same things as men do but slower. She's not going to be fucked over like the runners, swimmers, cyclists and boxers.

Also I do hope Simone's not going to follow this outburst up with any whingeing about people comparing her physique to a man's, since she's now invited that. Even if, perish the thought, I agreed with her point about men in women's sports, that remark would still not have been a good idea. She's talked in the past about being hurt at comments relating to her body.

She implied RG was man, a point used to ridicule RG throughout. RG has constantly been told she looks like a man, has the body of a man, apparently is the size of a man. Its just misogynistic bullying

Calling athletic women men, particularly black athletic women, is a common tactic used to harass women. It's disappointing to see SB fall into that standard trope and basically just highlights her as a misogynist. It's not about concern for TW

I don't support SB's comment on RG's looks. But am saying SB isn't saying transwomen should be in women's sport but is supporting solutions like a transwomen category (and yes I know many in the trans community don't want this bit it's still what SB is suggesting here).

It's always sad when someone brilliant in one specific ability goes on to show that they are stupid in general.

If this is the point you think Biles is making, why did she need to make the nasty personal attack on Gaines to make it?

May be SB is a misogynist for saying that but RG isn't a saint because she is against transwomen in sports. The woman is a fully fledged Trump hugging MAGA. So she cares about the one issue that took away a 4th place for her (she came 5th so taking Lia off she would have been no 4. OK yes I give in it affects more women than her). But she doesn't care about women's reproductive rights being taken away. Or civil and human rights of non-white people. Or poor people.
SB is definitely wrong with her jibe on RG's looks but she is not wrong imo to suggest a separate category. They both need to dial back on the sm bullying

Simone is getting kicked for being an obnoxious, misogynist dick, obviously.

And it's not like we've not seen this lots before. People who have no idea what they're talking about wading into the discourse with GC women, insulting them whilst trying to present themselves as the reasonable party. Glosswitch has done some good stuff on this phenomenon.

And we know Simone doesn't know what she's talking about because separate trans categories don't work. They don't want to be in them, and even people who agree with her sticking the boot into RG have also criticised her for that.

RG highlighting these cases.may seem like bullying to some, but how else are we suppose to highlight the egregious harm that is being done to women's sport? We can't do it by staying silent.

Fighting back against an oppressor is not bullying. It’s self-defence. In this context it’s Lia Thomas and other men who want the advantages of muscling (quite literally) into women’s sports who are the bullies.

Nobody said RG was a saint, so that is not a point that needed to be refuted.

And Simone very much is wrong to suggest a separate category as a solution here, or something that defenders of women's sports should push for. Because whatever the merits of that idea as an abstract, trans identified males won't do it. And no female, Simone and Riley included, has the power to make them.

If you don't understand this, as Simone clearly doesn't and you don't appear to either, you're not going to draw any sensible or realistic conclusions on the issue.

RG's politics are irrelevant. I'm not saying that RG's online behaviour is never above reproach, but people on the left use the fact she is a republican to dismiss her outright, rather than address the substance of what she says, when of course they know it is not fair to allow men to compete in women's sport

And where RG finished is also irrelevant (but again is something people love to sling at her) because Lia Thomas was a mediocre male athlete who took the NCAA title in the female category. And Riley's teammates have spoken of their discomfort and distress at having to strip in front of a male 18 times a week, whilst the adults in charge gaslit them. What bearing does the fact that RG finished 5th have on any of that?

Jesus the way she personalised that attack on another athlete. Really, really unfair.

Simone has really behaved badly here.

Riley Gaines has been instrumental in pointing out the deep flaws of letting 6 ft men complete against women in swimming.

Simone is utterly inconsistent in her logic or consistent in her lack of logic.

And body shaming Riley? That ok with you too?

So as "signed up to right wing " SB gets to call her a sore laser and body Shame her?(or try to,RG looks great)?

Am sure Biles is reacting because Riley's comment relates to a young person and she knows her MAGA crew will be on this young person like hounds.

This sounds like you are blaming RG for SBs personal attack on her. SB didn’t mention any young person.

Riley may have legitimate concerns about transwomen in women's sports but her Maganess..

I think ‘definitely has legitimate concerns’. I don’t understand what you mean by her ‘MAGAness’. The fact that President Trump has been the one to support her to preserve women’s sports says everything about the Democrats. If the Democrats has an ounce of consideration for women, Trump wouldn’t have had this gaping wide goal to sink his shot into.

In their determination to bully men’s way into women’s sports, the trans activists held Riley prisoner for hours in a university and made her fear for her life from rabid mobs on many occasions. These are not reasonable people. None of them.

What an absolute let down. She's obviously considered this issue for all of five minutes, her groundbreaking 'separate category' suggestion has been found totally unworkable. Maybe next she'll realise that people have mixed sex toilets in their house 🙄