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 🤦🏻‍♀️

Biles is not tweeting and giving interviews because of the reaction to what she said. The degree of pushback she received from the people that she has receives may have caused her to go silent. Which is a real shame because if she actually engaged with discussion, then she might be able to clarify her position.

Yes! Is on the speaker circuit and has her name with various agencies where she talks about … stuff not related to swimming.

ie. not engagement farming.

The Fox TV interview, where she says Biles “grovelled”, comes after Simone Biles’ apology, and after this excerpt above. So Simone has apologised, but Riley Gaines is still tweeting and giving interviews.

I absolutely would accept Riley Gaines is making hay whilst the sun shines on this issue. She's not letting it die down quietly.

Good for her. Maybe this will give pause to the next person who decides to use their huge platform to launch body-shaming, slanderous personal attacks on someone just because they advocate for women and girls rights in sports.

RG said herself in an interview that her younger sister is an elite level gymnast so the issue of men in women's competition could have direct, on-going implications for RG's family for years to come.

“Engagement farming” is in the eye of the beholder. And that’s from someone who thinks it’s a common social media phenomenon. When is someone on social media speaking about an issue, like Biles originally did, not “engagement farming”?

Great, a suggestion. I will add that. Thanks.

How is this then everyone?

A worthy woman seems to be:

one who chooses to take a large cut in earnings at the start of her career to cover the vital campaign to protect female sports categories.

will pay for all her accrued costs out of her own pocket unless she gets donations, and she cannot actively seek donations or provide any merchandise or content for those donations.

will take abuse and never discuss it publicly lest it might be seen as unkind to the abuser, or capitalising on unasked and unprovoked abuse from public figures, or just merely unkind, likely unwomanly.

will remain silent unless the media or campaign supporters who are perceived as having the exact credentials takes an interest in her campaign.

will always remember that she never gained Olympic medals and she was just a sore loser in 5th place.

will never mention any other issues that she is interested in.

Is on the speaker circuit and has her name with various agencies where she talks about … stuff not related to swimming.

Why isn't it accurate to say that any social media activity that Simone Biles does is promoting her books and her Netflix series and other income streams?

There seems to be something rather hypocritical about the treatment of these two women.

I suspect that Biles was trying to pivot to get herself into a position to be a high profile figure beyond gymnastics. Social media is a huge part of how they do this and we should accept that both of them will use tweets and tv appearances to support this. Biles' tweet went down badly so she is not doing tv - I bet Fox News would have loved to get her on. Riley Gaines took the opportunity.

Thought the same. Simone is only 28 and could feasibly be aiming at keeping herself high profile for decades. Advocacy is one way to do that. Obviously, her actions over the last week will not have helped!

What would Simone be saying in interviews?

Because her tweet showed just how little she understands about the topic that she chose to comment on. If she went on to do interviews and more tweets, what would that have shown? She has obviously not got carefully considered answers.

She also was the person who personally attacked Riley Gaines!

What the fuck would she be saying in these interviews? Any interviewer that was doing a serious segment would be asking her to explain why she said what she did about Riley Gaines. They would ask her why, as someone who had campaigned against body shaming and for body acceptance, she chose to post those tweets. They might even ask what she did and thought about during the days between the tweets and the apology.

They would then present her with other tweets from her past that shows that she really does understand that male people in female sports events would be unfair.

If I was Simone Biles' PR agency, I would be very clearly stating that she should NOT be doing any interviews that would put her in such a difficult position if she didn't have a strong position with carefully thought out arguments. And to take care in any social media posts.

So, I don't think that Simone would be doing interviews or continuing to tweet about this topic because it would likely produce more negative attention for her. If she had a strong argument and could do more than argue what she has already, it would be a different situation.

However, if Simone Biles clarified that she didn't think that male people should be in female sports events so there was no doubt about her position, would Netflix pull her series? Would publishers pull her books?

Talk about engagement farming? As someone said elsewhere;

Simone Biles starts a high-profile online spat out of nowhere.

Simone Biles also has a new documentary coming out.

A pure grifter.

Whereas Riley Gaines has a great deal of experience now in dealing with interviews, including hostile questioning, about this very issue. She can handle it very well. Just like Sharron Davies and Dr Emma Hilton can.

She can very easily answer any question from any aspect of the discussion with clarity and consistency.

There is actually no comparison between the two women in regards to who would be able to handle the interview and any negative impact arising from the interview. Riley Gaines does this pretty much every day as part of her campaigning. Simone does not.

There really is no symmetry in saying that Simone at least has not been doing interviews and tweeting since.

Nor SHOULD Biles give interviews on the debacle.

Those tweets were what she came out with when she had time to sit down, engage brain and think of a balanced, considered way to put across her argument across to RG.

Imagine what she could hit out with when put on the spot during televised interviews. 😬

I think it would be difficult to justify or even pedal back from a comment in which you publicly told another person that nobody is safe in sport with them around. That kind of remark is usually reserved for Larry Nassar types. She may be scared of litigation now.

Absolutely. Simone's PR people would have to be the most incompetent to have ever walked the earth to allow her anywhere near an interviewer at the moment! If they did have anything planned for her over the past few days, it would need to have been hurriedly cancelled!

Absolutely. She would be on the back foot from the start and having to then discuss the apology and expand on her opinions.

It is an absurdity to think that she would do interviews.

And as far as continuing to post, which posts would she prioritise to reply to? It would not be a wise decision to simply post something more about the topic because that would indicate that she wishes to discuss it further. And answer questions.

Plus she will simply continue to alienate both sides of the debate.

Sane, decent people who do not want to see men competing in women's events.

AND

TRAs who think the very mention of a third/open category is transphobic.

🤷‍♀️

Yes. She is in a no win situation that is also not really defendable by logic. Only emotional appeal. Hence why would she be having interviews that will end up reflecting negatively on her. Remarkable to try to use it as a comparative defence.

And good "activist" would, Biles' poorly thought out post opened up a whole section of people that would just have ignored Gaines before this.
And RG is making two very good points
1/ men don't belong in women's sports.
and
2/ Even if you support trans people in sorts and don't tow the line you will get battered by the TRAs

What did Riley Gaines consider all of the above before she retweeted this image? What is she hoping to gain by it?

Riley Gaines is already a Fox regular guest.

Perhaps you should look into engagement farming. It is far more than simply “someone on social media speaking about an issue”.

How is this relevant?

It's just an overarching attempt to smear her I think

....I'm assuming that she wants to suggest (correctly) that Biles is pulling the ladder up behind her? She's presumably wanting to point out that fact.

I'm actually surprised you haven't mentioned the extra arms in that image (once seen, can't unsee!). The dangers of AI created images.

Actually it looks like two of the AI girls are missing an arm and there's an extra disembodied arm floating in the air.

I wonder whether AI images will get better or they will stay the same and people will get better at spotting them?

Right now they're so obvious and yet most people still don't realise it because they are conditioned to see a photo as a photo and not notice extra limbs and so on because they don't expect to see them.