Fantastic title for an article. Tracy Edwards in The Telegraph

[RumNotRun]

Tracy Edwards: Arguing with trans activists is like explaining Einstein to my dog

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2025/08/24/tracy-edwards-trans-activists-fights-back/

The comments also seem very supportive, but how sad that the women performing in the play just didn't get it

What an incredibly impressive woman Tracy is. It sounds like some of those silly little girls on that stage could do with a bloody reality check. Who on earth has brought these brats up to believe that they should be afraid of differing opinions? It’s nothing short of pathetic.

cracking article, thanks for sharing.

I used to know a woman who had been sailing since childhood. Back in the 1980's when she started doing crew member jobs the sexual harassment was off the scale. Virtually every yacht owner or skipper was male and the assumption was if you were female it was something you were doing for fun or a hobby, they were doing you a massive favour and you had better do them favours in return. And then you be stuck in the middle of the ocean with them.

I don't understand women who can perform in a play with that story and yet give no thought to the experiences of women, retaining all their empathy for poor old excluded men.

I get a free subscription to The Telegraph and some of the article notifications make me roll my eyes, but occasionally they do a good job.

Brilliant article. I liked the title but I'm not sure the analogy really works that well. However I'm half asleep now and can't come up with anything I'm proud of instead.

i love your username @PrawnofthePatriarchy

Thankyou - a fabulous read. What a woman!

Thanks!
I very much liked her answer as to why an all women crew can compete against men in long distance sailing - teamwork, skill and stamina not brute strength.

They are probably the same people who fainted with terror when ribbons in suffragette colours were tied to lampposts, or go a bit wobbly at the thought of a book containing bad words like “woman” and “adult female” being displayed in public, not locked securely in a cage or even with a warning label.

What a great article. She comes across as a thoroughly decent, down to earth, nice and funny woman.

Plus her turn of phrase and her arguments sound exactly like comments that can be found on here every day. I wonder if she's a Mumsnetter.

Used to have the video of the film ‘Maiden’ and watched it lots of time. Inspirational. To have a female crew on a round-the-world sailing race was unheard of.

I'd be up for supporting a crowdfunded statue of her on Queen St Auckland, perhaps proffering a pineapple?

Thanks for the link @RumNotRun. It's a great article. Personally, I like the explaining relativity to her dog analogy. I think she's saying that she could spend hours explaining the theory to her dog but it still wouldn't understand. Even though there has been much more research about the impact of sex on sporting performance in the past few years, there is an intransigence about the people who just won't accept any evidence contradicting their views but also seek to prevent others' rights to hold the views they object to.

The article also reminded me of Tracy and the crew's huge achievement. It was amazing at the time and still is now.

I thought exactly the same. 💯 she is a Mumsnetter.

This was a brilliant read - thank you. I love how much she gets it and how brilliantly and succinctly she expresses herself.

and it does make me wonder (again) if privileged young people, in the arts etc, have completely lost their minds. Is it lockdown and social media that’s hampered their ability to think critically and empathise with others? Or just that they are so pampered and have experienced so little challenge in life that they become hysterical over nothing?

It’s not middle aged women with strong and eminently sensible opinions who are going to cause you harm, young handmaidens - but the big bloke in the ladies’ changing room - well, he just might.

Great article, thanks for sharing.

I’m embarrassed for those young actresses who put their egos before their own moral stance. To disagree vehemently with what Tracy stands for but to accept a role in a show that celebrates her and her crew’s achievements. I guess raising one’s own profile and making a few quid is more important to them than their morals.

I looked on the website of Southwark Playhouse to see if they had made a statement but there was zilch. No mention on the social media I could see and the play omitted from the archive. Have they really avoided all scrutiny? No other media coverage except the Telegraph.

When I see young women proclaiming like this (I mean the actor reading the plea at the end of the play) I think, your mothers are likely of Tracy's generation and what have they taught you?

I try and imagine it as a hostage statement. The mouth is saying the words, the brain is thinking, 'help me not be cancelled. Please book me for the next gig.'

They don't have robust arguments, just primitive social tools like shunning and monstering. They frame their opponent as someone so beyond the pale, they must not be engaged with at any cost.

I find the fissure between younger and older feminists heartbreaking. Young women have benefitted so much from older activists' work, but have amnesia about where it all came from. They only ever seem to bring up the history of the women's movement to criticise it as white, racist and trans exclusive. (I know there are honourable exceptions eg FiLiA.)

I just had a look to see if there were other sources, and oddly enough Pink News has a piece, quoting from the Telegraph article. Interestingly it seems to be a reasonably unbiased account of the incident. I’m not sure this is how they’d have reported it in the past.

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/18/sailor-tracy-edwards-slams-musical-maiden-voyage-trans-fundraiser/

The comments below the pink news article has one comment. "another bitter middle aged bigot using her fame and fortune to oppress people." Same old same old :ageism, misogyny, negativity towards female achievement.

Interestingly you don't have to be signed up to PN to down tick the article. Just saying.....

Wow, what a pleasant sensible person! I'd love to meet her.

God I actually had a dream last night that she had recanted. Thankfully just a dream!