He will never be affected by this problem
Women write to the Times to take issue with Martin Samuel’s clueless “be inclusive of cheating men in women’s sports” column.
I am a grassroots runner who has had to compete against males who identify as females for the past eight years. I have lost places in races, prizes and records as a result. As a man, Martin will never be affected by this problem. It is therefore offensive that he deems fairness essential for elite athletes and, in effect, all male athletes, but not for female “fun” runners: we should put the “need for inclusion” above our “competitive priorities”. At what level of competition does Martin deem a female runner worthy of fairness?
Helen Smith, Frodsham, Cheshire
That’s the thing. It’s not ever going to be a problem for men, so how do men manage not to see what a bad look it is to tell women to suck it up? It’s like white people saying racism doesn’t matter, or bosses saying workers don’t need unions.
The vast majority of women like me, for whom sport is hugely important, will never be elite. We compete in amateur events, many now open to all who self-identify as women. It is impossible to compete in amateur cycling now in the UK if you seek a genuinely female-only event. That is devastating. Women and girls are self-excluding as a result.
Tessa McInnes, Leamington Spa
Inclusion isn’t inclusive. Ironic, ain’t it.
through my partner I know a lot of what we’ll broadly call middle aged to older female ‘fun’ athletes. You know, the 30-70 age group that are no longer fuckable so the average guy doesn’t care about them any more.
These are runners, bikers, and swimmers. They compete generally in mid to long distance and endurance events, many in some form of multi-sport combo and often in adventure race settings. occasionally one of them will achieve an age band placing. Some have even represented NZ within their age band.Most though achieve very modest results, but still find their chosen sport immensely satisfying. They take it damn seriously too. Training and competing take up, even dominate, their lives. There’s no free time. Partners often come second for months at a time. Training consumes everything determining what they eat and when, how much sleep they get, and when holidays are taken. There is nothing like multi-sport events to chew up disposable income…
These women take enormous pride in their performances and times. It’s almost obsessive they way they analyse their post race performance splinters against other competitors they know well and can benchmark against. Even when finishing in the bottom third of a major event with elite athletes competing, these woman take great pride in both their absolute time and relative ranking. As they should, they work damned hard at being the best they can be. Even for these middle aged ‘fun’ athletes it’s fucking serious and shame on cheats and those who write them off as not important enough to consider.
This is sort of off topic (not totally) but I just got informed of the director for my play that is being produced in Lincoln this summer. It is a four-woman play that is looking at something from the perspective of the women – something we’ve seen the male perspective on over and over. And my director is…you guessed it…a man. I am sure when I broach my disgruntlement to the producer, I will be told “but we need the men’s perspective, too!” No, we don’t. We have heard the men’s perspective. We still hear the men’s perspective. The entire world is set up around the men’s perspective.
We aren’t allowed our own voice to talk about our own issues. We must allow men to talk over us, interrupt us, and push us out of the way.
I do not want nor need the ‘men’s perspective’ on my play. It is written intentionally to present the woman’s perspective. At this point, men cannot add anything I need to hear.
That’s frustrating, Iknklast. I’m sorry you have to put up with that on your own work.
For the runners, it’s a thrill to place in the top 3 of your race and sex, even if there are no prizes. I’ve done it on a 10K and half-marathon. It’s damning that “inclusion” is presented as preferable to fairness. It’s justified “stolen valor,” but Samuels doesn’t care as long as the “gender confused” gets the pin to add to his finisher medal. The medals don’t break down race and sex grouping, so the dude doesn’t have to display that he ran in the women’s race.
Also worth noting, is that in running, the starters are not segregated in the race itself to sex categories. We all run together so where “inclusion” comes in except as placement is hard to discern. They’ll be in the same race if they run as men.
It’s not off topic iknklast, it’s just another side to the dice that is perpetually loaded against women.