Julie don’t want no stinkin’ fair competition
ESPN tells us more about the tragic exclusion of huge “Julie” Curtiss from women’s contact rugby, and the entitlement still looms as large as Julie himself does.
In July of 2022, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the game’s governing body in England, voted to ban transgender women from playing women’s contact rugby, and trans player Julie Curtiss is leading the opposition to fight the decision.
Trans player Julie Curtiss, who is HUGE, is leading the opposition to fight the decision.
The RFU’s reasoning behind the ban, they said in their July statement, was to ensure ‘fair competition and safety of all competitors.’ They added that their decision was based on the latest available scientific research.
For Curtiss, that decision has impacted more than her ability to play a sport, as she says it has impacted her mental health. It has also put her at the forefront of a global debate about trans athletes competing in elite sports, after she launched legal action against the RFU in September.
See that? Again, he just sails right past the part about the safety of all competitors, to whine about how this decision has affected him, him him him precious him. No one else matters. He might as well whine because he’s not allowed to cut women’s heads off.
I don’t know if the ideology fosters selfishness on this scale, or if people who are selfish on this scale are drawn to the ideology, or both, but I do know that we’ve seen this jaw-dropping obliviousness to the needs and rights of women a billion times over the last ten years or so. It should scupper it, but so far it hasn’t.
“Although I’m still involved with Hove rugby, not being able to play and feeling stuck off on the side… And everybody always wants to talk about it, and I love to talk about it. And I’m glad they want to talk about it and want to find out how things are going.
“But at the same time, it’s just this constant thing of feeling like you have been kicked into the long grass and just discarded with no forethought.”
Then compete against men. It’s perfectly simple. Just play on the men’s team; problem solved. All this whining and roaring and self-pity and emotional blackmail when all he has to do is play on the men’s team and accept being not very good at the sport.
I know, right? It’s like all those times in the Republican campaign, and then in the 2016 election when Trump said or did something outrageous that would have completely destroyed the candidacy and electability of any normal candidate. Every week I’d think, “This will do it, he’s done for!” But it didn’t and he wasn’t. Trans activism has a similar track record of outrageousness that would have blown any normal political movement out of the water, or at least earned it a lot more side-eye from the press. But no, it’s preferred pronouns and truth-obscuring language delivered with straight-faced earnestness, even for rapists and hulking brutes who want to play a punishingly physical sport against women. It’s the same sort of nightmare, bizzaro-world, unreality; one from which I’ve been hoping to awake for several years now.
If your mental health depends upon maintaining a lie, then you’ve got more mental health problems than you’re willing to admit.
There. Fixed. (It sure gets tiring having to rewrite stories like this in my head. All the time. But the trans are oooh so oppressed and marginalized. We must Be Kind. [Spits.])
Again, put into truthful language, the “controversy” evaporates before your eyes and you wonder what all the fuss is about. Of course men should be barred from women’s sports. What a stupid thing to suggest! GTFO! That there is any “debate” at all about this is a fucking crime. Here’s the proper place to call out NO DEBATE!
But that would be so cruel. The whole world must bend so that he might avoid realizing this painful truth. HE WANTS TO WIN! WHAT”S WRONG WITH THAT?! WHY ARE YOU CRUSHING HIS DREAM!!!
All that whining about being selected for a team (or not) and claims that it’s affected their mental health. First things first. You have to be eligible for the team/division you put yourself up for. TIF in women’s division, so no go. For pretty fucking obvious reasons too. Secondly, players at elite level especially are constantly having their mental health damaged both by being selected and not being selected. The pressure on elite players in NZ is extreme. Some crack because they’re just not good enough to reach the heights they aspire to. Others make it, but then crack under the pressure of maintaining the required performance. Some of them break down quietly and others go out in a series of alcohol fueled public spectacles. I never heard one whine about the decision to select (or not) though. This freaking huge guy can play in a men’s division or a mixed tag division. If the actual sport meant anything to him he would, but I suspect his feels mean more to him than the sport or women’s safety.
This makes me a horrible person but whatever: if you can’t deal with the reality of being a man, eat a fucking bullet and spare the reality based community the tediousness of your utter bullshit. If it doesn’t bother you enough to suck on a gunbarrel fucking get over it…
What terrifies me is that these entitled, delusional, narcissistic, sociopathic, dangerous men are going to get their way somewhere and permanently cripple or kill a poor woman or girl who only wanted to play a sport with her peers.
My daughter played rugby as a girl, and one of my granddaughters plays. After a hiatus of many years, the local club now has a thriving women’s team, and junior and mini girls’ teams. Just one bloke could destroy all that, just to stroke his own ego. Infuriating.
@YNNB:
Oo, yes. I hadn’t thought about the parallels between Trump’s Teflon-coated reputation and trans-doctrines’s immunity from normal criticism but now when you point it out the analogy is rather striking. I’ve been experiencing the same slow march of regular bewilderment twice.
(snicker) “it’s just this constant feeling like you have been kicked in — kicked in — kicked into the long grass …”
Good catch, buddy. That could have been awkward.
I’ll admit up front that I am a huge rugby (union) fan. The team I support (Sale Sharks) started up a women’s team about three years ago and they now play in the top league for women’s rugby in England. I go down to watch them whenever I can because the standard of rugby played is very high. The games are most enjoyable and I always try to encourage anyone with even a vague interest in rugby to get down and watch the women.
All of which pre(r)amble is say that the supporters’ club organised a meet&greet with some of the players and coaching staff of the women’s team last week.There was a Q&A session and, whilst there was no mention of TiMs in rugby, they were asked what they thought were the main differences between the men’s and women’s games.
Just about everything revolved around the physical differences between men and women. One of the first things mentioned was neck strength – I hadn’t known that the women have special training to improve neck strength and are regularly monitored on it. They were saying that they are all very aware of being more vulnerable in contact – even against other women – and prefer to play to avoid the crunching tackles that men revel in. (Not to that there aren’t any: there’s no quarter given when it comes down to stopping an opponent making ground.)
What I also found intriguing was that there is mounting evidence that menstruation increases susceptibility to some forms of injury. I can’t remember what they quoted, but it was things like fractures and other stuff that you might not immediately associate with periods – or, at least, do a double take if it’s mentioned.
What was abundantly clear, even though no-one was explicit about it, is that allowing men – of any calibre – to play against women would kill the sport by making it impossible for women to play without greatly heightened levels of risk.
At the boys’ high school I attended near Sydney there was effectively no alternative in winter to playing rugby union. Rugby league is a faster game, and Australian Rules football faster and better still. Inevitably, just as play got a bit exciting, the ref would blow his whistle and there would be a scrum. So I spent far too much of my youth having my ears rubbed off as a second rower in those bloody scrums, listening to the occasional imperative such as “get your thumb out of my arse!” or a simple aspersion cast upon the situation in the form of a stinking fart loud enough to be heard a mile away from the scrum.
So, sorry all you union enthusiasts. Your favourite game IMHO should be banned; in both its male and female versions. Starting yesterday.
@Graham, #6
Just curious, what is the age range of the women playing in these leagues? I notice that Curtiss is 52. I can’t imagine there being too many male leagues where you can play competitively at that age.
[…] a comment by Graham Douglas on Julie don’t want no stinkin’ fair […]
Colin, I haven’t played rugby for decades. I enjoyed the game a lot when I was young, but I really detested the club scene back in the 80’s. Too many overly Mach guys interested mostly in drinking and being macho. There used to be a thriving Masters scene then at least that Curtis would have been eligible for. It was noted for a high injury rate. Too many big guys not taking training or pregame warmup seriously, but still big and trying to play like they were fit young bucks. I played against a representative B side once – still good players who were in there 30-40’s. Bit slower and less nimble than us 17-18 year olds but shit, when they tackled you….
@Colin, #6
Similar to the men, I think. You won’t find many playing professionally in the top leagues much past 35 or so (and even then, only in certain positions). At about 19-20 a player will start to be introduced to the first team, usually as a substitute, but will still be spending most of their time playing for lower league clubs, learning the skills and getting toughened up.
@Omar, #7
Well, we could all spend a profitable few years slagging off everybody else’s favourite sports, if we so desired. Personally, I’m happy to let people enjoy what they want to enjoy without passing judgement, simply because it doesn’t appeal to me.
Except boxing. Any sport whose prime purpose is to induce concussion in your opponent has no business being legal. Rugby is at least trying to minimise the problems of concussion, but boxing glorifies it.
Graham @#11:
Yet you, for very good reason and based on the experience of others, call for a ban on boxing. Anyway, I have not moved nearly high enough in the world to be able to snap my fingers and have a squad of flunkeys move smartly to see that any wish of mine is fulfilled. Also, Rugby fans get a lot of kicks from booing line calls and ref decisions. They don’t exaxctly sit politely like elderly spectators at some lawn bowls competition.