Sanya Richards-Ross, an Olympic gold medalist gave an interview the other day in which she said some amazingly stupid things. First, she said that every female track and field athlete she knows has undergone an abortion: "I literally don't know another female track-and-field athlete who hasn't had an abortion and that's sad." Then she said that "abortion is not an issue that [is] talked about, especially in sports." And she hoping that by mentioning this that she "will open up discussions."
Let's stop there for a moment, shall we? How does one respond to this?
Oh, I know. What is the link between sports and abortion that she seems to think is relevant? Should we believe that running track and field makes you pregnant? Because it really doesn't. Are we to believe that women and athletics don't mix? As much as I'd laugh if that was the logical conclusion of her point, it's not. There is no link between pregnancy and women athletes. What really seems to be going on here is that Ross is hanging out with a bunch of stupid and/or slutty women and she's mistakenly assuming that something other than their behavior is responsible. There simply is no other link. And if there was, then perhaps it's time to re-examine the feminist dogma that demands that women go into sports.
You know, I'd go out on a limb and say that I doubt it's all track and field women either. I'll bet the young women who run at Princeton or Oxford don't fall into this category. Indeed, I'm betting all of Ross's friends are probably from the Caribbean islands... the lands of poverty and ganja. Maybe that's the place to start looking for this mysterious source of "runner's pregnancy."
Wait, wait wait! As I keep reading the article, I may have stumbled upon a clue. Ross continues:
"At that time in your life when you're in college, you don't feel comfortable talking to your mom. So, a lot of information you get is from your peers. So, there's a lot of miseducation that happens to young women in college, because we're educating ourselves."Ah, the blind leading the blind. So now you pass the buck to "sports" because "track and field made me get an abortion" is a lot more interesting headline than "my stupid ass friends said I couldn't get pregnant if I waved a dead chicken over my lady parts after having freaky sex."
Yep. That must be it... oh wait, there's one more interesting quote here. Here it is:
"It's going to sound silly to some people but, in our community, people don't want to take the pill because you put water weight on."So you knew how to avoid pregnancy, but you chose not to because it might interfere with your athletics. That's even worse than "we didn't know because we miseducated each other". So the issue ultimately is one of responsibility (big word, I know). Ms. Ross had the knowledge and ability to avoid what she complains about, but she chose not to. She couldn't even be bothered not to have sex. Of course, it went wrong for her and now she's trying to invent a link with sports to shift the blame from herself to some nebulous "we don't talk about it enough in sports."
Sorry, Ms. Ross. No sale.
22 comments:
Republican Rep Steve Scalise of Virginia was shot 5 times but is expected to survive. The gunman is in custody, maybe dead.
OT - Just in case you haven't heard, Congressman Stephen Scalise (R-LA), his aides, and Congress Police personnel were shot at a Congress member baseball team practice for a charity event. No one killed except maybe the shooter.
Now we get to hear the Dems blame Trump and Republicans for the next few days for causing a crazy Bernie supporter for needing to shoot them...
You know, there'd be a lot fewer Republicans getting shot at if there were just fewer Republicans. Solved.
Back to the article: the (male) track runners I knew in college all swore that they ran better if they didn't have sex during the season. Something to do with keeping their testosterone up, which I'm sure is just BS. Point being, how wildly different is that from what Sanya's preaching?
Hold on people. Before you start commenting randomly, let's go over the rules.
1. No one is to blame. Guns are to blame. Unless killer is white male, then hate and racism are to blame.
2. Never blame the victim... unless the victim is Republican.
3. Never call it terrorism if there is a chance the activist was Islamic. Remember, "we don't know why he acted"... unless he's white male, then it was racism and recent Republican policies.
4. Find way to blame Republicans. Look for Republican to scapegoat to change debate back to gun control.
Simple. You may not continue.
tryanmax, What I found so annoying in her comments was the attempt to shift responsibility:
1. Sports is at fault. No, it's not.
2. We don't talk about abortion enough, so young women are going into this blind. Bull. We talk about it ALL THE TIME. And even she admits she knew what to do, she just didn't want to do it.
3. No one told us how to avoid getting pregnant. Bull. This information is ubiquitous and can be gotten in detail from parents, doctors/nurses, counselors, school, the internet and television.
4. We didn't like taking the pill because it made us fat. Then don't have sex. Or use a damn condom or an IUD or any one of a thousand other birth control tools. It's all your fault when you don't try to protect yourself.
This is an attempt to create victimhood from choices she knew were bad when she couldn't even be bothered to find simple alternatives. It's BS.
I will say this, by the way, on this shooting and all the others. This is getting ridiculous. As a society, something will need to change. We cannot accept that there will be a "mass shooting" every day or sometimes two a day. We need to change something.
Andrew - Honestly, I think what we really need is a giant, global tech failure (maybe SMOD or one of those solar flare thingies) to shut down all social media (except for CommentaramaPolitics, of course!) for about a week or month, 6 wks at the most. I realize that it would be hard in the beginning, but then everyone would be able to detox, get to know their family and friends again in real time.
So it looks like we have another Bernie supporter trying to kill someone. I wonder at what point the left is going to suggest that we should be looking at Bernie's message. Oh, that's right, never.
Bev, I really think this is cultural issue and I do blame the left. This is what happens when you combine (1) a strong message of victimization with (2) a culture that values people based on fame, and (3) glorified violence as a solution to problems along with a machismo sense that anything less than humiliating the other guy is weakness, and (4) an online world that is bereft of personal responsibility.
It's a toxic mix that teaches violence as a means to worthiness.
Andrew - I agree. I can't imagine that our leftie media and politicians are so naive that they just don't understand what they are doing. Actually, now that I think about it, I think they know EXACTLY what they are doing and just assumed that the Alt-Righties would take to the streets with their guns-n-God and just open fire. They never considered that bloody heads on spikes and pretend assassinating the presidents could really cause sone of their own to do something.
Btw, Rep. Scalise has gone from "serious, but stable" to "critical" after surgery.
On the main topic that's definitely some serious incoherence... I'm not sure why she'd do that considering that statements like this tend to draw a lot of heat, especially from the media, and there doesn't seem to be much to gain from it. Admittedly I don't follow sports so I'm not sure if she had a reputation for religious or other beliefs that drive anti abortion thinking, but she definitely wasn't bringing anything worthwhile into the discussion.
As for the shooting, what a mess... I figured it was just a matter of time before someone attacked a Republican politician with as rabid as the left has been (post election riots, Antifa, and so on). I'm not surprised that the worst of them turn out to be Bernie supporters, either... The rabid part of his base has been making trouble since the primaries. There's not much more I can add to either of your diagnoses, either, Andrew and Bev. I just wonder how much worse this is going to get before people begin looking at actual solutions.
- Daniel
There will be a week or two of handwringing then back to business as usual. The only lasting change will be more security.
Anthony - Unfortunately, I think you are right. But there has to be a point where people get over the Nov. 2016 election and get on with working on something positive like working on real issues rather than just creating more.
COMPLETELY OT:
So I was watching a commercial for some fancy special dog food and the spokesperson lists as of the ingredients used to make this special dog food as "farm-raised chickens" - not "free-range" or "cage-free". Uh, I realize that I am an urban-dweller, but where else exactly are chickens raised?
Farside Cartoon: Chicken laying on a beach next to a nice looking lady...He says. "They made me a free-range chicken, and man I never looked back."
Another Far Side cartoon: chickens draped over a fence with two farmers looking on and the caption was "Boneless chicken ranch"
I'm assuming open thread at this point?
A thought.
Conservatism in 2017: "A Bernie supporter shot a congressman, but a pair of Trump supporters shouted at a play, so both sides have their issues."
Trump and his apologists continue to flip flop with Clintonian speed. Mueller was a respected, Republican law enforcement official a month ago when Trump appointed him, now he is a Democratic hack. If Mueller stays it will get worse, if he goes the next guy hand picked by Trump will get the same treatment.
The restoring of the Cuban embargo is interesting. It was a nice bit of political theater by Trump. I doubt it will do anything for him one way or the other.
The Cuban vote has a reputation for being really Republican (they are still more Republican than whites let alone other Hispanics) but split roughly down the middle the last two presidential elections breaking towards the winner (Trump won 54%, Obama 53%) in part because of a divide between the older generation who left decades ago and wants to see Cubans suffer in isolation until they throw off Castro, and the younger generation that is more worried about the family they left behind than the continued existence of the Castro regime.
Mistrial declared in the Cosby case, I'm not a lawyer but I suspect that the lady in question continuing to have contact with him for years after the alleged incident had a lot to do with it. I know it would make me wonder about her motives.
Given that Cosby has bragged about his love of drugging and raping women and admitted to drugging one of his accusers, I suspect Cliff Huxtable and a no doubt very expensive lawyer got him off.
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