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Old 23rd June 2021, 16:39     #42602
Ab
A mariachi ogre snorkel
 
There's a social-media bonfire going on in Australia at the moment about toxic culture in high-level swimming. The usual suspects make an appearance of course - creepy male swimming coaches ogling girls in swimsuits left right and centre. There's also a toxic white feminism angle to the discussions, as the loudest voices are white women with social media audiences calling for diversity and by diversity they mean paying attention to white women with social media audiences. (Brown people don't swim, because swimming lessons cost money, and brown people are poor, and that's outside the scope of caring about the concerns of white women with social media audiences, silly.)

But the weirdest thing has been this safetyism aspect of "oh noes, a young professional athlete with a social media following claims she was made to feel unsafe at training, and of course every woman has the right to feel safe at her place of work," and I'm just going what the fuck? You are an elite athlete being paid by my taxes to win medals. I don't want you feeling safe, I want you waking up every day determined to avoid the humiliation of coming second. Safe? Fuck off.

I don't think you're entirely crazy asking how long the Olympics will continue. It's impossible to have sporting competition without admitting that some people are just plain better than other people at stuff, and that's a cancelin'.
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