Sign at Dollymount Beach, Dublin |
Twitter has been talking a lot about women this week - you may have heard of the #Twittersilence hashtag to take on trolls. One of the parallel hastags is #inspiringwomen
I see both points of view. Someone is behaving like Stone Age Man so you leave the dialogue and that takes away the fuel from his madness. It can work - if SAM has no-one to shout at, he will probably move onto a more visible target.
The other option of yelling pride from the roof-tops can also be effective - you show SAM nothing he says has any grounding in reality. And hope he gives up under the avalanche and goes away.
Unfortunately a lot of the discussion between women has drifted from SAM and onto competing between ourselves as to which approach is better. *sighs*
Since getting involved in sport in my early-20s I've taken both approaches. There really are times when silence is the best reply, a dignified silence I think is the term.
Like when a trainer says don't get in that ring because you will contaminate it and make 'my boys' lose their next fight. Is there any response other than walking away and finding a gym with more tolerant attitudes - so you can train and fight and win?
(an example from my youth BTW but still found in unexpressed form today)
(an example from my youth BTW but still found in unexpressed form today)
But on other occasions loud noise is appropriate - like when officials try to change the length of a women's fight because they say we can't last the full five rounds. Regulation and legislation SAMs need to be fought - loudly and often.
I was a bit saddened though to notice how few sportswomen got tagged as #inspiringwomen. That would be my gripe with feminism I guess - science, arts, politics are all moving centre-stage for the movement but sports are still seen as something it's OK to leave to men by many women.
Not on this blog though - we celebrate Inspiring Sports Women all the time here. Any thoughts on which approach you prefer - silence or inspiration?
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