Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Please Stop It - A Message To Men

The other day, a friend pointed me to a blog post written by a runner who probably thinks he's smarter and funnier than he actually is. The post, not an article as he mistakenly called it, was about Desi Linden and was written in 2017. In it, the author claims that his readers might have a hard time finding articles about Linden because she's not pretty. That was one of may idiotic statements, but I'm primarily addressing this one since I would likely be here for days if I attempted to get into all the bizarre shit this guy claims throughout his blog. He goes on to explain in his post that he's not really the asshole he's presenting himself to be because he just means she's not as pretty as the truly pretty runners who get more press.

OK. Define "more press" and "pretty." Fortunately, Desi's sponsors don't give a fuck that she's not posing for Vogue in her spare time. They are more concerned and impressed with how well she runs. This guy clearly needs glasses and also needs someone to do a little research for him before he runs off with a whole lot of nonsense in his blogging attempts again.

Sports Illustrated featured Desi Linden in one of their 2016 editions, and an ESPN publication also did at least two write-ups on Desi prior to 2017. Runner's World wrote at least six main articles on her in 2016 alone, and there were well over ten feature articles in a span of two years from 2015 to 2016. That's not including any podcasts, Youtube videos, minor articles, or blog posts related to the magazine. From 2014 to 2016, Competitor wrote several articles on her in both their women's edition magazine and their regular magazine. She has her own Wikipedia page, and she wasn't absent from media outlets such as FloTrack, Salty Running, Adventure Sports Network, and even Bon Appetite, to name just a few, prior to this ridiculous blog post coming out.

Does it seem to you that Desi was an unknown in the running world in 2017? Obviously, she wasn't to even those who don't necessarily follow running all that much. I stopped following running for a long time and purposely avoided looking too closely at results and articles, yet I couldn't help but  notice such an outstanding runner. You almost can't avoid hearing about talent and dedication like hers. You would have had to really go a hell of a long way out of your way to avoid bumping into some news about her many running achievements.

None of this matters, really. People lie all the time online. They say stupid shit to try to come off as funny or informed, or they say something untrue to support their odd beliefs. It's bad enough that the blogger lied about a lack of media presence of an incredible athlete, but then he had to take it one step further and objectify not just Desi but all women runners, as if we really give a shit about his subjective grading scale of prettiness in female athletes. We don't. Stop it.

Every time twits like this try to draw attention to the outer appearance of an athlete, they immediately take away from and diminish the competitor's accomplishments. It's an intentional distraction, a way to keep the focus on women's bodies and away from their strengths. I have no idea why people, men especially, feel the need to do this other than possibly because they are insecure, terribly and hopelessly insecure.

It's fine if you have thoughts about someone's appearance. We all do, but most of us are well behaved enough and have enough respect to keep those thoughts to ourselves and not assume that everyone else has the same preference. Talk about a runner being pretty or not has no place in the athletic world. All it does is promote absurd standards that make it difficult for anyone to navigate a world obsessed with looks. We need to stop sending the message that women are never good enough if they aren't also good looking. It's bullshit, complete bullshit.
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The look of an amazing athlete.




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Desi at her wedding looking quite beautiful.

6 comments:

  1. It's interesting, albeit macabre, to watch someone ramble on with such a profound lack of self-awareness. He sounds like Donald Trump -- ironically, the person he hates the most -- with his "I bet you didn't know..." approach to things almost everyone who follows elite running is well aware of. Then there's the "Now, I am NOT saying she's unattractive!" in a post about Desi supposedly being unattractive, along with the emphasis on not regarding women runners as sexual objects even though that is pretty much his entire attitude toward women runners. His surely insufferable book is titled "138,336 Feet to Pure Bliss: What I Learned about Life, Women (and Running) in My First 100 Marathons." It would not occur to many runners to write a book about marathon running with "what I learned about women" in the title, but hey, visionaries gonna vision.

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  2. If his ramblings were just silly, I wouldn't care so much, but the kind of crap he promotes is exactly what creates an atmosphere that fosters deadly eating disorders. He's far too unaware of what he's doing, or he doesn't care. I doubt even if he did know that continually drawing attention to how a woman looks isn't encouraging any kind of safe or healthy environment for her that he would change what he's doing.

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  3. "Every time twits like this try to draw attention to the outer appearance of an athlete, they immediately take away from and diminish the competitor's accomplishments. It's an intentional distraction, a way to keep the focus on women's bodies and away from their strengths. I have no idea why people, men especially, feel the need to do this other than possibly because they are insecure, terribly and hopelessly insecure." Yes, yes and yes. Well written, Lize.

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  4. Thank you for the great post Lize. So many "pretend" writers and experts out there nowadays as I choose to call them. We live in a time where anyone can choose to call themselves an expert and post misinformation that then is understood by many as being true. I just had a confrontation with another organization doing the same thing. I called them out on their misinformation and they appeared to have accepted the feedback, but I guess I would have to continue to receive their email newsletter to see...I already unsubscribed out of disgust ;-P

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  5. Thank you so much, Suzanne. I'm glad you are willing to call an organization out like that. I was just listening to a podcast episode about how easy it is for people to look the other way. It's great you have to courage to do what you feel is the right thing. I hope your action has a positive effect.

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