Accused

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Won’t somebody please think of the men who just want to cheat women? Their journey, their heartache, their fear?

Oh he’s been “accused of” having an unfair advantage has he? Just because he can hit a ball farther? It’s not that he obviously does have an unfair advantage and people are pointing it out, it’s that he’s accused by a bunch of unreasonable hatey liars? While news outlets carefully pretend he’s a man?

Diddums.

Comments

5 responses to “Accused”

  1. ibbica Avatar
    ibbica

    What safety precautions is he taking? Who is he afraid of? Is there a term for this weird reversal of gaslighting, where someone performs unfounded paranoia by co-opting the genuine fears of another group?

  2. maddog1129 Avatar
    maddog1129

    Aren’t the news outlets busy pretending he’s a woman?

  3. Screechy Monkey Avatar
    Screechy Monkey

    Some context on sex differences in golfing.

    Here’s a recent article on the history of women playing in men’s PGA Tour events.

    As of October 2023, only seven women have ever played in PGA events. Almost all of them got sponsor’s exemptions to enter, meaning they didn’t have to go through qualifying. They generally failed to make the cut (golf tournaments eliminate players below a certain threshold after the first couple of rounds).

    The most successful example was Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who was arguably the greatest female athlete ever:

    The native of Port Arthur, Texas, with the given first name of Mildred, earned two track and field gold medals in the 1932 Summer Olympics, in the 80-meter hurdles and the javelin and a silver medal in the high jump. She is still the only athlete – male or female – who has ever won Olympic medals in running, jumping and throwing events. She also excelled in basketball, softball, baseball and bowling.

    As a golfer, a sport she didn’t begin playing until she was 23, Didrikson Zaharias won 48 professional tournaments, including three U.S. Women’s Open titles, three Titleholders Championships and four Western Open victories. She went into the Hall of Fame of Women’s Golf in 1951, and when the World Golf Hall of Fame opened in 1974, Didrikson Zaharias was part of the inaugural class.

    As a dominant force in the women’s game, not surprisingly, Didrikson Zaharias gave PGA TOUR golf a go on seven different occasions and became the first woman to play against the men in a tournament. She was a sponsor exemption in her first three appearances, none of them going very well. Didrikson Zaharias shot rounds of 86-88 at the 1935 Cascades Open in Virginia, opened with an 86 and withdrew at the 1937 Chicago Open and bowed out after an 81-84 first two rounds at the 1938 Los Angeles Open. Despite her lack of success, these all came within three years of her taking up the sport.

    So maybe the best female athlete period, and one of the best female golfers, managed no better than 33rd in multiple attempts at competing with men:

    In 1945, Didrikson Zaharias again played in the Los Angeles Open, this time earning her way into the field by qualifying. She shot rounds of 76-81-79 to miss the 54-hole cut. A week later, though, she made history, becoming the first woman to play all 72 holes of a tournament when she fired scores of 77-72-75-80 to finish 33rd at the Phoenix Open. Earlier in the week, during the tournament’s pro-am, she set the Phoenix Country Club scoring record for women by posting a 4-under 68. A week after Phoenix, Didrikson Zaharias again made the cut, finishing 42nd at the Tucson Open. Her final PGA TOUR appearance came at the 1946 Los Angeles Open, 10 years before her untimely death of cancer at age 45.

    That article also notes that in the 21st century, Michelle Wie West made eight appearances in PGA events. I checked elsewhere, and she never made the cut in any of them, and mostly relied on exemptions to get into the tournaments. (She did make the cut at a non-PGA men’s event that was rain-shortened.)

    I trust it’s clear that I mean this as no criticism of Didrikson Zaharias or Wie West. We have to judge women’s athletic accomplishments based on their competition with other women. If the standard is “how did she do against men?” then no woman is going to look impressive.

  4. Southwest88 Avatar
    Southwest88

    Notice that mainstream media takes his word for his alleged fear being reasonable – no follow-up questions about whether he has seen threats (what form of threat? what platform? who from?) at all. Women saying we don’t want men in our spaces are questioned constantly about whether our concerns are valid…just saying.

  5. Blood Knight in Sour Armor Avatar
    Blood Knight in Sour Armor

    Obviously he’s threatened by the Arab states that bought up all the golf tournaments, why else would he mention anything? /s

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