The NPR interview was mostly filled with softball questions, but she clearly knows about the experience of being an elite American female distance runner. She’s also smart enough that I hope the writing is reasonable. As you note, I suspect she is susceptible to historical revisionism in light of current cultural trends, but I’m going to read it.
i was a fan of hers back in my "always reading about her in runner's world" days. I actually enjoyed her sarcasm and humor. Now she's gone off the deep end
I also feel like these rich little white girl distance runners project their weight hangups on the rest of us. You know distance running isn't the pinnacle of sports and there are plenty of sports where you can have a totally different body with a properly female typical hip:waist ratio and some body fat and be awesome (and also generally look hotter than some neurotic rail thin distance runner who for some reason not supported by boat loads of research thinks "beauty standards" demand this). Crossfit, powerlifting, sprinting, pole vaulting, etc. Why dont we hear black female sprinters ever navel gazing over thos stuff. The start line of the women's 100 hurdles is not only full of healthier less neurotic women, but also with objectively more attractive bodies because they have more bf an dizzyingly awesome hip:waist ratios near the golden mean (7:10). No men ever preferred tragically low bf percentages to this - a figment of female mate competition.
This sort of seems to me women being introduced to what it is like to be a guy striving for status in a competitive field. Sports worthy of the name reward rarified physiques that most people can't have with any amount of work and you won't be a world beating distance runner unless you can be hyper lean and perfectly healthy at the same time. Male or female. This is almost nobody. If you have to force it, the top elite ranks are just not for you. It is quite bad that shit coaches encourage girls to starve to leanness as if bodies are dumb fat storage machines and won't happily burn up muscle and tendon in response to forced calorie deprivation. The sad fact is that some people can be 7% bodyfat just fine with no scavenging of muscle and tendon to keep a minimal fat storage and others can't. Just like some people put on tons of muscle if the weight train and others don't. May as well complain about some people being smarter without trying.
I have no idea what "attacking women online" means apart from just disagreeing with them when they say nonsense. Would the exact same criticism directed at men (which you have of course done) be called "attacking men online?". Is she arguing their are different standards with which one is allowed to critique women vs men or that the nature of your criticism is completely dependent on their gender? Sort of a kafkha trap. If your shtick is gender based the mere act of criticism is sexist, in the same way criticizing claims made by Christians is "attacking Christians" as if some views are so entangled with the identity of the holder that they are off limits.
The NPR interview was mostly filled with softball questions, but she clearly knows about the experience of being an elite American female distance runner. She’s also smart enough that I hope the writing is reasonable. As you note, I suspect she is susceptible to historical revisionism in light of current cultural trends, but I’m going to read it.
i was a fan of hers back in my "always reading about her in runner's world" days. I actually enjoyed her sarcasm and humor. Now she's gone off the deep end
I also feel like these rich little white girl distance runners project their weight hangups on the rest of us. You know distance running isn't the pinnacle of sports and there are plenty of sports where you can have a totally different body with a properly female typical hip:waist ratio and some body fat and be awesome (and also generally look hotter than some neurotic rail thin distance runner who for some reason not supported by boat loads of research thinks "beauty standards" demand this). Crossfit, powerlifting, sprinting, pole vaulting, etc. Why dont we hear black female sprinters ever navel gazing over thos stuff. The start line of the women's 100 hurdles is not only full of healthier less neurotic women, but also with objectively more attractive bodies because they have more bf an dizzyingly awesome hip:waist ratios near the golden mean (7:10). No men ever preferred tragically low bf percentages to this - a figment of female mate competition.
This sort of seems to me women being introduced to what it is like to be a guy striving for status in a competitive field. Sports worthy of the name reward rarified physiques that most people can't have with any amount of work and you won't be a world beating distance runner unless you can be hyper lean and perfectly healthy at the same time. Male or female. This is almost nobody. If you have to force it, the top elite ranks are just not for you. It is quite bad that shit coaches encourage girls to starve to leanness as if bodies are dumb fat storage machines and won't happily burn up muscle and tendon in response to forced calorie deprivation. The sad fact is that some people can be 7% bodyfat just fine with no scavenging of muscle and tendon to keep a minimal fat storage and others can't. Just like some people put on tons of muscle if the weight train and others don't. May as well complain about some people being smarter without trying.
I have no idea what "attacking women online" means apart from just disagreeing with them when they say nonsense. Would the exact same criticism directed at men (which you have of course done) be called "attacking men online?". Is she arguing their are different standards with which one is allowed to critique women vs men or that the nature of your criticism is completely dependent on their gender? Sort of a kafkha trap. If your shtick is gender based the mere act of criticism is sexist, in the same way criticizing claims made by Christians is "attacking Christians" as if some views are so entangled with the identity of the holder that they are off limits.