Links - 24th October 2019 (2)

Naked Yoga and Cuddle Parties: Lap Dancing Clubs for the Woke - "My friend Eva, who has accompanied me to a buffet of odd events, is giving me her feedback on the people we’ve encountered there. “I don’t know what it is, but I’ve noticed that if there’s an event with nakedness, the majority of people who turn up will be older guys.”As a journalist writing about weird workshops and unusual classes I’ve covered cuddle parties, rope-binding, naked yoga, and tantra, to name but a few. These classes are popular with the hipsters who are colonising Hackney Wick and other areas of East London in the throes of gentrification. And with each event I cover, I become more suspicious that these “alternative” workshops are simply a way for apparently progressive men to gawp at women—lap dancing clubs for the woke. On the surface, these workshops are all above-board. After all, what could be creepy about a fully-clothed cuddle? Don’t we all need some affection? What could be impure about practising yoga as nature intended? Surely we could all benefit from taking part in such innocuous activities? But in reality, these workshops predominantly appeal to men who attend in the hope of touching women, staring at naked women, and—best case scenario—touching naked women. These men are often older, usually single, left-leaning middle-class guys who sometimes sport a man-bun and a big, bushy beard—lubricated with artisan beard-oil—along with loose cotton trousers. They’re the kind of guys who performatively check their privilege, and who take it upon themselves to supervise the privilege-checking of others. They think of themselves as progressive or woke—most certainly nice. But these men are not that different to the guys who go to a strip club and pay £20 for women to grind their butts in their faces. It might seem like a stretch, but having carried out an undercover investigation into the lap dancing industry, I think the biggest difference is that paying for a lap dance is a more honest transaction... The organiser of the cuddle party told participants, “Arousal is okay as long as you don’t act on it,” and the naked yoga instructor assured men that if they got an erection, it wasn’t sexual, it was just the yoga. She explained: “When you do yoga you move loads of energy in your body and an erection can happen, so it’s not because you’re thinking about something sexual, it’s because of the energy in your body.”In giving these pseudo-assurances, wokeshop organisers give men permission to become aroused and erect while touching or looking at women’s bodies. So having enabled the men to access women, the organisers then give them a green light to get horny. This seal of approval affords the men a clear conscience, allowing them to feel like nice guys while they’re perving over women half their age who’ve been manipulated into pairing up with them. And all the while they think they’re morally superior to the sort of men who “exploit” and “objectify” women by paying them to take their tops off in strip clubs."

The BBC smeared me as homophobic because I criticized woke lesbian Megan Rapinoe - "Apparently, the BBC has decided I’m homophobic.How did BBC journalist Marianna Brady come to this conclusion? Well, evidently she decided to quote my criticisms of woke U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team captain Megan Rapinoe in an article entitled “Why is America's newest hero so polarising?” — without even so much as Googling me or glancing at my Twitter profile.If Brady had done so, she’d have known that I am both publicly gay and an outspoken advocate for tolerance and gay rights. Instead, she decided to directly juxtapose my criticisms with a bogus assertion that Rapinoe’s critics, such as myself, are all just bigoted, sexist homophobes. And, ostensibly, this was in a news article — not an opinion piece... It’s taken for granted that critics couldn’t actually dislike her because of her blatant lack of patriotism and fact-free feminist griping. I've already explained that I believe Rapinoe's kneeling at the national anthem is an act of disrespect toward the very nation whose tolerance and commitment to advancing women allowed her to become the star she is. But there's much more.Rapinoe also dismissed a White House invitation with extreme vulgarity that I'm pretty sure most parents of young girls would just as soon not have their children hear, let alone repeat. Is it now homophobic to point that out? Because Rapinoe did it? I specifically pointed out that she's a poor role model. Would someone like to argue that this is good behavior for young girls, or young people in general, to imitate?Beyond that, she's relentlessly pushed the "equal pay" narrative, even though her feminist arguments are completely unsupported. But no, we're supposed to believe that the only reason anyone could dislike Rapinoe is because they're homophobic"

‘Girl Power’ Doesn’t Excuse U.S. Women’s Soccer’s Rude Celebrations - "On behalf of men everywhere, I would like to officially thank the U.S. Women’s World Cup soccer team: The ladies’ excessive scoring and embarrassing, grave-dancing celebrations have finally made it permissible to criticize women without instantly being labeled a misogynist by the Woke Wide Web... Even as the score climbed well past the point of competitiveness, each goal was punctuated by prolonged celebrations more suited to a closely contested final match than an opening-round blowout. My favorite was Alex Morgan exuberantly leaping into a teammate’s arms after scoring Team USA’s oh-so-crucial twelfth goal. The display was so antithetical to good sportsmanship that, in a society trained to speak no evil of female athletes (or female anything), even a white male sportscaster felt comfortable criticizing the team’s puerile performance. Of course, liberal media outlets spun themselves into the ground trying to justify this boorish behavior... This is the type of oblivious offense only committed because the Gen Y & Z members of the U.S. Women’s World Cup team grew up in a society that told them they could do no wrong. That society has tried to correct the sexism of its past by telling today’s girls to shatter traditional norms and demand to be heard, decorum be damned.More than the actions of a few overzealous female athletes, then, what United States 13, Thailand 0 really exemplified was the disservice our society does young women by excusing their actions in the name of compensatory political correctness. If we want women to truly be equal to men, we must teach them not only to reach for the stars, but also when to call off the dogs."

World rolls its eyes as 'cocky' US team proclaim their own 'GREATNESS' after World Cup victory - "USA may have won the Women's World Cup, but the nation appears to be the only one celebrating the victory as the team comes under renewed criticism for its 'arrogance' following booze-fuelled revelry.Having defeated The Netherlands 2-0, the players were seen jumping around the dressing room and spraying each other with bottles of champagne.Videos taken by players and support staff show captain Megan Rapinoe being greeted with cheers and applause by her teammates.Later, the medal-clad team emerged from the stadium to an ecstatic crowd singing Queen's hit 'We Are The Champions,' each carrying a bottle of champagne and roaring sparkler.As Rapinoe climbed on top of a table to spray fans and teammates with champagne, Goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris could be heard yelling 'You know we came to mother-f***ing party.'"... Laura from Holland put: 'Rapinoe ruined it for me with her arrogance towards Sari, sorry. Why do Americans always have to go the arrogance route? This is why the world sees you as arrogant - because you are.'"

There Is No Wage Gap in Soccer - "men’s and women’s soccer teams have different pay structures, with men’s earnings heavily dependent on game bonuses and women being paid a guaranteed salary with benefits. According to the US Soccer Federation, “U.S. Soccer guarantees WNT contracted players $100,000 per year…atop which they can earn game and tournament bonuses.” Men have no such salary guarantee. Furthermore, the women receive “a robust package of benefits that are not provided to the men,” including “fully-paid health, dental and vision insurance; severance; a 401(k)-retirement plan; paid maternity leave; guaranteed injury protection; and assistance with childcare.” These differences in payment structures are not the result of sexism. CBS noted that “it's a pay structure the women themselves wanted.” But apparently, it isn’t enough. Asked if USWNT would like the same pay structure as the men’s team, the response was, “We want the same [bonus] money that the men are making, exactly.”Of course, if they make the same bonus money as men, in addition to their guaranteed salaries and range of fully paid benefits that men don’t get, that’s hardly “equal pay." Regardless, the assertion that the women’s soccer team gets paid less than the men’s is untrue in the first place. We know this thanks to the president of the US Soccer Federation, who released an independently reviewed financial fact sheet that covers how both teams were paid between 2010 and 2018.During that timeframe, the US Soccer Federation paid a total of $34.1 million in salaries and bonuses to the Women’s National Team (WNT), which is decidedly more than the $26.4 million paid to the Men’s National Team (MNT). It is also worth pointing out that between 2009 and 2019, the women’s team brought in $425,446 of gross revenue per game in comparison to the men’s team, which brought over twice that amount ($972,147 per game.)"

Revenue Disparity Explains Pay Disparity Between Soccer World Cup's Men And Women - "The Women's World Cup brought in almost $73 million, of which the players got 13%. The 2010 men's World Cup in South Africa made almost $4 billion, of which 9% went to the players."

Absurd feminist demands for equal pay will kill women's football - "For US co-captain Megan Rapinoe to call for women’s football to “move to the next step” in discussions about equal pay, presumably on the basis she is doing the same job as Ronaldo, would be like me trying to demand the same pay as JK Rowling. After all, we both write. It is just that there is a slight difference in the numbers of people who are prepared to pay to read us.If you want to kill off women’s football there would be no quicker way of doing so than demanding equal pay. Which club could afford to stage it and which TV network would be prepared to pay for the rights if women’s teams commanded the same wage bill as the men’s? Campaigners for equal pay in football like to make a comparison with tennis, where female players at the grand slams now get paid the same as the men and have done for years. But that is only possible because there is a huge hidden cross-subsidy going on between men’s and women’s tennis.If you want to know the relative value the market puts on men’s tennis compared with women’s tennis go and look at the prices for debenture seats at Wimbledon – the seats which can be legally resold at whatever price they can fetch.Today, you can buy a ticket for Saturday’s ladies final for £2830. For Sunday’s men’s final it will set you back £7830. Aside from last year, when the men’s final clashed with the World Cup final, the same is true of TV viewing figures – which year after year show that more people want to watch men’s tennis. In fact last year, the most-watched match was Kyle Edmund’s third round match, with 6.5 million viewers compared with 4.6 million for the women’s final. That is real discrimination in action: women players being paid artificially inflated rewards which are not justified by the income that they are earning the tournament. If sportswomen want to be paid more they should do it by entertaining us more, not by bullying their employers through political activism."

Daniel Jordan - "Megan Rapinoe on how fans can support the fight for equal pay: Come to games, buy jerseys, become season ticket holders, tell your friends about it."
"So she admits that women soccer players make less than men because they sell way less jerseys and tickets than men soccer players do? Congratulations, you played yourself."
"Imagine being so privileged in a society that you actually feel comfortable openly asking people to come and support your job purely in the interest of you being able to generate as much money as someone else. That moment when activism becomes professional begging is absolutely priceless."

Women’s Soccer Negotiated the Compensation They Now Say Is Sexist - "One wonders how many of these suddenly enthusiastic women’s World Cup fans have ever bought a ticket to a regular season women’s soccer game or watched one on television. As one woke Buzzfeed editor admitted in a bizarre piece about the World Cup winners, “I don’t closely follow most sports, soccer included—I still barely understand what offsides means, no matter how many times my friends try to explain it to me—but this World Cup, as with the last, I was drawn in by all these incredible lesbians.”... It’s also worth noting that the path to qualifying for the men’s World Cup is much more arduous and competitive than it is for the women’s World Cup. The men have to win more games over a longer period of time to qualify than do the women... In the U.S., women’s games have recently begun to generate slightly more revenue than men’s games; according to the Wall Street Journal, from 2016-2018, the women’s games generated $50.8 million and the men’s games $49.9 million, a sign of growing enthusiasm for women’s soccer. But that game revenue represents only one-quarter of the USSF’s total revenue. The rest comes from corporate sponsorships and TV broadcasting rights. And since the Federation sells those rights for both teams together, it’s nearly impossible to tell which team generates more (although TV ratings consistently show viewership for men’s soccer is much higher than for women’s soccer)."

Christian soccer player Jaelene Hinkle allegedly cut from U.S. national team over religious beliefs - "Five members of the U.S. women's team have come out publicly... You do have a very activist team,' John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview in Colorado Springs told The Washington Times. 'It's very much a part of the program... Captain Megan Rapinoe even credited the team's gay players after she scored both goals in a 2-1 quarter-final win over France.'Go gays!' she yelled to reporters. 'You can't win a championship without gays on your team. It's never been done before. That's science right there.'"
What does this say about stereotypes about lesbians in sport?