Roar Rookie
Joined May 2016
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Very bad at sport but lots of book learnin'. I mostly watch cricket and rubgy league.
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In one of his treatises from the 1920s, Baron Pierre de Coubertin – the main instigator of the modern Olympic Games – declared that women’s participation in sport was only acceptable on one strict condition: no spectators.
Hi FT, thanks very much for taking the time to read and comment on my article.
If the main point of my article was to attack PDC for ‘sexism’, that would indeed be uninteresting and predictable. The starting point is always the present, in this case the theoretical parallel between the decision to withdraw the picture of Tayla Harris because of pervy trolls, and PDC’s declaration that women’s sport should have no spectators because those spectators would be perves. No philosophical declaration is an island, and it seemed to me that the bundle of ideas associated with his declaration – on what spectators want and do in general, on what sport is about in general – are also subtexts of the way we see women’s sports now. Ideas are interesting, I like to see connections between them and across time.
I understand what ahistoricism is. My starting point is that PDC’s attitudes remain today, as illustrated by the Tayla Harris case. It’s a thought experiment that takes a little event and traces a path back a 100 years and then back again. I’m disappointed that this keeps getting reduced to the statement that “PDC is a sexist pig”, but that’s life!
Thanks again.
Faster, higher, stronger: Tayla Harris and the Olympic Ideal
Thanks again for your comments, Rick, I absolutely agree that trolls have been given way too much power in proportion to how representative they are of the general populace.
Most of my piece was about de Coubertin’s understanding of spectatorship and its relationship to modern times rather than his views on women, and none of it was about denying the positive aspects of his legacy.
Faster, higher, stronger: Tayla Harris and the Olympic Ideal
Thanks Snowy, nice of you to say.
Faster, higher, stronger: Tayla Harris and the Olympic Ideal
I don’t expect better from De Coubertin on women in sport, but I do expect better from people now, and when they’re not better – as in the case of some of the reactions to Tayla – I look to someone like Pierre to help me understand why because he is going to give me a lot more insight into the problem than a troll tweet.
Faster, higher, stronger: Tayla Harris and the Olympic Ideal
Thanks Rick, wasn’t criticising the Olympic movement. But unfortunately while teachers no longer make left handers write right, recent events suggest plenty of people still think like Pierre on this point and I am interested in analysing that.
Faster, higher, stronger: Tayla Harris and the Olympic Ideal
Thanks again for your response and time FT. All of the responses have led to useful reflections on my writing and approach.
Faster, higher, stronger: Tayla Harris and the Olympic Ideal