“Simone Biles is showing us what exemplary feminist leadership really looks like,” a headline to one opinion piece at NBC News read. Naomi Osaka, a Japanese tennis player who withdrew from the French Open in late May for mental health reasons, was also cited by the writer, one Lauren Leader, as a modern-day heroine alongside Biles:
“What both these powerful, young women of color are showing their critics and the world, is that rejecting the limiting, often sexist expectations of others in favor of preserving oneself has enormous power. They are brave enough and strong enough to believe in themselves – to be true to who they are, and to refuse the crushing, unrealistic expectations that they be ever outstanding, ever perfect, always smiling and beautiful to boot. To be a top athlete of their caliber, especially as women of color, is to carry the weight of the world. At the Olympics, the world’s biggest stage, Simone Biles was strong enough, brave enough and feminist enough to say, no more.”
What is the point of the Olympics? It has a longstanding grand point, which the writer seems to have missed.
What happens when everyone takes a ‘mental health day’ on the same day?
“To be a top athlete of their caliber, especially as women of color, is to carry the weight of the world.”
OMG
It’s amazing their heads don’t just explode, Scanners style.