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In March, our friend Jennifer Sey, the former Levi’s exec and Covid-19 lockdown critic, told us she was starting an apparel company for women athletes, and since then she’s done exactly that. Her company XX-XY Athletics has put leggings, t-shirts, tank tops, and hats on the market, with both women’s (XX) and men’s (XY) collections. XX-XY Athletics counts its mission, according to Sey, as “protecting women’s sports and spaces and encouraging others to do the same.”
“If you want your daughters to have the same opportunities you had, stand up,” a recent XX-XY ad says, adding, “If you don’t think it’s fair or safe to allow men to play women’s sports, stand up.”
It turns out that this is not the sort of thing one is allowed to say on TikTok. The Chinese-owned social media platform quickly banned the ad on the grounds that it “may violate TikTok’s advertising policies by featuring offensive content.” Sey posted on X, “When you run an ad standing up for women and girls’ sports, you get banned for life from @tiktok_us.”
Sey, who was a champion gymnast herself, told me that the ads were on TikTok for less than a week before they were taken down—and that XX-XY’s account has been suspended from posting any ads on the platform. “They offered no reason for how we violated their policies,” Sey said. “Despite the fact that I find the ad quite uplifting, it’s anodyne.” (Watch it for yourself here.)
Sey’s team will likely appeal TikTok’s decision, which has become a critically important platform for reaching young people. “Fifty percent of people under 30 are on TikTok,” she said. “You gotta fish where the fish are.” At the very least, Sey wants an explanation of what policy she violated.
Julia Steinberg is an intern at The Free Press. Read her piece on the college dropout who unlocked the secrets of ancient Rome using AI. And follow her on X @Juliaonatroika.
For years, decades even, I was inundated with the many "wrongs" done to women, how awful it was to be a woman and not have the opportunity that men had, etc. In my particular case, I was even friendly with some women who were at the very top at MS magazine. Remember that? Remember the National Organization For Women? Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, etc....all the feminist heroes of yesteryear...While, I'm sure, they were making points that were needed to be made, the "movement" seemed a little contrived to me. Wasn't it just a few years ago, the brigade of Pink Pussy Hats set out to right the many wrongs women were forced to endure?
Well, just last night I was watching some of the Olympic trials for swimming and track and field and so forth. I just like sports...you know...higher, faster strongser, etc...the best athlete wins,and so forth. Fair competition...that sort of thing.... I was imagining the 100 meter time trials and how they might alter the US Olympic Team with some 6 foot, 210lb dude who claims to identify as a woman destroying the field as well as the marvelous accomplishments of these women who have devoted their lives to fulfill an athletic passion...to make an olympic team, to wear a US Olympic uniform.
Where are those feminists now? Where are the wearers of pink pussy hats when we need them ? They haven't destroyed the Olympic competion just yet. Will they?
As is so often the case with liberal idiology, the politics of it all is just way more important than what is purported to be true. Trans athletes running, swimming, etc against women? Really? Why not heavyweight boxing, as well?
I realize that this is mostly humor, but the news remains news and you'd server your readership better by explaining it better. We paid $230 million for the pier. How does that break down? I mean, the Army Corps of Engineers is on retainer, right? Their salaries are getting paid anyway and there probably isn't some 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 pier that didn't get built because they did this one. Concrete? I don't know prices, but that seems like an awful lot...
Moving on, we've got the billions for the (almost) non-existent charging stations. Were those billions 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁? Probably not, in which case it could have been half the amount or triple the amount and the story would have been the same. Same goes for the other billions for high-speed internet.
Don't get me wrong, the fun poked at the government for these fiascos is probably deserved, but journalists should kick the habit of using numbers to imply things that aren't known to be true.