It's XX, Real Women's Day, and here's how you can celebrate
Whether it’s men taking our awards or accessing single-sex spaces, women are being erased
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Happy Real Women’s Day!
What does this mean? Let’s go back to March 2023. If you didn't know, March is traditionally labeled Women's History Month, an annual observance to recognize and celebrate the unique contributions of women throughout history.
Growing up in a family of athletes, ESPN was always on in our house. One day last March, while barely paying attention to the TV, I heard one of my favorite female ESPN commentators discussing swimming – a rare topic on the network. It was part of their Women's History Month special. My interest piqued. Which swimmer were they going to highlight? Katie Ledecky? One of the Walsh Sisters? Kate Douglas?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Demonstrators cheer during the speaking program at the "Our Bodies, Our Sports" rally for the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Freedom Plaza on June 23, 2022, in Washington, DC. The rally called on President Biden to put restrictions on transgender females and "advocate to keep women's sports female." (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
No. The network began to tout off about what they called a "woman" who has overcome immense persecution to achieve the seemingly impossible by winning a national title. Of course, they were honoring Lia Thomas, a man who was average at best in his rightful category where he swam three years prior, in this special.
ERASING WOMEN: OLYMPIC WOMEN’S BOXING, US PASSPORTS AND BIDEN-HARRIS’ TITLE IX CHANGES
But it wasn’t just ESPN that had become ideologically captured.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hershey’s featured Fae Johnstone, a man, as the face of their International Women's Day campaign, Her for She.
The White House, specifically Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, awarded Alba Rueda, a male, the International Woman of Courage Award.
In 2022, USA Today named Rachel Levine, the man President Biden appointed as U.S. assistant secretary for health, as one of their Women of the Year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}See the trend yet, or shall I go on? The message that I received loud and clear was that "all the best women are men."
AS A FEMALE ATHLETE, I DO NOT CONSENT TO PLAYING ALONGSIDE MEN IN COLLEGIATE SPORTS
So, I started brainstorming. How can we get back to honoring real women when it's a woman’s recognition to be had? I thought of Oct. 10. It's the 10th day of the 10th month, which is demoted in Roman numerals by XX. If you took Biology101, then you probably remember which chromosomes make a human female: XX.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Thus, Real Women’s Day was born – to be celebrated on Oct. 10 (XX).
Last year, Congresswoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., introduced a resolution on the U.S. House floor which:
- Designates Oct. 10 (XX) as "Real Women's Day" to recognize the fundamental biological differences between men and women;
- Recognizes the emotional pain, lost experiences, denied opportunities and trauma inflicted upon biological women who have been forced to compete against biological men in sports.
Since the inaugural Real Women's Day last year, I've been to over 50 different college campuses across the country speaking to students, athletes and administrators about how women are harmed under the guise of this "progress."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MELANIA TRUMP SPEAKS OUT AGAINST TRANSGENDERS IN WOMEN'S SPORTS: 'SEEING THAT DREAM COLLAPSE'
I listen as they share with me their own unique experiences with the movement and how it's negatively affected them. These experiences remind me that what my teammates and I faced at the 2022 D1 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship is not unique.
Last XX Day I spoke on Penn State's campus, which didn't go without its hitches. The university ended up canceling my talk a few days before it was scheduled, so I showed up with a bullhorn and spoke on their public lawn.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This year I will be speaking at California Polytechnic Stats University. I will be inserting myself into the belly of the beast, but that's who needs to hear the message most.
The Riley Gaines Center has deployed activism kits in 48 states. These kits include a baseball, a baseball net and a speed gun. For a chance to win a prize, people passing by will be able to throw the ball as fast as they can into the net where someone will record its speed in miles per hour. This is a more interactive way to make the point I've been making until I'm blue in the face: men and women are biologically different.
I WAS CALLED AN ICON OF FEMINISM BUT MANY OF THEM FORGOT WOMEN’S RIGHTS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It's only fitting that XX-XY Athletics, the clothing company started by former Levi’s executive Jennifer Sey, announces its first ever Courage Wins awardees on Real Women's Day.
This is a first-of-its-kind monetary award to celebrate female athletes who have shown immense courage and leadership by saying enough is enough and speaking the simple truth that there are only two sexes, and you can’t change your sex. Each of the four awardees will be given $5,000 in the form of a scholarship.
To be very clear, it’s not just sports where women are denied they uniquely exist. It's in sororities. Remember Artemis Langford from University of Wyoming who joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter? The girls were promised sisterhood but instead got the brother they never wanted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It's in prisons. I've talked to female inmates who have been sexually assaulted by male inmates who identify as women and gain entry to women's facilities. I've talked to women who have become pregnant by these men. I've talked to women who now have AIDS/HIV because it's running rampant in the male facilities that these men are being transferred from.
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Our language is being manipulated to be more "gender inclusive." "Woman" is offensive. Have you tried using birthing-person, cervix-haver, uterus-owner, menstruator, bleeder, egg-producer, or any other nonsensical phrase that reduces women down to their biological functions and capacities?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In my opinion, the silliest and most redundant language change of them all is referring to ourselves (or any human being) as a "biological" male or female. It's a way to get society to subconsciously admit there is an "unbiological" alternative to being a male or a female when there isn't. I implore you to use clear, sex-based language, because people are desperate for it.
Whether it’s men taking our awards or accessing our once single-sex spaces, it's clear women are being erased. Real women.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I encourage everyone – not just women – to join me on Real Women’s Day to celebrate who we are and stand firm against an ideology that seeks to erase our identity. Post about it. Talk about it. We've arrived at a place where these absurdities have become normalized because, collectively, we haven't been doing these things.
Don’t be afraid to speak louder when they want us silent, and do not back down when reality is on the line. For more information, including campus visits or Title IX training, visit rileygainescenter.org