Perverts pissed at nbc and olympic committee
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/olympics/the-olympics-and-nbc-failed-alana-smith-and-the-non-binary-community/ar-AAMAfr9?ocid=msedgntI HOPE ALL OF THE PERVERTS LOSE. CHARLIE. Angry Angry
a man wearing a hat and sunglasses: Alana Smith© Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images Alana Smith
Alana Smith made Olympic history on Sunday, becoming the first out non-binary athlete to represent the USA at the games when they participated in the Women’s Skateboarding Street event.
Smith made sure the moment was known by etching their pronouns into the grip tape on their board in multiple places, displaying it proudly on the broadcast during their introduction ahead of prelims.
It was a moment of celebration for all of us whose identities defy the gender binary, including Smith, whose face displayed an uncontained joy in that moment and throughout their runs. Missing tricks couldn’t even wipe the smile off their face.
But spectators watching Smith from home witnessed first-hand that while non-binary athletes have shown that they can handle the Olympic stage, the Olympics itself hasn’t caught up on their end.
NBC Sports commentators Todd Harris and Paul Zitzer consistently misgendered Smith during their prelim runs. BBC commentators Marc Churchill and Ed Leigh did the same.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRoFLcOte3C/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loadingThere is no excuse for why this happened. When Outsports published a brief profile of Smith a couple weeks ago, we reached out to them and specifically asked how they identify.
But what do you expect to happen when the Olympics itself chose to not properly represent Smith’s gender identity on their official Olympics bio? Sure, the site correctly uses they/them for Smith further down, but misgendering them at the very top of the page sets a precedent, one that was carried through during the broadcasts.
It isn’t hard to correctly gender an athlete. Knowing such information falls into the purview of a commentator’s job.
Fellow BBC commentator Tim Warwood, who wasn’t on Sunday’s broadcast, claimed that the misgendering was likely the result of not having “seen anything regarding gender” and defaulting to information provided by event organizers when they don’t know an athlete well. That isn’t an excuse for alienating a section of the audience primed to revel in seeing someone like Smith representing the modern conversation on gender in a positive way.
It also exposes Olympics organizers when it comes to how much they pay attention to properly representing the athletes whose life stories and supreme abilities they cherish so dearly.
Harris can like all the comments on Instagram asking him and Zitzer to stop misgendering Smith during the broadcast, but that doesn’t change the fact that doing so in the first place displays a blatant disrespect to both Smith and the non-binary fans of a supposedly-modern sport making its Olympic debut.
During an Olympics featuring the largest group of out LGBTQ athletes ever to compete, including non-binary and trans athletes who are at the center of conversations about gender identity and sports, what happened to Smith on Sunday reflects the attitudes within the minds of event organizers.
The information is out there. Olympic organizers have it, failed to properly communicate it to people whose job it is to convey knowledge of competitors (who are capable of doing their own research as well) and soured an amazing moment of inclusivity in sport in doing so.
How often can you say pro wrestling did a better job of presenting itself than the Olympics?
While Smith didn’t qualify for the final, they proved that reaching a stage as large as the Olympics is attainable for non-binary athletes. And those charged with communicating that on international television failed them and their audience at every step of the way.
