‘Cos ah kent hur faither

Pissing contests get awful messy awful quick

Edited by CEO Baz Moffat

If you care not for small details, June’s insights are fileable in three Ss: Smarts, Swimlanes and Acerbitas.

Acerbitas. It’s Latin for ah kent hur faither.

Really? No not really. This way please …

Smarts, swimlanes …

We’ve recently listed some jobs here at TWHQ and the caliber of candidate has been ridiculously high. Not only is it humbling that our little lot can attract such tenure and talent, the fact said talent is already in play in industry bodes really well for the future.

There’s also a real sense that the data gap’s being sewn up at pace by a new generation who’ve passion and purpose on-side. Several interviewees were PhD students working projects that promise to light up new facets of women’s health and performance; from the broad and cultural to the nuanced and physiological.

Oh and the word nuanced is interesting. In an industry largely built on general skills and improv, it’s clear more and more people are now niching down into specialisms.

In corporate speak, jobs in women’s health are becoming more about specificity, swimlanes and sandboxes. We’re territorialising. It’s inevitable but recent experience suggests it’s also breeding conflict …

We’re growing increasingly aware of friction in our industry. A recent women’s health conference was defined not by its keynotes and content but by politics, personality clashes and the notable absence of big-hitters.

We can’t get specific but in the men’s realm you’d call it a pissing contest.

So here’s the thing: attention and resources are coming into our space and the need to be visible, vocal and vociferous is heating up. There’s competition like never before for the contracts, kudos and credit …

It’s maturation. As movements evolve they tend to shift towards orthodoxy, which is fine until we start marginalising folks who don’t align with the groupthink. Some ostracised souls today are the very same pioneers who yesterday defined this space; who spoke out, took risks and fought hard long before high-dollar sponsors arrived.

It’s ego. It’s problematic. It’s distracting. For one, collaboration is more an ally than conflict and, for two, if we blackball our risk-takers then we surely rip up the very playbook upon which our women’s health industries have grown at rapid pace.

What the Faith?

Sidebar. June saw Faith Kipyegon aim to be the first woman to break the four-minute mile. It was a mesmerising effort from an athlete truly in a class of her own.

You wouldn’t know it from some of the media coverage, mind. Certain outlets — including those you’d think’d know better — handed their editorial over to twits and morons utterly unschooled in the science, context and relativity of Faith’s effort.

See, decent journos coulda woulda shoulda taken time to explain that, owing to pure physiology, Faith’s attempt at four minutes is akin to a man trying to break ~3.45. The fact she got so close is sort of miraculous. It smells of failure not one bit.

But journos didn’t narrate that. Obvs. Instead we read about a cute little ladypoo who, bless her socks, was never gonna do it. Nice try love. ROFL. LOL. LMAO M8 TBH.

The fatalism and mockery blocks progress. It freezes the narrative and condemns women’s sport to the second-tier. If such messages were curtailed and challenged then more folks’d be angry if, say, two male football legends bailed on Wimbledon after the men and before the (British) women. Just as a for instance. Becks. Gareth.

Acerbitas

It’s Latin for bitterness. Another way to couch it is in the Scottishism ah kent hur faither. Oh and Moffat, Ross et al – we’re qualified.

Ah kent hur faither is an old Scots phrase meaning I knew her father AKA I know where she comes from and she’s not all that. It’s about tearing people down. Belittling them. It’s putting people back in their place should they dare to rise above their station.

Can we please not do that? Women’s pissing contests get awful messy awful quick.

It’s a tremendous feat that our movement has turned into an industry ripe with opportunities. Yes we’re competing, but the real fight isn’t among us – it’s around us …

We have to spend efforts throwing attention on entrenched narratives, norms and behaviours that still go unchallenged. We can’t afford to tussle over whose remit is bigger. Whose stream is more powerful or whose pants are pantier.

We hang together or fall apart, don’t we?