Today, for a change of pace, I’m sharing a series of ads made by this company, XX-XY Athletics.
I did not watch the Super Bowl yesterday since I’m professionally allergic to football. (See my feminist critique, The Stronger Women Get, The More Men Love Football).
But I did watch one ad by a company that could not afford the $8 million Super Bowl fee. It posted the ad on social media instead. And received more than two million views in less than a day, and added another four million the next day — out-performing any actual Super Bowl ad on X, according to Sey.
Today, for a change of pace, I’m sharing a series of ads made by this company, XX-XY Athletics. Jennifer Sey, its founder and CEO, is a former Levi’s executive and national gymnastics champion. We have met at several conferences and rallies. Many companies invent a mission to justify or disguise their profit motive. For Sey, an unapologetic and outspoken advocate for girls and women, the cultural mission and business are indivisible.
Disclosure: I am not sponsored by them or anyone else but I do wear their clothing to support the company and share their message: Women and girls deserve their own sports and spaces. The brand has become a team uniform of sorts among a worldwide coalition of women and men working hard for that very purpose.
Here’s the SuperBowl-style ad. J.K. Rowling declared, “This is the first and likely the last time I’ll retweet an ad, but I love it.”
Here’s the company’s origin story:
Sports aren’t about freedom or self-expression. They’re about self-improvement, learning to play by the rules, and competition.
And here’s XX-XY Athletics’ response to an ACLU ad, “More than a Game,” which featured Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird, both of whom advocate for “all the girls” having access to female sports — and by that they mean “trans girls” (boys who call themselves girls), too. This is ironic because both women owe their considerable athletic fame and fortune to the dedicated all-female category. Rapinoe’s women’s national soccer team once lost to a team of 15-year-old boys. And can you imagine 5’9”, 150-pound point guard Sue Bird holding her own against NBA players? Trust me. It would not go well.
The ACLU ad, timed to coincide with last month’s Supreme Court oral arguments about whether states can exclude boys from girls’ sports, attempts to reframe sports as “about freedom” and “being exactly who you are.”
In the XX-XY Athletics response, volleyball player Brooke Slusser, swimmer Riley Gaines, and other athletes say no. “Sports aren’t about freedom. Or self-expression.” They’re about self-improvement, learning to play by the rules, and competition:
If you haven’t heard of XX-XY Athletics, it might be because of censorship. According to Sey, The New York Times has refused to run the company’s ads. So has TikTok. CBS News and the Wall Street Journal would accept their ads “only if we don’t say that men shouldn’t compete in women’s sports.” Which the brand will not do. Fox News and NBC News have accepted ads without censorship.
”A brand can influence the culture,” said Sey in her Supreme Court rally speech. “So have the hard conversations. Go to your daughter’s soccer game and wear the t-shirt. Don’t be silent. We are the ones with truth on our side. Wear the G-D hats [laughs]. We’re going to win.”
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
With love and courage, Mariah
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Probably a good thing that ad wasn't on the Super Bowl, because for the unaware viewer, its message is REALLY confusing. It's fine as a social media post, where it reaches people who already understand its intended message (which is exactly who it would reach thanks to algorithms), but to the general public viewing it for the first time, I fear the reaction would be "What are they talking about?" or "Which side are they on?" So, my sense is that it's preaching to the choir.
It’s not true that the USWNT was beaten by a team of 15-year-old boys. In 2017, the USWNT participated in a structured practice (not a game) with a Dallas boys’ team to give the boys a chance to learn from the women’s team.
Go to the “truth or fiction” website to find an article about how that event has been mischaracterized by trolls. I’ll try posting the link below:
https://www.truthorfiction.com/was-the-u-s-womens-national-team-defeated-by-teenaged-boys-in-a-2017-soccer-match/