28
“Grease”
I’m nearing 50, and “Grease” is one of the seminal movies for women of my generation. I absolutely despise every single thing about that movie. I did not have the words for why I hated it so much when I was growing up, but everything about it felt wrong to me.
I run into a lot of women around my age who are massive fans of the movie. It’s not a deal breaker for me; I’ll be friends with most women because my philosophy is “chicks over dicks”.
Does anyone else run into the same problem? If you like the movie, what am I getting wrong?
My unpopular opinion is that Trump actually really does care about this. We can speculate what the real reason behind that is- but it was one of the very first campaign promises he fulfilled. Seriously, he raced to that EO with the same speed as Biden scrapping Title IX on Day 1. And that was the first sign of male in female sports becoming a top concern of the Biden Administration.
Everyone says "oh well, of course he's against men in women's sports! It is so obviously unfair and that's an easy win" like there isn't clearly some other powerful force at work here. Because it is really not natural that such an extreme and unpopular position has become the foundation of the party and every Democrat politician alive must die on this hill.
I can't go a week without getting some emotionally manipulative e-begging texts from DNC/Democrat politicians. But its always about TRA issues, like explicitly saying they urgently need money to stop one of the 'latest attempts' by Trump to keep TIMs from competing and assuring me my money will immediately go to the latest politician protecting these TIMS from Trump's 'personal whims'. As if that's not majority opinion and maybe the MOST popular policy of his.
But they even had the nerve to send out "donate so we can stop the Republican's Predator Empowerment Act" back when they decided to rebrand 'saving girls sports' as something nefarious and depraved.
So I do think Trump actually is trying at least, to address this issue. I still cannot believe he of all people was the one to speak out against TIMs in prison. I am angry states are wasting so much time and money fighting the prison and sport policies. It's how you know the "victims" are all male.
It's not surprising that this hasn't really been enforced. I don't think many people seriously think Donland Trump cares about women's sports, especially amidst tariffs, DOGE, Russia/Ukraine, the Signal leak, etc.
The Democrats and the Republicans have a similar stance when it comes to anything related to 'protecting women'. Make a lot of big claims to get votes and suport and then do the absolute bare minimum to superficially appear to be taking action.
It's not surprising that this hasn't really been enforced.
AFAIK, five different branches [or rather, five different arms/parts of the executive branch] of the federal government - the White House/office of the President, the US Department of Education, the US Department of Health & Human Services, the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Agriculture - have taken various kinds of enforcement actions to put teeth into Trump's EO about keeping males out of female sports and restore girls' and women's Title IX rights. But given the complicated relationship between the US federal government and the governments of each of the states as well as local governmental bodies like school districts; the nature of the US system of checks and balances; and the makeup, pace and complexity of the US legal system and the federal courts, it takes time for enforcement actions taken by the federal goverment to come to fruition - or to be declared unlawful and thrown out by the courts.
The Democrats and the Republicans have a similar stance when it comes to anything related to 'protecting women'. Make a lot of big claims to get votes and suport and then do the absolute bare minimum to superficially appear to be taking action.
Sorry, but if you honestly believe that on the issue of getting males out of female sports - and particularly girls' and women's sports in publicly-funded education - Republicans in Washington DC, the states and local levels have been doing "the absolute bare minimum to superficially appear to be taking action," the only explanation I can come up with is that you really haven't been paying attention to the news about all the developments about this issue that have been going on in Washington DC; numerous different states and statehouses; local and regional school districts; local and county governments; individual schools; the US federal courts; state courts in some states such as New York; and in the corridors of power at private organizations like the NCAA and the state federations that make the rules for K-12 school sports.
This is just a sampling of news stories about recent actions taken on this issue by Republicans in the federal government, state governments and local/regional school districts:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5085156-house-republicans-bill-transgender-athletes-girls-sports/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/14/politics/house-vote-ban-transgender-athletes-womens-sports/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-athletes-congress-dfd81b15ebc09409f1bf6c8642f130f3
https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2025/03/25/Title-IX-investigation-portland/8081742938139/
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-3-19-2025
https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-transgender-athlete-school-girls-sports/
https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_58d6b8f2-ceb0-11ef-b698-0775d16ad678.html
A sample of news reports about some of the developments related to Republican-led efforts to block males from female sports that have occurred in different states in just the last week alone, some in the last 24 hours:
Washingon state: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbqnUfwB8Po
California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePU4EyltdR8
Awesome comment as always. Small nitpick/FYI: in the US we only refer to three branches of government: the executive (which includes The Department of <Anything>), the legislative (Congress AKA the House of Representatives + Senate and everything going on in there such as Committees), and the judicial which is all the court systems from the Supreme Court all the way down to your local court.
Now someone can hopefully correct me because I probably screwed up a detail.
Yes, you're right! In my opening sentence where in my haste I unthinkingly used the word "branches" I should have chosen another word. Coz I was speaking about different arms and agencies that all are part(s) of the executive branch of the federal government, not different branches of government, duh. I will add a note clarifying. Thanks for the correction.
Wow thank you for all this research❤️ You’re always so thorough - it’s gonna take three lunch breaks to read thru all this 😹
The government is suing a couple of states (Maine being one?), but this stuff moves slowly, and even when women win, how is it enforced? Is Trump going to send in the Marines?
The only thing that will make these entities change is pulling their funding, and attempts are being made to do that but that takes time.
It's not choice between the marines or nothing though is it. I don't think women's sports should be defunded because a man forced himself onto the team. Fines should be issued for rule breaking until the men leave.
I don't think women's sports should be defunded because a man forced himself onto the team. Fines should be issued for rule breaking until the men leave.
But the federal goverment is NOT threatening to defund women's sports. The federal government is threatening to withold federal funds that go to educational institutions that received federal funds and aren't complying with Title IX.
None of the funds the Trump admin is threatening to withhold pay for girls' and women's sports. The funds that the federal government sends to the states - and to colleges and universities - for education purposes pay for things like free student meals in N/K-12 schools and student loans and research at post-secondary education insitutitons.
The ultimate penalty for non-compliance with Title IX regulations is the withdrawal of federal funds, including monies earmarked for student loans.
Under Title IX, educational facilities can also be held liable in court if it is determined that the institution knew about but failed to address [violations]
https://www.duffylawct.com/title-ix/what-are-title-ix-penalties/
https://titleixspecialists.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/How-Title-IX-is-Enforced.pdf
https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/advocacy/what-is-title-ix/
Also, for the record: the Biden admin engaged in the same kind of threats to withdraw federal funds - specifically federal funds that pay for free school meal programs for poor students - to get states to comply with Biden's own EOs, directives and regulations related to his own "pro trans," anti-female interpretation of IX.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_d19aeb72-8fc9-11ee-9ac0-97e018719444.html
The Biden admin went to great lengths to try to get the entire USA to knuckle under and accept its own view that Title IX and other federal statutes which prohibit denial of equal opportunity on the basis of sex should be taken to mean that students and others who say they have a trans, nonbinary or other "diverse" gender identity and want to participate in programs and use facilities for the opposite sex must be given free rein to do so except in very rare instances. In the Biden admin's view of Title IX, students who tell school administrators that they have a trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid or other "diverse" gender identity - and only such students - are automatically entitled to participate in whichever sex-specific sports they want - and to use whichever sex-segregated toilets, locker rooms, showers and sleeping quarters they want - based solely on which choice makes the supposedly gender special student feel most comfortable and which choice is most "affirming" of the phony gender identity they claim to have. Moreover, under the Biden admin's interpretation of Title IX, the right of students who say they have a special gender identity to sports and spaces meant for the opposite sex is of such paramount importance that it must be given precedence over the rights of other students to privacy, fairness, safety, comfort and free speech.
I only heard of the Biden revoking free lunch for children if they didn't follow his interpretation because of lurking this site.
That was literally not covered in any MSM and I felt like it had to be a fake story because it was cartoon villain levels of evil, even for a president. They will truly stop at nothing for these TIMs. Like they are OBSESSED with it. Using the USDA like that was so over the top scheming to punish states that actually protected girls.
Damn, is this person advocating for a totalitarian dictator to control all branches of government and rule over private organizations as well?
People love a dictator when they think the dictator is on their side. It's become very clear to me that many Americans 1) don't understand how our government works, 2) hate democracy, and 3) hate checks and balances between the branches of government.
Lots of people don't want to think for themselves; they want the government to run their lives.
I don’t think it’s fair to characterize this as Sey not understanding the system or calling for a totalitarian ruler. In fact, I think she’s pointing out the limitations of the system for immediate change and that this will require voting out Democrats who will not budge on the issue.
She’s listing cheaters and politicians’ resistance and ends her (v v) long list with:
The real fight is cultural.
79% of Americans agree: Women and girls' sports should be for women and girls only.
Where are you all though! It's lonely out here!
Speak up. We won't lose when you do.
I would add that it will require more than voting for President and for all citizens to speak out at all levels. None of that shows a misunderstanding of the system or a longing for a dictator. It’s just a very long list of continued injustice and a call for INVOLVEMENT.
She point to recently filed lawsuits as "still unresolved". Sorry, that's showing her ignorance of how long cases take to be resolved. They take months, if not years.
Likewise, Agency enforcement actions don't happen overnight. The rulemaking process takes a minimum of 90 days. Trump doesn't need Congress to do anything about sports, he needs the DoE, which he is trying to eliminate at the same time, to go through the rulemaking process, like Biden did, to create regulations governing single sex sport and spaces under Title IX.
Biden was at the tail end of institutional capture for this stuff. This is just the first real pushback politically that has any bite.
I just disagree that using the word “unresolved” suggests no idea how the system works, absent any other specific commentary. And I feel that some of her additional commentary suggests my interpretation. She mentions that no elected Democrat has stepped away from the party line. She states that polling shows the vast majority of Americans don’t believe that males should be allowed to cheat against female athletes.
She specifically says this situation will rely on cultural pressure. I think she knows EXACTLY how we got to where we are and that it will require citizens to work at the local level personally and to think hard about who they’ll vote for to politically effect change in this area.
She point to recently filed lawsuits as "still unresolved". Sorry, that's showing her ignorance of how long cases take to be resolved. They take months, if not years.
A case in point (literally): The Title IX lawsuit about boys in girls' track in CT is now in its 5th year going through the courts. In November of last year, the federal district judge in CT hearing the suit finally gave the go-ahead for the suit to proceed to trial after nearly five years. But AFAICT a trial date has not been set yet. Or at least I can't find a trial date.
The last action I can find in the CT lawsuit known as Soule v CT/CIAC is the motion to withdraw from the case that was filed in late December by the two TIMs - Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood - who competed and cleaned up in girls' track when they were in HS back in 2017-2020. Represented by the ACLU, Miller and Yearwood successfully sought to join the case as intervenors soon after Selina Soule and other female athletes first filed the suit in 2020. Now Miller and Yearwood say they've moved on with their lives and they don't want to spend time or energy in court rehashing and litigating what happened when they were in HS and defending the records they set in girls' HS sports when they were still teens.
I think Jennifer Sey deserves kudos for the campaigning she's done to get males out of female sports. But I get the impression that civics and the granular mechanics of legislative, administrative and judidical politics aren't her strong suit.
Sey comes to this issue as a former corporate business executive for Levi Strauss & Company who was a highly skilled competitive athlete in her youth - a US national champion in gymnastics. Sey has expertise in being a dedicated, highly trained, world-class athlete and in being a big cheese in marketing, public relations, branding and brand-image building and management for one of the world's leading garment manufactuers. I think Sey understands politics in the broad-strokes sense having to do with elections that voters take part in and where public opinion counts the most. But I'm not sure that Sey knows much about, or fully appreciates, the nitty-gritty mechanics of what goes on in the corridors of power and in back rooms during the legislative process - or what goes on as lawsuits wend their way through the US courts, something that usually happens quite slowly, or in fits starts with plenty of delays baked in along the way. Sey knows a great deal about the wheeling and dealing, jockeying for position, competitive rivalries, cut-throat power plays and efforts to save face and CYA that go on the upper rungs of management in big business. But she doesn't seem to know a lot about the complicated, convoluted and often rather boring, frustrating and dragged-out business of how things work - and how deals get made, and how change occurs - in the US legal, administrative and political systems, especially not on the granular level of "how the sausage gets made" and then how the sausage, once made, gets challenged and picked apart in the courts.
We're literally not yet out of the first 100 days of this administration. How fast does she think shit happens in the real world of three federal branches, fifty states, and a shit-ton of counties and municipalities (navigating an extra load of political chaos along the way)? Fuck's sake -- there's no toggle switch to automagically make this happen. Take a civics course.
Jennifer Sey does not understand how the government works. An EO is not law, it is instructions to federal agency how to enforce the laws. That requires issuing guidance, going through regulation and the rule making process, which can take months. Court cases take years to be resolved, the legal system is not People's Court or Judge Judy where you walk up to a lectern, say your piece, and the judge renders a decision on the spot. And to be frank, the attorneys from the DoJ have done an absolute crap job anytime they have had to address issues relating to the EOs about sex and gender identity, really, really awful jobs.
If anyone thought Trump would take office, issue a bunch of EOs and the world would change overnight, they are delusional. These issues are so much more complex, especially when there are conflicts between federal and state laws. There are limits to what the federal government can do via its spending power to coerce states to change their laws. Expecting immediate change was never realistic. Jennifer Sey should spend more time educating herself about the legal system and how our government functions instead of showing off her ignorance on X.
And in many ways having this slow-moving government is what saves us from total dictatorship. There are so many layers of it, and by the time these EOs get to court, the Democrats will have probably taken one or both of the houses, and then Trump will be a lame duck. I think he knows it, which is why he is signing so many EOs. Most will be overturned by the courts or the Government. Justice Barrett is starting to turn against him. I have a feeling Roberts will too.