I just stumbled on the most partisan article I’ve seen for a while about the Olympics. In The Independent.
This is a newspaper that tried to set itself up as being free from influence. Long gone. It was bought over a decade ago by the owner of the London Evening Standard, one of the shoutiest and most entitled local rags we have. I’ll still read it, but it is monster.
It makes me very interested, as always, about who controls the narrative and why. I’m totally stoked that all these teams of hard working humans I’m working alongside at this event pissed each other off so royally for so long because they all wanted their thing to go well. But I’m stoked because it DID go well, despite fuckery. P24 never really understood how accreditation was supposed to work, so it was madness for me to expect them to know it when I asked them. Asking them how accreditation works and how you get it is like asking a kid at school if you can join their gang and what you have to do. “Yeah you need the um … the green SAP form but it isn’t called a SAP cos mum told me it’s different but NAH NAH YOUR OLD FORM DON’T WORK NO MORE STUPID ha ha ha blerrrgh I’m a major security firm for a big event woowoowoo this is my siren. You’ve got to go eat an earthworm and then you can be in my gang if you have your passport in your pocket and you can breakdance and now it’s called a UTF but tomorrow it’ll be called a Para something and I DON’T UNDERSTAND MY GANG HELP ME I’M LOST mother mother is that you I’m going home so nah nah get your own gang mister yes you can use my den.”
I had to fight to get into a venue with my Olympic accreditation that came slowly and with a background check and why? Because now they want a transitional pass that is much less secure, and after that they will want a para pass that the security lads all had already bless them but we won’t have a sniff of them until they open the accreditation boxes again. It’s the fuckedest system in Christendom.
The road passes are a hot mess. But the games have worked alongside them and the armies of cops and gendarmes. None of them have a fucking clue what the system is because, frankly, the system is a disaster. It is held together with toffee tape. You get ten different opinions every ten foot. They didn’t implement anything properly and nobody is feeding information down the chain. Every different venue it’s random. INV is the worst now by a country mile. Now I’m pulling out, it’s hilarious.
But anyway, yeah, there’s a surprising amount of noise in the press from the kids who hate “woke”. I’ve never really understood why freedom of personal expression is considered so dangerous and offensive to them. I think they were triggered by something in the opening ceremony which I didn’t see. Maybe Bacchus? I know there was some consternation there. Now they’re crying about a female boxer and some nepo academic attempting left-brain breakdance for some mad reason. She’s been swept up in the culture war because her PHD has the word “gender” in the title and there are lots of people who just go to Grendel when they hear talk of gender.
It’s all so tedious, but I’ve got “right wing” friends for whom “disgusted” is a state of being rather than someone in Tunbridge Wells. They are so upset about Imane Khelif. I see an incredible journey where a girl is born with hormonal fuckery and rather than that being the thing that holds her back the family are like “yes, you’re being teased at school for being a big girl but how about you use what you’ve got and BE the big girl and spark those whining Italian sub-bullies out?!” “She’s a man,” say the AWwwww kids who have never experienced much beyond their frame and the fact they’ve set themselves up against something they don’t understand. Cos IT’S NOT ME AND IT’S NOT WHAT I GREW UP WITH SO IT’S WRONG. Kids have always annoyed me. It’s worse when they’re in their thirties, forties, fifties, but I think the internet has rung the bell for closing time for long form thinking… It’s easy for people with view to see that the shouty narrative is not the truth. But no is easier than yes, even if it’s less interesting. This culture war Grendelerises gender. We can’t talk about it without fearing attack from a nebulous monster.
As I’ve written in the past, I’m largely just gobsmacked that the Parisians and our team pulled the games off and it was incredible and took in all the land marks. It sang, despite the noises from the No-woks.
It still seems impossible even though it literally happened. Paris Paras now. Oh lord. The commentary is fascinating. I love the Yusuf Dikec memes as he is just a brilliant accidental character and bears it well. I’m worried for the RayGunn thing. If she was mocking competitive breakdance then she’s a douche. If she thought she was the best qualified person to do it for her country then she’s delusional. If she wanted to change the way it is judged she chose the wrong manner and stage. I’m not on the ground there, so I don’t know if she’s conceited or not in person. I’m hoping she is conceited, as if she somehow arrived at what she did without overactive intellect and negativity, if she openly misjudged things then that’s what happened and let’s stop being nasty. It’s hard to not see it as some kind of intellectual statement though… Intellect has no home in breakdance. It’s a freedom thing and it’s not my territory at all – or hers if she can’t do it.
As for Khelif, she did well and I bet that the anger from how all the nowoks were treating her just added weight to her punches. I had a personal trainer once, at the start of my career. At the time it had only been about four years without a single audition for a major theatre. I would punch harder when he encouraged me with “all the theatre casting directors that haven’t seen you!” I felt my privilege was working against me so I tried to flatten my vowels for years until I just stepped up and accepted that that’s my background. It’s hard to be entirely comfortable with what you are, as you can only fully see other people, but I’m happy that this woman who has likely had to put up with mockery her whole life has hit a peak and made a huge achievement for herself despite it all.
AlBarclay 