Nike debuted its first Tremendous Bowl business in 27 years final month, and whereas a star-studded feminine lineup of athletes was concerned, the advert acquired criticism for the corporate’s stance on supporting transgender athletes competing in girls’s sports activities.
Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, JuJu Watkins, Sha’Carri Richardson, Jordan Chiles and different stars from varied sports activities have been within the one-minute advert that had completely different language with the identical theme.
The slogans included “You can’t flex, so flex,” “You can’t fill a stadium, so fill that stadium,” “You can’t be emotional, so be emotional” and “You can’t win, so win.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Jennifer Sey with model ambassadors Paula Scanlan, left, and Riley Gaines, proper (XX-XY Athletics)
XX-XY Athletics, the athletic model whose objective is to help feminine athletes by defending security and equity in girls’s sports activities and holding organic males out of girls’s and women sports activities, launched a video of a number of athletes reacting to Nike’s advert.
Powerlifter April Hutchinson, who was suspended from the Canadian Powerlifting Union for 2 years for talking out towards a trans athlete getting into competitions in girls’s classes, took exception to the a part of Nike’s advert about flexing.
“I’ve never been told that I can’t flex or can’t do this or that,” Hutchinson stated.
College of Nevada girls’s volleyball captain Sia Liilii, who, amongst many teammates, fought towards her faculty’s determination to play towards trans athlete Blaire Fleming and the San Jose State Spartans final season, felt Nike was lacking the mark.
“That Nike ad kinda represented old feminism. I don’t think anyone is telling women in sports they can’t champion their sport,” Liilii defined.
“Fake feminism,” “pretending to care about women” and “Nike is ignoring the real problem” have been traces utilized by different athletes within the video.
The “real problem” is the primary level of what XX-XY Athletics was getting throughout in its video response to Nike.
Sia Liilii tells her story in IW Options’ “Hold the Line.” (IW Options)
“Women can flex, be confident, be emotional, fill stadiums. And win. But what can’t they do? Speak. On one subject in particular: protecting women’s sports,” an XX-XY Athletics press launch stated.
“’Just Do It’ – that’s your slogan, isn’t it Nike? Just do it. Stand up for women. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do,” sports activities civil rights advocate Riley Gaines stated, ending the video.
When the Nike advert got here out, Jennifer Sey, a former U.S. gymnast and founder/CEO of XX-XY Athletics, rapidly known as out Nike on X.
“You’re so full of it. The only thing female athletes are told they can’t do is stand up for the integrity of their sports, for keeping men out of women’s sports. Literally, that’s the only thing,” Sey wrote in response to the business on X.
Michele Tafoya, the veteran sports activities broadcaster and journalist, additionally took exception to it.
Riley Gaines has championed equity in girls’s sports activities. (XX-XY Athletics)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Nike is too late to this party. And they’re stuck in stereotypical language from about 25 years ago,” Tafoya wrote, later including, “What a waste of ad dollars.”
President Donald Trump fulfilled his marketing campaign promise of defending girls’s sports activities, signing the “No Men in Women’s Sports” government order Feb. 5. Whereas some states complied and the NCAA revised its personal trans athlete coverage, states like Minnesota have rejected modifications to their insurance policies.
Comply with Fox Information Digital’s sports activities protection on X, and subscribe to the Fox Information Sports activities Huddle e-newsletter.
