Washington Post Book Review: “Kara Goucher and Lauren Fleshman reveal what’s wrong with women running.”

All of the other pro women you mention are younger than Fleshman (I think jenny Simpson is the oldest of that bunch and she's 5 years younger). Could it be that the industry has dramatically changed for female pros who started in the past 15 years vs the past 5-10?

Exactly. Deena was the first that came to mind but there really is a long list. It's just that we seldom see discussions about the one's who exude positivity and were seemingly fortunate enough to come from a supportive background. I don't buy that the Sara Halls of the world are the exception. And what about Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson, etc.?

Of course you twist this into complaining about the plight of the poor straight white male 😢

It really could be. Even at the junior level it seems like we see less burnout and better coaching leading to smoother long-term development. Social media has also opened a lot of doors for endorsement deals etc and less reliance on Nike (such as Kara not being paid whole pregnant). I'm sure those things contribute.

I would not have interpreted that as complaining about the poor straight white male. If anything I'd interpret that as saying if you're a straight white male the media will still write about your accomplishments such as they are, but if you're in any other group the media's only interested if you have a fierce stunning brave story of overcoming sexism, racism, whatever -ism applies. If anything it's just another advantage straight white men have, in not being infantilized by the media and only seen as interesting if they can drive a narrative about systemic whatever. Quite literally the articles says this story can show "what's wrong with women's running" even as posters in here have listed probably 20 different elite women who show "what's wrong" with their sport obviously doesn't apply to all, or even most.

I feel like you may have misinterpreted the post you're complaining about.

“If they can’t tell your “story” in terms of hardship and oppression, the media doesn’t want to know about you.”

Exactly - so true

Nope, Cras is right about what I meant. I very specifically meant, if you aren’t a straight white male, your story has to be about identity-centric hardship or else “the media doesn’t want to know about you” in our current era of grievance culture. They still let straight white dudes be featured just on their own merits.

Guys, what do you expect??? This is press for their books, it obviously highlights the obstacles they've had to overcome. The reason this article doesn't talk about Sara Hall or whoever else appears to be uncritical of the state of women's running is because those people didn't recently publish books. People don't tend to publish books about everything going perfectly.

I think you're missing (or blatantly skipping over) the point of LF and KG's stories. You can absolutely highlight Hall, Praught-Leer, D'amato, etc., but their stories don't change the stories of Laura or Kara (or Mary Cain, Alexi Pappas, Allie Ostrander, etc), which highlight systemic issues within women's sports that matter to and affect those *in* women's sport.

This happens all the time on Reddit with the snark threads on influencers (running and otherwise).

And meanwhile women in the working class, who don't have the privilege of white educated women, are legitimately struggling and need the benefits of feminism. Feminism might not be wrong about certain things, to be honest, but it only benefits a narrow slice of women in the US--the educated, intellectual elite. Not the average woman trying to make a better life for herself and get by.

Did the title on the WP ever say "women running" or was the OP just trying to be funny?

I don't understand, did you even look at the link that the OP provided? It's the name of the Opinion piece

That's funny. Of course it's just a typo like whatever is going on in your sentence.

I think the title of the article is misleading because it's only about two women and their personal experiences. Sure, there are still problems women runners face, but that's not really what this article is about.

but the title of the thread is the title of the article. Rojo didn't know this despite the link to the article being provided in the very first post

The title of the thread says "women running," not "women's running." Probably just a typo from OP but I think rojo was asking if it was the actual title of the WP article at any point.

This is one whiney thread about a book review trying to tie the thread between two recently published books. Success stories like those of Sara Hall and Elle Purrier have gotten due attention with flashy features in the NY Times. You know what, Mary Cain used to be a positive feelgood story in the Times magazine too.

Sara Hall could probably get a book contract to write about adoption from Ethiopia and her journey of going from the support figure to the main pro runner in her marriage. Des is going to be coming out with her book next month. You know what it's going to be about? Her struggles.

No one writes an entire book about how happy they are (except Deena).