posted Aug 29th, 2018 - Eliana Rodriguez, Dawn English, Arianna de Benedetti, Lise Nansen, Alena Chistova, Christy Frikken, Jennifer Davidson, Laurence Herve, Sophia Pecout, Christine Malnis, Pamela Lissajoux, Clementine Le Bohec, JaNette Lefkowitz, Jules Foxwell, Daniele Smythe, Megan George, Michelle Karamon, Brenn Richards, Linda Koeb ...

I always read whatever the Fuckin' Pilot is writing for Blue Skies Mag. It is at least entertaining and well written, often funny. I don't always subscribe to his language and his views but that's completely irrelevant, as everybody can write and speak their minds, whether I like it or not. I do the same and I encourage others to do just that.

However, I have never agreed so much with everything the Princess said than in the BSM 100th anniversary issue in April this year. What a magnificent piece for the magnificent anniversary and congratulations to Lara and Kolla.

I read it, enjoyed it and stored in the back of my mind. I kind of knew he had touched a familiar nerve but I was not sure yet what it was exactly. Well, I think I knew it actually, but I had chewed on the topic of the 4-way Women's event in Formation Skydiving competition for much too long with much too much energy wasted. I don't know how many times it has been the topic of TURNING POINTS but I surely know that it was not new.

I had put it aside and given up on the logic of our Formation Skydiving competition categories (4-way Open, 4-way Women, 4-way VFS, 8-way Open) where 4-way Women is the only event that separates the girls from the boys. They can compete together in 4-way Open, 4-way VFS and 8-way Open but they also have their own separate leaderboard for only girls. I don't even know if ANY other skydiving event has the same separation. I DO know that there is a separation at the military events, whatever their logic is. They do very different things in many different ways.

TURNING POINTS: #MeToo

So, I let it go at some point and settled with the status quo, which is fine with me in the professional area where I even have related advantages for my job: there is an additional leaderboard with more scores, videos, photos and stories, etc.

I was happy inside of me by making peace as I had become really tired of the arguments that just did not make any sense to me.

Then it came back to me, first when Princess touched the nerve and spoke my mind and then again when I found out that the FAI/IPC lawmakers seem to be evaluating the current format in Formation Skydiving competition and are discussing the options - after 17 years of trying to find out how many more all-female teams, and women in general, would enter the sport with the 4-way Women trick.

The trick did not work and that's OK, except that it took a little bit too long to figure out. In the meantime, many people have argued and wondered what that was all about, including myself.

I am NOT saying I don't see the untapped large potential of attracting more women into our sport. I hear that there are roughly only 15 percent in the whole skydiving community. Yes, I am all for doing everything it takes to attract more girls into our unique world and sharing the element with them. I just don't think that separating them at a Formation Skydiving competition in different categories is a smart way to do it.

UK Nationals 2018		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	E,C,12,14		7,Q,K,G		B,J,2,A		15,D,4		L,13,M,F		6,8,O		11,18,N		9,10,5		1,17,22		Total	Avg
1	NFTO	19		27		27	-1	16		25		19		16		19		17		185	20.6
2	Satori XL	18		27		25		18		25		18		17		19		17		184	20.4

Now, what brought me back to open my mouth is the fact that things have changed ever since I made peace with the status quo.

It was the Fuckin' Pilot in April who made it so crystal clear to me what is wrong with 4-way Women as an event and I am hoping that the (few but very strong) event advocates may finally see that there is more behind it than a few more medals and trips to events and coaching jobs.

It has become a political, social and cultural issue and we are on the losing end with our gender separation in 4-way competition.

Thank you, Princess, for presenting it from a completely different angle and I am hoping that your funny and different way of telling the truth may have more impact than my poor two cents that I have spent for many years.

Yes, #MeToo, the whole gender inequality and discrimination wave have turned the topic into more than just a skydiving discussion about an event. Once again Princess made it so clear that our sport is different and allows boys and girls to do everything together and we should be so fortunate that we don't even have to think about it.

French Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	E,G,10,2	9,Q,14	5,19,C	12,16,A	15,1,17	20,L,3	13,F,22	11,N,D,O	M,7,8	P,4,H,21	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	20	28	23	23	19	20	20	31	24	27	235	23.5
2	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	22	29	25	21	21	21	17	29	24	26	235	23.5

WE ARE EQUAL IN SKYDIVING, YES WE ARE. And all the rest of how Princess explained it.

And here comes the dangerous part that I have not touched yet and Princess neither. There is more behind our 4-way Women event and it is related to the political, social and cultural part of it that is obviously VERY urgent. #MeToo, gender inequality issues and discrimination have moved to the top of public attention and the dangerous part is the discrimination. Do we really want to be looked at as a sport that discriminates against women?

I will forgive everybody who may not have thought about this in the past as it was really not a burning fire. Now it is. We discriminate women by indicating that they are not good/strong/skilled/whatever enough to compete with men, even though we have many examples of the opposite (check the top of the article). Just ask the Fuckin' Pilot.

Yes, it is discrimination and not fair to tell somebody one thing while knowing much better. The #MeToo, gender inequality and discrimination wave is a perfect opportunity for FAI/IPC lawmakers to make things right and they would stand as courageous, considerate and responsible people by doing that.

In the meantime, the much-appreciated campaign of bringing more women into the sport can continue without interruption. It might even become more attractive for girls to see an opportunity where they can do things together with boys (or not, if they choose so). There is also absolutely no reason why four girls cannot continue to train and compete in 4-way Open. Hey, the unbelievable French Girls are beating 99 percent of all boys and mixed teams in the world ...

Let's start looking for reasons in other areas why we have only the assumed 15 percent of girls in the sport. How about that jumping from planes into death is generally considered a tough deal, more something for the hunters and warriors? How about many girls thinking about building and growing families? That's challenging in pregnancy and as a young mother with a young baby. I fully support the idea of a mother being there for the little kids, at least until they don't need nursing any longer. The father should be there and available, too, equally. But we don't get pregnant and don't have boobs with milk in there. And we surely don't have the mothering nature given to us for free.

All of that could be in the way of starting with skydiving, too, don't you think...? There are more and better reasons, no doubt, and I am not an expert in this area. But it does not surprise me too much that there are more boys than girls in the sport. And I am grateful for and impressed by any girl that joins our wonderful community - and beats us in competition...