I can't for the life of my figure out why a human being would feel compelled to sling a few hundred pounds of iron onto a bar and lift the damn thing up over her head. But hell, if that's what she chooses to do, she ought be able to do it without some knucklehead calling her a lezbo or a dyke or a "bloke."
18-year-old British Olympian weightlifter Zoe Smith has been taking hell from some dopey bullies on the internet - and giving it right back.
Smith was recently featured in a BBC Documentary, after which she was bombarded with abuse.
"You wouldn't marry any of them they're probably lesbians anyway," one said to her on Twitter. Smith replied and said he wasn't exactly prime marriage material.
"I wouldn’t even look at you I’d think you was a bloke and so would 9 out 10 lads, came the response. "Piss off back to the kitchen and make your boyfriend a sandwich he’s hungry."
All of which prompted Smith, who began her athletic life as a gymnast, to write an entire blog post on the subject of women in weightlifting.
"Most of the people that do think like this seem to be chauvinistic, pig-headed blokes who feel emasculated by the fact that we are stronger than them. Simple as that," she wrote, noting that she had heard taunts from a number of girls, too.
"You'd think that young women around the same age as us would commend us. But apparently we’re 'weird' for not constantly eating crap, binge drinking regularly and wearing the shortest, tightest dresses that the high street has to offer."
Zoe Smith is mostly right, and it's great that she's pushing back against this crap. But she's not quite right about one thing: the abuse she's taking from men isn't simply because she's a woman and she's stronger than them. The reaction to Smith, specifically, is more complicated. Not only is she stronger, she's also pretty, smart, has a boyfriend. In other words, she doesn't fit into a gender identity we're familiar and comfortable with.
Zoe Smith doesn't fit into any of the identities we expect from our female athletes: the sex object (an extreme hetero form), the mother (another male fantasy form), or the manish bull dyke (the one who doesn't cooperate with the male fantasy).
If Smith fit more closely into the profile of the manish bull dyke, my guess is no one would feel the need to tell her she's a manish bull dyke. But since she dares to have a cute, girly face and a more hetero profile while she hoists them weights up over her head, some jackass out there feels compelled to convince her that she's just another bull dyke.
Katie Persichilli:
just another case of people's unwillingness to see a female succeed. things like this make me so angry and embarrassed for those who continue to marginalize anyone, especially through social media - the lowest of communication.
18-year-old British Olympian weightlifter Zoe Smith has been taking hell from some dopey bullies on the internet - and giving it right back. 
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