34 Comments
Aug 15Liked by Jeff Maurer

Oceania has always been at war with break dancing.

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You're not wrong; take a look at literally any of her research papers and you'll see that her entire career even in academia has been the result of a pipeline failure. A pHd in breakdancing?

"Dancing away distinction: Queering hip hop culture through All Style battles"?.

Seems to also be an issue with a taxpayer funding pipeline (big shock there).

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I feel like this is similar to when the guy who cleans the toilets sweetened offices after hours went from janitor to custodian. People have a deep deep desire to highly exaggerate the importance of what they do.

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As an untalented dullard, I find this piece shocking and offensive.

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Eh, she's been involved in more than just the one tournament which got her her place. Supposedly she "was the top-ranked B-girl in the Australian Breaking Association in 2020 and 2021, representing the country at the World DanceSport Federation Breaking Championships in 2021 through 2023" (https://www.vogue.com/article/raygun-101-everything-you-need-to-know-about-embattled-olympic-breaker) Also I've seen some other videos of her breaking and while I agree with her that she wouldn't have won (https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/olympics/australian-breakdancer-fires-back-at-scrutiny-in-social-media-post/news-story/ae239ee93105b8c9bab5e68bb168ea67) she was still better than what she performed at the Olympic.

So perhaps we take at face value her claim she tried to be "artistic and creative" as a hail mary attempt despite the clear failure of that plan in her first event (which has big "you can't fire me, I quit" vibes) Or perhaps we consider the theory that she tanked due to her own published concerns that the IOC would "place breaking more firmly within this sporting nation’s hegemonic settler-colonial structures that rely upon racialized and gendered hierarchies" (https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ghhs_00078_1)

Regardless I don't think this display was an honest effort and the Australian on the men's side who didn't embarrass himself (https://www.instagram.com/j__attack/reel/C-ptpKuIJ4o/) still also lost almost as badly (17-1,18-0, 17-1) so maybe that's a pipeline issue or maybe breaking just doesn't have a strong enough base in Oceania to produce medal-challenging competitors

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“the theory that she tanked due to her own published concerns that the IOC would "place breaking more firmly within this sporting nation’s hegemonic settler-colonial structures that rely upon racialized and gendered hierarchies"

Welp, I guess the hyper-woke and I finally agree on something: breakdancing should not be an Olympic sport.

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I was honestly impressed by the athleticism of the top dancers. I went in with low expectations and they were greatly exceeded. It easily the matches some of the other "artistic" variants of gymnastics, skating or synchronized swimming for difficulty. Raygun really did a major disservice here.

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I have nothing against breakdancing per se, I just think style categorization is dumb. If it’s just gymnastics with a different style of dancing and tumbling, imho it should simply be an option for a floor exercise, not an entirely new sport.

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Lol, is this horseshoe theory at work?

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The World DanceSport Federation is a ballroom dancing organization that has been agitating for years to get ballroom into the Olympics. They literally pivoted to breaking for the sole purpose of getting their foot in the door with the IOC.

It’s not surprising they have a pipeline problem getting more talented breakdancers. It’s unclear how much they care to do better, since breaking is not their primary interest but a means to an end.

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Or maybe, like many first-time Olympians who have picked up a few injuries in the run up to the competition, she simply underperformed on the day due to pressure.

It happens. There were multiple divers in the men’s 10m platform event who flubbed a dive they usually nail, which is why bronze went to the diver from my country who came third-from-last in Tokyo after *he* flubbed a dive in his first Olympics.

Regardless, the conspiracy theorising, outright lies and abuse this lady has received is totally out-of-proportion with her crime of dancing not-so-well.

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For a deeper analysis of Raygun's moves, I recommend another Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/ozzymanreviews/p/rayguns-olympic-moves-explained-by

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Sydney proper is home to approximately 20% of the entire Australian population, with the overwhelming majority of the remainder within a one-day drive. Could they have done more to cast a wider net? I guess, but at some point the evidence says your population just doesn't care.

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This is brilliant - well done. As a coach I think about pipelines probably more than most people do, and I’ve been thinking for a while that one of the biggest pipeline problems is in the Democratic Party. But I’m basing this mainly on the geriatric trend for those at the top. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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I think the geriatric trend at the top may have to do with the current media environment making it much harder to mint new stars with staying power. This is especially noticeable in the field of politics where being a superstar requires elusive qualities like "gravitas" and "a record of good judgment."

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And being completely truthful!

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Did yawl know that Dame Edna isn't a real woman?? One of them purple haired transgenders is what I heard on Facebook. Spent 70 years transing the youth of Australia with critical wokeness theory. BOYCOTT JEFF MAURER FOR PLATFORMING THIS GROOMER.

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I always thought Dame Edna was three platypuses ( platypusi?) in a dress

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The part that is saddest for me, if I'm being honest, is that I would have lost to her...

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Pipeline problem: Baron Pierre de Coubertin won a gold medal at the 1912 Olympics for literature. He entered because he was afraid nobody would bother. He was correct; nobody else did. He was also against allowing women to take part; which instantly narrowed the pipeline of opportunities.

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It feels sort of funny how this piece carefully doesn't mention the now-unpopular term DEI, but that DEI is mostly about expanding the pipeline (outside of people's weird imaginations)

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DEI is mostly focused on affirmative action at the end of the pipeline (college and beyond). To really expand the pipeline we’ve got to do way better at primary and secondary education, and the leading DEI initiatives there seem to be “don’t punish troublemakers, ban standardized testing, and eliminate advanced classes and selective schools, for Equity”.

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A lot of the primary/secondary education initiatives around 'equity' are indeed dumb. DEI initiatives at companies aren't affirmative action at the hiring level at all (it's illegal to consider race/gender in hiring decisions), maybe a little bit at the interview pool level (making sure that you're interviewing a good mix of candidates is a reasonable metric to know if you have blind spots)

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I wish that were practically true. I know that’s what they “say”. But I haven’t seen DEI be used as a pipeline expansion. Mostly I see it used as a dull “well man 13% of the country is black and only 11% of your staff is!! You racist, bruh?” Seems to be about the extent.

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I see it used that way in twitter, but I've never seen it used that way in an actual workplace

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You’re right. In the workplace as per the training I’ve seen it used to explain that “yes. Hispanic people are just late a lot and you have to deal with it.”

So not sure that’s better. 😂

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And e.g., reconsidering which things are stylistic preferences or steretypes vs. necessary to do the job. E.g., how an employee dresses, whether they're a morning person, etc.

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Lol, I haven't seen it used that way, but have seen it used for things like "different cultures have different propensities to be willing to share information like plans for future babies"

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Oh. I’ll have to find the video.

The major issue with DEI is the absolute grifting that occurs in its name. As you said it can be a useful tool for finding blind spots.

But it’s also a useful tool for people to sell snake oil. For instance “woke kindergarten” or the “kojo institute” that charges absurd amounts of money to give symposiums where they sell guilt back to people.

Just like anything else. The good has to outweigh the bad. And because of the “dogmatic” nature of a lot of DEI initiatives people find themselves unable to be critical of them broadly.

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Definitely a lot of grifters, but that's not unique to dei. Just feels funny when 90% of my experience with dei is normie employee talent acquisition and retention stuff but now it's some kind of conservative bogeyman stuff.

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I have absolutely seen it used in the workplace that way - almost with that literal example

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Does the IOC get their "ideas" for new "sports" from America's Got Talent?

I'm waiting for "Plate Spinning on a Pogo Stick" to be chosen.

Practicing hard I am.....

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I get and agree with your general point about pipelines, but in this case I don’t think any “pipeline” was built anywhere: Red Bull created a competition about 20 years ago, and has continued to support it.

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