XX-XY Athletics video screengrab / X (Left) Tricky Shark / stock.adobe.com (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // An athletic clothing company released an ad on Wednesday calling on Nike to stand up for girls’ and women’s sports. The one-minute ad has since gone viral on social media.
XX-XY Athletics’ ad, “Dear Nike,” features a montage of several young female athletes asking the Oregon-based athletic apparel giant, “Dear Nike, why won’t you stand up for me?”
“Why do you claim to support women and girls, yet when we need you most, you remain silent?” the female athletes in the video ask:
Today males are claiming our identity, our sports, our spaces. Men and boys are stealing opportunities, medals, trophies, and our future. It is not fair or just. In fact, it’s often dangerous. Yet, you refuse to use your platform to stand up.
You say you’re for social justice and progress. So, why do you allow men’s rights to come before ours? See, with a big platform, comes an even bigger responsibility.
The ad tells Nike that it has “a chance to do the right thing” as opposed to just “the easy thing.”
“So we’re asking you, Nike, as the biggest voice in all of sports, will you stand up for me?” the young athletes take turns asking.
“Will you ‘just do it’?” one girl asks – reiterating Nike’s popular slogan.
XX-XY noted on X (formerly Twitter) that the ad was released in honor of XX Day (also known as Real Women’s Day), which was observed on Thursday, October 10.
In a Thursday op-ed published at FOX News, women’s sports advocate and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines recounted how she and Rep. Lisa McClain, R-MI, helped establish the new observance.
“How can we get back to honoring real women when it’s a woman’s recognition to be had?” Gaines wrote:
I thought of Oct. 10. It’s the 10th day of the 10th month, which is demoted in Roman numerals by XX. If you took Biology101, then you probably remember which chromosomes make a human female: XX.
Thus, Real Women’s Day was born – to be celebrated on Oct. 10 (XX).
Gaines noted that in 2023, McClain “introduced a resolution on the U.S. House floor” establishing the day “to recognize the fundamental biological differences between men and women.”
The former swimmer also noted that the House lawmaker’s resolution “Recognizes the emotional pain, lost experiences, denied opportunities and trauma inflicted upon biological women who have been forced to compete against biological men in sports.”
On XX Day, Gaines wrote in an X post linking to her op-ed: “Democrats claim to be the ‘party for women’, yet they can’t define what a woman is.”
The same day, McClain stated on X that she is “proud to stand alongside strong leaders like [Gaines] in the fight to defend women’s sports.”
“Title IX and women’s sports need to be celebrated, not used as a pawn by the left in their radical gender war,” McClain emphasized.
XX-XY’s foundress is Jennifer Sey, a retired gymnast and former Levi Strauss & Co. executive.
As CatholicVote reported in April, Sey said that by founding XX-XY, she
hopes to make it fashionable to defend the differences between men and women. She is teaming up with retired collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and others in the effort to prevent “transgender” men from participating in women’s athletics.
Sey told CatholicVote at the time: “I’ve been standing up for female athletes since 2008 when I wrote my book Chalked Up, exposing the abusive training culture in gymnastics.”
“For me, as a person who benefited from Title IX when I competed in the 70s and 80s, I think it is incredibly important to protect it,” she added.
>> APRIL: CATHOLICVOTE INTERVIEW WITH XX-XY FOUNDRESS <<
In August, CatholicVote reported that Sey’s company “launched a fund and award program to financially support female athletes who lose scholarships or sponsorships for speaking out against letting men who say they are women play in women’s sports.”
“Both the fund and the awards are donor-driven and provide scholarship assistance or sponsorship replacement for female athletes who stand up for women’s sports,” CatholicVote’s report specified. “Portions of purchases made at XX-XY Athletics go towards the fund as well.”
