I ONLY bought the Whip because of the CT bearing.
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As far as it goes for the YouTube and Facebook comments. Ann is gorgeous, and creepers are going to creep.
For the yoyoing community and other youthful activities. Most the boys that are excluding women or making rude comments are what? Probably 12 - 24? Do you know what that means? Their hormones are completely out of wack. They are either more scared of them, confused, nervous, hormone infused hornballs, or all of the above. They will most likely regret it in the future when they get a girlfriend or grow up.
I think this thread is a step in the right direction. If more of the throwers causing its creation were to read this and make attempts to follow the message then it squashes it right there, or shows those willing to go against the larger mature populace that, that type of behavior is unacceptable.
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Hormones definitely play a role in our actions but it still it’s no excuse, it just presents a greater challenge for some to act appropriately.
I know I did and said stupid things when I was younger. Your heart starts beating and things just come out wrong or are done all wrong. You learn from it, and if you don’t eventually are you going to get fired or go to jail later in life. If you learn from your mistakes it makes you a better person and think twice. Think of it as learning for the first time that fire is hot, or even better yet, if you whip the yoyo this way you are going to get clocked in the face.
Because you trying to look cool or the anonymity of the internet people post stupid stuff. I am not one of those ppl that posts on the pics of girls I don’t even know that say. “D**N!!!” or “You so hawt!!!” If those people want to look like idiots let them and know not to do it yourself.
Yoyo companies only sponsor players because they represent the company. It’s not all about skill necessarily, although if a player wins the WYYC, I’m sure a company will pick them up. I think in Ann’s case, sure, she’s not the best player, but she is good. She is the face of YYF for sure (or one of them), but it works, doesn’t it?
Now how I see this whole entire thing with the reasoning YYF with Ann. It seems like almost any girl can be sponsored for just knowing how to Yoyo decent and look good with make up! Is that really fair to all the guys who want to be sponsored so they work butt off to the best they can be and get sponsored? is that really fair to the guy yoyoers if the girls yoyoers got it that easy? I realize yo-yoing is male dominate hobby but should guys be on the same playing field? It doesn’t seem like it!
but like it’s been said: sponsorship doesn’t have to have anything to do with skill. A sponsorship is an investment. The whole point is to bring positive attention to the company, which is exactly what Ann does as do most girl yoyoers. Just because someone has more technical skill doesn’t mean they should be sponsored over someone else, it’s the sponsor’s choice as to who they want to represent their company.
also I agree with waylon’s comment. I would say Ann can throw better than probably 90% of her critics
Fixed. Any yoyo company that sponsors anyone is doing it to promote their brand and increase their business, period.
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I have heard of jokes made about Ann’s skill by a player at a recent contest. That same player got up on stage and did not score anywhere near as high as Ann in the contest. I agree with the earlier statements, that Ann can out yo-yo the vast majority of her critics from a technical standpoint. But beyond that, she is a great example for young girls and women who are interested in the hobby, but may have reservations about participating. A lot of them will see Ann, her skill, stage presence and all she has accomplished, and be inspired as I have. Women are half the population, if not more, and if they too buy yo-yos, it expands the industry as a whole, by about 50%, which is huge, and a major reason to have women sponsored.
Mr. Coons made very relevant points in his statement, and whether or not you agree with every single point he made, he had the guts to present the matter again for discussion. I believe he saw something that bothered him and someone close to him, and he decided not to be a spectator, but help be part of the solution by raising it for discussion. I believe he had nothing at all to gain, and if he did, as much to lose by making his statement. I’m always a fan of those who speak up, when it may not be the “popular” thing to do, and I am now a fan of his.
I have taken the time to read the thread. My experience is that most men, adult men and young men too, have no apparent sexism toward women. They actually, as a whole, have been very welcoming and helpful, and I have met some great people. My best two friends in the yo-yo community are men. The problem Mr. Coons wrote about is a minority, a small percentage, that I would agree have an “attitude” of sorts about women being sponsored by yo-yo companies. My belief is that most mature men have no problem with it at all, and I believe it comes from a younger audience who lack self confidence. They believe the reason they cannot get sponsored by a major company, according to them, has nothing to do with their lack of skill, the way they look, what they have to offer, what they have accomplished, or their sexist attitude on Facebook, and instead has everything to do with the few women who have been sponsored ahead of them.
As it has already been stated, these companies determine how they want to represent and promote their brand. If they get wind of a sexist attitude, when they are in the business of selling yo-yos to potentially 100% of the gender population instead of the current 50%, they may not want to sponsor a sexist anyway. They want to sell to females too, whenever possible. So, we should make note of the names of the people with the attitudes and spread the word to these companies that they do not deserve a sponsorship, ever, because they are counter productive toward the goal of selling yo-yos to as many people as possible, including the mostly untapped female market.
I think some of the posts in this thread verify exactly what I’ve stated, that most males are not threatened in any way by a female with a yo-yo. The few, a small percentage, who are threatened for some strange reason, need to re-evaluate confidence issues. I believe in freedom of expression, and I like to see the ones with the attitudes express themselves so we know who they are. Mr. Coons, Andre Boulay and many others are examples of men who are supportive of women in yo-yoing. A real man is not threatened by any girl with a yo-yo. I read the statements in the thread, which were as a whole very supportive of women, and all the women who yo-yo really do appreciate all the great men in the community for their support too.
As for the player I described at the beginning of the post, I have no idea why that player decided to pick on Ann, especially when he could not outdo her at the contest. I turned to the guy who told me about the joke, and pointed out that the player did not outscore her on stage. Ann Connolly is a great inspiration for women, and I give YoyoFactory a lot of credit for sponsoring her, because they really got lucky. Also, after buying over 100 yo-yos this year, with just a year in the game, I never owned a CLYW. I learned of their recent sponsorship of a female yo-yoer, Ewelina Wejner. Since that, I now own two CLYW throws (Gnarwhal/Avalanche) and counting. I have proven that female sponsorship is a direct correlation to sales. I have always liked Yoyojam for the same reason.
I will also take another twist to this. I agree with the statements of some of the men who raise the point about appreciating a woman’s attractiveness or beauty without it being in a disrespectful way, just admiring her and appreciating her beauty. I see nothing wrong with that. One major way to sell anything to a majority male market, is to have a female present the product to them. That has been since the beginning of time. He will appreciate and notice a product presented by an attractive person. We see a lot of products advertised and sold this way, yo-yos are no different. Have you seen the sports car and motorcycle ads, need I say more? Those running yo-yo companies are wise, and they can advertise well with women for many different reasons, and inspire other women to get involved at the same time. From a business perspective, it is brilliant.
The choices companies make about sponsorship are business decisions. I think those with an attitude need to re-evaluate the reasons why no one is knocking at their door to be sponsored, because the few women involved are not it.
Thanks for all the great comments. The thread is an enjoyable read.
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I don’t think you see this much from the yoyo community so much as people who just stumble across videos via Facebook feeds and other websites. The only really remarks that I have seen occur on the topic of race in the yoyo community are usually in good spirits and just in a very friendly tone. “You can only hit that because you’re asian” was a very common thing to say to one of my friends who is of Eastern decent. In the same way that when we would go to McDonalds he would tell me that I eat a Big Mac because I’m a fat white boy. It’s all about context.
My opinion on Ms. Connolly is that she probably wouldn’t be sponsored by YoYoFactory is she was a boy of equal skill set. This is not me saying that I can out play her by any means, because I can’t, and I don’t think most people who bring up her sponsorship are making that challenge. But eventually you do have to ask if she would be sponsored had she lost the vital leg of her last X chromosome. And for those of you who say that a company doesn’t have to sponsor on only skill set alone, I can agree with you. But it seems that the argument tends to revolve around “Yeah, they hired a girl for publicity reasons”, which is really just sexism in itself. I’m not questioning Ms. Connolly’s position on YoYoFactory, but it’s an issue that I see come up, and these are my thoughts.
As far as the comments about sexism go. We are in a community dominated by 13-16 year old boys. Boys who have yet to understand what their words can mean to others, that is something that probably won’t change, nor will their actions. Hormones play a big role in this, yes. Telling someone that it isn’t cool is doing your part to end it, but it really is just the nature of the beast when dealing with boys of that age group.
It isn’t the yoyo community by itself. It’s society.
Men are trained to look at women like slabs of meat, whether they realize it or not. We live in an over sexualized, shock filled culture that is blatantly disgusting and repulsive. Have you seen television as of late? Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, even some of the stuff that you can see on basic cable is just evidence that we live in an oversexualized society, and that isn’t getting any better.
We can try to act like we can rectify this problem, but in all reality, there is nothing we can ever do to solve the problem of sexism in any aspect of anything. All we can do is try to isolate incidents, and make people feel worse about themselves for contributing to such disgusting thought processes.
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I’ve seen how she handles teaching large groups of kids who have never thrown a yoyo before, and I can unequivocally say that yes…if she was a boy of equal skill set, YoYoFactory would still be lucky to have her.
She is a fantastic demonstrator. There’s a massive difference between being a yoyo player and being a yoyo demonstrator, and there’s a damn good reason that there are thousands and thousands of yoyo players and less than a hundred real demonstrators.
Ann would be a credit to absolutely anyone she was demonstrating for, and her chromosomes have absolutely nothing to do with it.
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I agree with the above. Being sponsored has to do with the “whole” of what an individual has to offer the business. Skills are only one element of the entire package. The decision to sponsor her or anyone else is a decision made by the business, and if they find her an asset, for whatever the reason, we have no right to question it. On stage, she stands out among the pack, and not because she is female. She is undeniably in the upper echelon with stage personality, presence, showmanship, and skills, and she has a great off stage personality.
Also, why would someone question if her being “female” was part of the decision in her being sponsored? Do we ask ourselves if being “male” contributes to overwhelming sponsorship of guys? Of course not. The question alone is sexist. No one can make a true statement that Yoyofactory “probably” would not have sponsored her if she was a male, unless they make the business decisions for YoyoFactory. Therefore, such a statement sounds a lot less like what they know to be true, and more like what they choose to believe. Either way, any attitide about a woman with a yo-yo needs a confidence check. My advice is that some need to spend less time as an Ann Connolly critic, less time displaying a sexist attitude on the forum, spend more time throwing, and some business may take interest in you too.
All persons sponsored are sponsored for “publicity reasons” to sell a product. That has nothing to do with sexism, it is what being sponsored it geared toward…selling the products of the business. My argument is that if a woman is sponsored for “publicity reasons”…so what. The men on the team were sponsored for the exact same reason. That is the argument, and what sponsorship is about, for women and men. Because most men raising the issue cannot out play her on skill alone, no one can question Ann Connolly’s sponsorship in any real argument…period.
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I’m just going to chime in. Perhaps my relative newness and general ignorance on the topic might be useful. Or useless. Either way, here it goes.
OK, there’s no argument that there’s more males than females playing with yoyos. That’s just how it is. I don’t think there’s really any gender bias here, just a matter of more guys go for this sort of thing than girls.
Now, having been to a few contests that have had girl players, and other events with girls(including specifically Tessa Piccillo and Ann Connolly), I gotta say that when they perform, I am not looking at anything other than their skills and what they are able to do, amazing me just as much as the guys do. Well, no, let me take that back a bit. Amazed? Yes. Amazing me as much as the guys? Not entirely, mostly because I am just seeing many of the guys performing better. There’s no gender bias, as the girls can easily do just as well as the guys. The issue comes down to “what individual has the better skills, creativity and abilities”. Of course, judging is always subjective. When things come down to subjective manners, there will always be issues.
One of the things that is good about yoyo is that by it being a “solo sport”, it’s the player and equipment. While you are competing against others, you’re not going head to head. You take the stage, do your best, and see what the judges think. It all comes down to the skills that the individual has worked hard to get, how their creativity can be used, and their ability to combine their skills and creativity to entertain and amaze, as well as capture points.
So, is there gender bias and/or sexism? Sure, probably. It exists everywhere. Why should yoyo be any different? At least with yoyo, there’s really not a whole lot of barriers to entry. Anyone, regardless of gender, through hard work and determination, can get just as far as anyone else as they choose to go.
Then again, I have girls who work on my crew and I do sound for concerts. I break the mold too.
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I think if the immature men stopped, we would have a few more Female throwers. One of the peeps from another site im on, she lives relatively close to my City…I think She rarely makes the meets because of the Sexism…My group is cool, and we all hate sexism. I mean, most of us are PC nerds in my yoyo meet group, and we don’t ever make any sex-related jokes…We prefer puns and stuff of the such. But i really think she doesn’t come because she’s afraid…I think female yo-ers are awesome, because they break the Barrier of stereotypes. That’s good. I’m all for Equality, that’s how my dad raised me. My dad would beat me up if he heard me say something sexist, because he raised me better. ANyway…Sexism is wrong, so are any forms of Prejudice…I really feel We could use more female throwers. Diversity is good.
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She is afraid?!? I’m one of the only good girl yoyoer in the club I go to so how I see it the worst that can happen to her is she gets a knot in her string! how I see it which is a lame excuse for her not to go to the yoyo meeting! So what a bunch of guys big deal some girls do football and there around a bunch of guys is it really that bad for her?
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Some females are offended when A guy tries to act like shes a bimbo…It is really offensive…Plus we are in Texas, where yoyos have been dying Since Buzzon Left us…We don’t even Have a State Contest anymore. Its really sad here…So please understand there are reasons…That, and she Lives 30 miles away…It might be hard on her, When she isn’t even sure She will be approved of, which She will, she just doesn’t realize it.
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Obviously you’re not in her position and you can’t understand why she feels the way she feels. Now you’re just attributing her behavior as a dispositional cause. Just because you’re not intimidated by a bunch of guys doesn’t mean she has to be as comfortable as you are in her setting. What you’re doing is an example of false consensus effect. Please stop embarrassing yourself! We get it, you’re a female yoyoer! And so am I! There is really no need to flaunt it and attempt to get further attention. We’re all throwers and we all throw yoyos. There is really no need to categorize male yoyoers and female yoyoers. And news flash, if you don’t realize it: you’re unconsciously doing exactly that.
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Thank you, LizF. I think abby gets it, and if not, well…I’m glad this topic was brought up, to be honest. Sexism and any form of Prejudice is just wrong
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DOES THIS SURPRISE YOU? I feel like this is such a waste of time. What do you expect from a hobby that mainly consists of male teens? What do you expect from any comment on youtube about a good looking girl? This is not a yoyo community problem. It just happens to plague here too. This same thing happens with girl gamers and a ton of other male/teen hobbys. This is how women are treated from guys on the internet in general. I doubt any girls get treated with disrespect at yoyo competitions or meets: OR on this forum. It’s something called the internet and especially youtube is filled with dirtbags. It simply has no relation to yoyos. Just youtube internet dirtbags. End of story.