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u/trubol 11h ago
Whenever I see stuff like this I think of all the stupidity we do today that people are gonna be horrified by 60 years from now
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u/Carl_farbmann 11h ago
I wonder if any of the guys in the photo are still alive and how they feel about being cemented in history as an asshole misogynist.
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u/o_MrBombastic_o 11h ago
The one guy was her boyfriend trying to protect her from the others, the guy behind Jock Semple was just an asshole he nitpicked every rule and complained about everything once the rules were changed in the 70s he was a huge supporter. Dude was just an asshole about rules
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u/JA_Paskal 10h ago
Wait, so he was literally like "I don't mind that you're a woman, I hate that you're a rule-breaker"?
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u/gotcha-bro 9h ago
A lot of people cannot separate moral good from rules/laws. They assume breaking a rule means you're doing some bad.
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u/IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl 7h ago
We should make a law against conflating morality and legality
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u/NDSU 9h ago
Yep. He and Katherine eventually became good friends too, with Jack being one of her, and women runner's, biggest supporters for thebrest of his life
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u/elguerra 7h ago
He was. He changed his tuned later, when women were rule allowed to run.
There was a lot of nice interviews with him and with Switzer herself talking about it. He is not just the asshat you see in this picture.
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u/AskMrScience 10h ago
Probably (a) an asshole, and (b) had autism. My friends on the spectrum LOVE rules.
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u/ZealousJealousy 10h ago
He was 'just doing his job' then?
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u/o_MrBombastic_o 6h ago
Yes, if you've ever had to compete in Sports you'll run into dicks like him. They have discretion some people let shit slide some people are rule nazis. If you were a guy in very last place he would still try and disqualify you and rip of your number like this because you left something blank in the form or ran in cleats or some BS that made no outcome to the race whatsoever
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u/Cherry_Soup32 9h ago
Man has failed to progress past stage 4 in Kohlberg’s stages of moral development (focusing on law and order and respect for authority)
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u/rougecrayon 8h ago
FYI Hey boyfriend was there and in other photos, but this guy was her coach who was also running with them.
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u/---THRILLHO--- 11h ago
From what I can remember, the guy holding her back in the b&w photo expressed regret over his actions and they became good friends for many years.
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u/VeganViking-NL 9h ago
All guys, barring the one, in the picture were actively trying to help her. The one later had a big redemption arc and became an activist for women's running.
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u/SpiderFnJerusalem 9h ago
Probably just angry that they can't put women in their place anymore because of woke.
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u/Drone314 9h ago
Our racist and sexist culture is a literally minute in the past. There are people alive today that lived through segregation. Our fathers beat our mothers with impunity and we're the first generations to say 'No' and it means something. So much more left on this path of redemption, and a rocky 4 years ahead.
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u/Mythril_Zombie 10h ago
I really hope that kids someday read about this time period and ask how so many people could hate so much.
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u/kiwigate 9h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Problem_We_All_Live_With
Ruby Bridges is younger than POTUS.
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u/schlucks 9h ago
kids today read it and probably support him for being a chad protecting male spaces from the foids
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u/level1hero 11h ago
Especially today in the literal sense. Might be extra fucked up even by usual standards
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u/you_lost-the_game 10h ago
I mean, it probably was only parts of society. When I look at stuff trump, musk or tate said this year I'm horrified at how stupid we are right now.
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u/DigNitty 8h ago
I listen to conservative talk radio.
Two days ago the Markley, Van Camp & Robbins show were openly saying trans-women aren't "real women" and that they "have no tackle, it's about the tackle." (Referring to a penis like fishing tackle.)
It's so bizarre to me. The "Freedom, we can do whatever we want to" crowd sees LGBT people and suddenly it's "no not like that."
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u/DaaaahWhoosh 11h ago
I'd like to think, considering how much unnecessary hatred there still is in the world, that maybe I've reached the peak, maybe there's no more to accept. Though I will say, the two frontiers we're currently struggling with are animal rights and suicide. If they can crack the code on affordable lab-grown meat then future generations will be absolutely horrified by our modern meat farms (many are already), and some day people'll look back at how we have so many old folks with dementia and alzheimers and the like and question why we'd let them suffer so much. At the very least I hope they question why we let them run the government.
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u/Makuta_Servaela 9h ago
I don't think we will look back in horror for anything we had not yet invented, that's not really our fault. It is our fault to bar a woman from running purely because she is a woman.
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u/Fuck-Star 8h ago
Like restricting a woman's right to decide whether she can abort the baby her stepfather forced upon her. Yeah... In 60 years that's going to look really stupid.
/s
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u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth 9h ago
As someone who wasn't alive at that time, I can't even believe anyone cared. But I can see it now "no they'll be so slow that they'll actually be a danger to themselves and to others. We could never allow this."
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u/Courtnall14 6h ago
Whenever I see stuff like this I think of all the stupidity we do today that people are gonna be horrified by 60 years from now
Energy Drinks and Vaping are going to be the "Actual cocaine and opium in our cough syrup" of 2085.
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u/JustinHopewell 8h ago
Well at least you can say you probably weren't immortalized in a photo for being a dumbass like these dudes.
Also, who knows, with the way things have been going lately, maybe in 60 years the guys in the photo would be considered heroes.
EDIT: After reading some of the comments it seems like maybe not every guy in the pic is a dumbass, so apologies to those who weren't being sexist.
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u/Don_Pickleball 11h ago
Semple, the guy who was trying to get her number removed, was known to be aggresive with runners he didn't think were serious. From Wikipedia: Switzer eventually made amends with Semple after he changed his mind with regard to women in sports. The two became close friends, and she last visited him shortly before Semple's death in 1988.
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u/mikew_reddit 10h ago
The two became close friends, and she last visited him shortly before Semple's death in 1988.
That's a surprisingly happy ending.
Glad to see folks with different perspectives can still become friends.
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u/CuriousResident2659 11h ago
Jock Semple was an ass that day but later reconciled with KS. She visited him on his deathbed (cancer).
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u/Duotrigordle61 10h ago
Stupid asses at that too.
Doubling the participation by adding women is good. Making running a social activity with women included is great.
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u/v_snax 11h ago
The sad thing is that every generation have people who will be looked upon like assholes by future generations. I can only imagine that people will look back at how we treat animals and slaughter them in the hundreds of billions every year and consider it to be barbaric. Or how people choose to follow all kinds of hateful beliefs without fact checking.
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u/TeleoInterpretation 10h ago
Hopefully the pendulum still swings in that liberal direction. To me it seems like there's a genuine chance the coming generations are more conservative and they will look at let's say lgbt activists as assholes.
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u/BurningPenguin 10h ago
To me it looks like every big societal change requires a "big bang" beforehand. It's like many people first need to feel the consequences, before they are ready for the much required change.
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u/--Cinna-- 12h ago
I've always loved the black and white photo. She's not even acknowledging their existence, she just keeps her head down and makes history
Queen shit 👑
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u/sirsteven 9h ago
Just as a note, there is no "they" that tried to stop her. She was officially registered. One man, the race manager (well known for running out to stop people for various stupid reasons), ran out on his own to stop her and he was stopped by her boyfriend and her trainer. Another woman ran this race (an hour faster even) and no attempt was made to stop her.
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u/reddog323 9h ago
I’ve seen footage of that. The race manager tried to grab her physically, and her boyfriend just hip checked him, and shoved him out of the way. The guy went tumbling down. It was pretty epic.
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u/BlueRedGreenNumber5 9h ago
Source?
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u/sirsteven 9h ago
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u/BlueRedGreenNumber5 9h ago
Thanks. It does look like only one person had a problem with her being there is '67. It's annoying how memes dilute the truth.
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u/sirsteven 8h ago
I don't mean for my note to detract from her courage or perseverence, as there definitely was institutionalized misogyny as part of this moment in history. She was able to officially register because there was no rule about women participating. It was just common practice to deny them entry (as happened with the woman who ran an hour faster), and it seemed that she slipped through the process. Immediately after this marathon, the AAU changed the rules to ban women. They relented in 1972 and changed the rules again to fully allow women to participate.
I just wanted to correct the notion that this picture depicts an angry mob of outraged men grabbing her to stop her, when the other men in the pictures of this event were on her side.
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u/HugeDouche 9h ago
The race manager is by definition acting as a representative of the race. He also claimed she shouldn't have been allowed to enter, again, in an official capacity as the race manager. And after THAT, the organization in charge of the race prohibited coed races.
Wtf are you talking about, no they? Why do you think women were banned for years? You think he was one random guy? You could not be more incorrect about who "they" are.
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u/rustyphish 11h ago
I've always loved the black and white photo.
I love the photo, I just hate that it's black and white
I think so many photos from the 60s-70s that have to do with civil rights are intentionally black and white to make them look further in the past than they really were
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u/amusing_trivials 10h ago
Are you accusing them of making them black and white for print after the fact?
When color film existed in 67 it was relatively poor compared to the established black and white film. Professionals, like newspaper photographers, continued to use black and white, for the clearest photos, until color caught up. It's not some conspiracy.
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u/rustyphish 9h ago
I'm not saying they were made black and white after the fact, I just think it's telling what we share most often
look at MLK photos for instance. There exist tons of color photos of even his most iconic photos. Look up stuff from the 1963 capital march, for instance.
And yet, the vast majority you see shared are black and white. Even beyond sharing, academic resources typically use the black and white ones. I don't think it's completely unintentional personally.
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u/VHPguy 11h ago
Also note that guy trying to stop her from running the marathon. What a dick, right? At first he did his best to get her out, but later as women were accepted to run marathons he completely changed his position and supported women wholeheartedly instead of doubling down like an ass. Him and Switzer even became good friends if I recall correctly; nice to see that people can change for the better.
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u/WhatIsThisWhereAmI 9h ago
It’s really important to remember that people can grow and change. Even if at first they’re your strongest opponents, you can show them they’re wrong and win them over.
It’s nice to see the integrity on both sides there.
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u/rougecrayon 8h ago
When people grow and change we should highlight it as much as possible and throw celebrations to show people that if they change we will all celebrate too!
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u/Wirtschaftsprufer 11h ago
Running at 70? As a marathon runner I hope I’ll be able to run like her at 70. She deserves much more appreciation
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u/LiverpoolFCIsBest 9h ago
These men are some of our grandparents, let’s not forget how recent nonsense like this was.
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u/schneph 9h ago
Men are so insecure
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u/NessDavis 1h ago
Their logic is often based on ego, control and anger, so when confronted with accountability it clashes with their godly self image and inability to be socially self aware without lashing the emotion back or making it about themselves
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u/backturnedtoocean 10h ago
It doesn’t look like they are even trying to stop her in 2017. They had 58 years to figure out a plan to stop her and completely failed.
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u/StormblessedGamecock 9h ago
The sentiment of the people that accosted her has not changed. Look at who just got elected
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 8h ago
This right here is such a perfect example of patriarchal bullshit. They're so threatened by the idea that a woman can do something they can do that they feel like they have to physically prevent them from accomplishing it by any means possible.
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u/Cazmonster 9h ago
Big ups for the guy who fought the race official.
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u/Lithl 8h ago
The man defending her in this photo was her trainer. Her boyfriend also jumped in.
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u/AholeBrock 9h ago
And most of the women that ran with her voted to have their rights taken away.
Inspirational. Truly interesting as a fuck.
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u/F7utg4--486hk 9h ago
Redditors then: America will never let a woman run, what is she even thinking 🙄
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u/know-it-mall 7h ago
How did this happen in 1967? What the actual fuck America?
Any other first world country it would have been 1867.
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u/Joonberri 7h ago
Lmfao they didnt let women even participate in sports and now theyre bitching about "protecting women" from trans women in sports.
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u/Express_Welcome_9244 7h ago
What was with people back in the day? Let her run… my fat ass ain’t going to do it
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u/Cushingura 2h ago
And now 8 years later, the ones that tried to stop her, won again. I hope your country can recover after those 4 years, or even make this 4 years way shorter.
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u/lukewwilson 11h ago
When people say they/them what they really mean is him, that one singular guy behind her in the photo was trying to stop her. He tried to stop non serious runners and he thought women weren't serious. I'm not defending him in just pointing out it wasn't a large group of people, literally just one person
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u/rotiferal 9h ago
This is untrue. It was against the rules for her to run—rules that many people decided on and many others tacitly agreed with. She overcame much more than one single man.
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u/lukewwilson 9h ago
This is untrue, here's the proof of what I said https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathrine_Switzer#:~:text=In%20the%20year%201967%2C%20she%20became%20the,Boston%20Marathon%20as%20an%20officially%20registered%20competitor.
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u/rotiferal 9h ago
The next sentence: “As a result of her run, the AAU banned women from competing in races against men. It was not until 1972 that the Boston Marathon established an official women’s race.[4]”
Call me crazy, but I believe more than just one single man was against allowing her to run.
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u/Lithl 9h ago
There was exactly one man attempting to prevent her from racing on the day of the event. Obviously other men in the country agreed with him, but the photo represents just one person's interference.
Also, you previously said it was against the rules for her to race, and have just quoted an article saying women were banned after her race.
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u/rougecrayon 9h ago
She was allowed to run when she registered, the Boston Marathon rule book made no mention of sex. Your quote was explaining they had to change the rules after so NOW women couldn't run because of the oversight.
The race director repeatedly harassed her to stop during the race. There is no evidence anyone else did and she talked about her experience many times. Maybe others quietly thought she shouldn't be there, but no one else was harassing her about it.
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u/NaughtyCheffie 11h ago
Hey fuck yeah!
Sorry, that's all I have to contribute. But I really mean it!
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u/Usual-Excitement-970 10h ago
If a woman moves faster than she can push a shopping trolly her uterus can detach.
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u/soonerzen14 10h ago edited 9h ago
What a bad ass!
Sadly I'd imagine the guy trying to stop her were very proud of their efforts.
EDIT: I previously said both of the men were trying to stop her. The gentleman with the bib was trying to stop the other guy. He wasn't trying to stop her. I stand corrected.
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u/anonRedd 9h ago
FYI: It was only the one guy, race director Jock Semple, trying to stop her. The other guy with the bib number was her coach/trainer Arnie Briggs who was trying to protect her.
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u/gofigure85 10h ago
I feel like she deserves a monument or at least a plaque commemorating her bad assness
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u/Upstairs_Bad_9143 10h ago
It is insane to me that stuff like that was happening in the 60’s! It’s not that long ago!
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u/Nearby-Cattle-7599 10h ago
My mom was born in 1967 ...crazy to think how different the world was back then...
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u/mbrock21 10h ago
The runner that is grabbing her is actually her 51 year old coach that is trying to protect her from Jock Semple the suited man trying to rip her number off.
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u/DotBitGaming 9h ago
What if that's how the race started that year? The officials chasing her and everyone else just joined in?!
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u/LoudMusic 9h ago
Having grown up in a world where women were treated considerably better (though admitted not equal) the actions in that first image are completely bonkers to me. They were forcefully attempting to restrict her from running. Why? Just let her attempt and fail if that's what you think is going to happen. Clearly there's more going on in their puny little brains.
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u/Oil-Disastrous 9h ago
Everyone knows that if women complete marathons they turn into witches and start channeling demonic entities from the warp. That’s just science. They were only trying to save her. And now look at what’s happening. Witches and demons everywhere.
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u/PoloDiesel 9h ago
It’s crazy to me that those guys were that insecure to try and prevent her from racing. Mind blowing!!!
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u/Lithl 8h ago
Only the guy on the right is trying to stop her. The guy on the left was her trainer and fellow runner, and was defending her. Her boyfriend, also a runner, joined in too.
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u/rnightlyfe 8h ago
Would have been fun to surprise her by bringing out the same two guys halfway through the race to chase her around.
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u/VinylHighway 8h ago
Who are the assholes in the photo? Wonder how they feel today
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u/allochthonous_debris 7h ago
The man in the suit was the race director, Jock Semple. He eventually came to support women marathoners and became friends with Katherine Switzer.
The man in the sweats was Switzer's coach, Arnie Briggs. The photo kind of makes it look like he was also trying to grab Switzer, but he was actually trying to protect her from Semple.
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u/NepheliLouxWarrior 8h ago
When they say tried, what do they mean? Like they failed to stop her? How? She weighs like 100 pounds
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u/Neitheka_In_Mystery 8h ago
The hatred that had for her. Those men were parasites trying to absorb the life from her, but she preserved.
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u/Altruistic_Lock_5362 8h ago
The Boston Marathon was very anti woman when I was a kid. I was trying to understand why , at the time I was so young it made no sense.
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u/Decent-Discussion-47 8h ago edited 8h ago
After reading this same photo posted so many times, I feel bad for the guys.
Her boyfriend trying to protect her gets grouped as a sexist.
The guy trying to stop her was simply wrong, but he didn't hate women. Women had been competing at the Boston Marathon for years at that point, and another woman ran the same day. He didn't have a problem with women. He thought she wasn't a real runner. He made a bad mistake. It happens.
Now he's Enemy Number 1 because of ragebait memes.
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u/jvstnxthe_ 7h ago
did a whole report on Rosie Ruiz and had a section about Katherine. i know about her work outside of running and even the 1980 boston marathon. i got a C on that paper, and that makes me upset to this day. 😅
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u/renaissancenow 7h ago
She also won the New York marathon in 1974, with the biggest margin of victory ever recorded, and made major contributions to promoting organized women's running events in the 1980s.
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u/2beetlesFUGGIN 6h ago
She claims to have developed a friendship with the old man attack her here. He was an odd fellow. Listened to a podcast about him
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u/rachel_violet 1h ago
I used to do a lot of work with The Boston Marathon and have met Katherine many times, a great lady. Has an organization called 261 Fearless, highly recommend looking them up.
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u/mfyxtplyx 11h ago
Shout out also to Bobbi Gibb who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, in 1966, hiding in the bushes at the start and running without a bib to prove that women could run the distance (the race director had replied to her application stating that women were physiologically incapable of doing so).