“Part of the overall “cultural problem” we talk about that led to the current situation in gymnastics is the knee-jerk assumption that younger women are flippant and shallow, their concerns obviously frivolous and views uninformed. See: how all of us assumed that complaints about lack of internet/phone service at the ranch were solely related to “WE WANT TO TEXT BOYS INSTAGRAM LOL” rather than “I’m being sexually and verbally abused and need a trusted outlet.” Or how, you know, literally everyone who reported That Guy to an adult wasn’t believed because “you don’t know anything and you must have misread it, you dumb girl who’s obviously just making trouble.” That attitude is wildly ingrained in gymnastics. The old-school coaching approach says that teenage women are hysterical, easily distracted, out for attention, and fundamentally not serious enough for the Olympics, that they must be first and foremost controlled, that their personalities need to be completely changed and re-sculpted in order to have the “focus” (elite-synonym for silence) necessary to become “coachable” (elite-synonym for docile and unthinking, even in the face of mistreatment). This thought process says members of the national team are surely not serious enough—too insignificant, too young, too flighty—to be informed of decisions or the reasons they’re made, or to be trusted to have opinions about it that are allowed to see the light of day. They just don’t understand. The lack of communication to the athletes in this case, and reactions to their statements—whether you agree with them or not—tells me this garbage manner of thinking is alive and well, and the athletes are still being dismissed.”