Activist Riley Gaines has announced that “Any woman who doesn’t compete and loses out on prize money, I will happily pay the fee out of my own pocket. In any sport.” Now she’s putting her money where her tweets are. “At the European Pool Championships, female player, Kim O’Brien, forfeited the women’s final where she was set to play male player, Harriet Haynes,” she wrote. “I am happily paying her the prize money she lost out on. Stop playing their game. More of this!!”

Isn’t this the weakest possible example for Gaines’s crusade? I don’t understand why pool or billiards competitions are segregated by gender. It’s not a strength sport, or an endurance sport. I may be missing something, but I can’t imagine why a woman can’t compete on even terms against any man in pool. Gaines seems to be falling into a sexist trap. Woman aren’t unable to compete on an equal basis with men in everything.