Bethan Taylor-Swaine

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Bethan Taylor-Swaine

Hi there, I’m Bethan Taylor-Swaine, Architect of Wellbeing, PhD Student and Coach.

01/11/2026

October ❤️🎃🍁

1. Two weeks of half term have dominated my camera roll.
2. She’s a bike girl now 🚴
3. Sneaking into places he shouldn’t be.
4. Parenting with Tiger Lily Raphael ❤️
5. Homework
6. New (I think) neighbourhood artwork.
7. Knitwear
8. Always chatting about barriers to participation.
9. Parenting with Kapara London ❤️
10. A very consuming family project on Mary Seacole for school.
11. Mike Swaine
12. Errands when you live in London.
13. Little dog
14. Surgery day play.
15. Munchkin pumpkin and Lego ghoul.
16. Wild South London Samhain.
17. Autumnal zine with scary stats from Sport England.
18. Culture.
19. Witch.

27/10/2026

I saw this comment on a reel Francesca | FOOD & FITNESS✨ shared in the aftermath of Nike After Dark and thought it merited discussion.

Social media makes it pretty easy to get stuck in an echo chamber where everyone broadly believes the same thing. I mean, to me it’s a no brainer why woman would feel uneasy running after dark and why an event like Nike After Dark would appeal. But the thing about these viral moments is that they remind us there are still people out there who do not get it, and that includes other women.

When you’re alive to issues it’s hard to understand why a woman would say something like this, but when you set it in the context of cultural ideology which has been shaped by patriarchy, well things become clearer.

We talk a lot about helping men to understand and change when it comes to mvawg, but we also need to work with other women and, crucially, with ourselves, because this stuff runs deep.

26/10/2026

7 years since our cool London wedding. Happy Anniversary Mike Swaine ❤️

19/10/2026

In the past few days I’ve seen more and more men speaking online about women’s safety and positioning themselves as allies in the running space. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really encouraging to seem men engaging with issues we’ve been shouting about for years, but it’s really easy to throw up a reel and present as a good guy, what really matters is how men are showing up when there isn’t an audience.

What we need is men who are speaking out in their communities, calling out their friends when they say something misogynistic, being an active bystander when they hear a woman being abused in the street, giving their time to educating the next generation, ensuring their run club has a clear anti-harassment policy, attending workshops with organisations like , platforming women in this space and deferring to our expertise.

We need men who are doing the work behind closed doors, where there are no likes, where demands will be made of them, where conversations will probably be uncomfortable.

I’ll say it again, I’m glad more men are speaking on this issue, but what we need from you isn’t reels, we need you to get uncomfortable.

10/10/2026

During a recent interview former Made in Chelsea f—-boy and endurance enthusiast Spencer Matthews suggested that running a marathon is easy. Anyone could do it. What was hard was running a marathon as fast as you can.

Understandably, this annoyed a lot of people.

Matthew’s comments totally neglect the enormous barriers so many people have to overcome to participate and totally disrespect the sheer effort people put into getting to the start line. He reinforces really unhelpful ideas about what a good performance looks like and reinforces values which are arguably misogynist and reinforce barriers to participation.

I don’t doubt having Matthews on a podcast does great things for a shows numbers, but honestly it’s kind of boring and doesn’t do much in terms of opening up the sport.

01/10/2026

Of course it’s not all men, but it’s enough men.

A friend sent me this question today. She got a furious voice note, but that’s not for public consumption, so here are the cliff’s notes.

If a man starts spouting off about how it’s ’not all men’ it tells you everything you need to know about him.

We know it’s not all men! There’s no need for a man to make the issue personal if he knows he has no skin in the game. Making it personal is going on the defensive. Men who understand the issue would never say something like this because they understand that men who hate women don’t come with a warning sign. They could be anyone, they could be a police officer, a teacher, a doctor, your mate, a guy you work with, they don’t wear a tag. They’re everywhere and very few of them ever get caught.

What’s more, women have been told to ‘protect’ themselves and to ‘be careful’. When something awful happens women are blamed and shamed. We’re only doing what you told us to do. Sorry if that means we’re wary of you.

Honestly, the rage in my veins right now is other level.

29/09/2026

There were 57 men in the group chat, so 50 people who knew what was going on and chose not to do anything about it.

I bet you everyone has spoken out about a ref’s decision at some point or other.

Here’s the thing, we know men are capable of calling out things they think are wrong - very aggressively in some cases - so where’s that energy when it comes to mvawg? Men listen to their peers, if you’re not speaking out then you are complicit in enabling mvawg. You are condoning harm through your silence.

Go on, tell me ‘not all men’, but of the men in that chat not one spoke out.

28/09/2026

Went for a run with my friends 😍 🏅

A month ago I’d just come out of hospital and was terrified I might have cancer. I genuinely didn’t know if I’d be able to take part in Vitality London 10,000 this past weekend. By most counts I was undertrained, but I was doing it for fun and feeling grateful I wasn’t staring down rounds of unpleasant treatment. Instead I got to spend time with my friends, chatting and laughing and cheering on the entertainers along the course, and supporting Emma Turner on her return to running. We wore glitter and HARKY☀️ used the word baddie a lot and then Evie and I had a date at Maccas and a trip to the bookshop. It was a really really happy day and I’m proud I got to enjoy it with Women Make Moves London (who are all total baddies) ❤️

24/09/2026

Just over here destroying western civilisation, no big deal 💅

This comment was part of an exchange I had with someone on a post about the ‘Here For The Women of Colour’ and why it is not the same as a white man wearing a tshirt which says ‘Here For The White Men’.

The internalised misogyny and white supremacy was palpable, and it made me think of this song, Serena Joy, by Olivia Rodrigo. It’s essentially about those who look the other way or enable oppression and how ultimately you can try to play the cool girl, but you’re not special and you’ll eventually become oppressed too. Do not get it twisted, if you’re a woman who upholds the patriarchy you cannot expect special treatment, those men do not care about you and you will get dropped as soon as you stop being useful to them.

The full conversation is over on the grid, but for now I’m going to bask in the fact someone thinks I have enough time to take down the west!

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http://www.bethantaylorswaine.com/

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