Gymnastics is the one that comes to mind. Any sport which places greater importance on flexibility and nimbleness will inherent those born biologically female. Figure skating would probably be another.
Which is why my answer above was a slight tweak on what you and @ShivaX said. Rather than all trans athletes compete in the male division, set it per sport. Have them compete in the more rigorous gender division. Mostly that would be the male competition, but there are most likely a few more exceptions than I listed above.
Now if ultramarathons were more than an extreme niche sport, that would be another. As women overtake men on performance once you go above the 50 mile mark. But they’re an extremely small group, and I’m not sure there would be many, if any, trans competitors in there.
Gymnastics is a funny example, since it’s pretty much a totally different sport for men than women. The tasks in men’s gymnastics have some of the most brutal upper body strength requirements of any sport. But even in something like the vault, which is done by both in almost the same form, the men’s event will tend to have more technically difficult jumps.
The situation in figure skating is similar. For men quadruple jumps are expected, for women an extreme rarity. Maybe diving is an example that works? Springboard has a strength component, but platform diving feels like it should be purely based on agility.
You’ve been playing too many RPGs :). Men have higher flexibility and nimbleness (on average) because of the higher muscle mass (2x in the upper body) and lower overall % of body fat.
The transgender ban in the military is stupid, like the rest of Trump decisions, but in most sports a male’s body in a female competition provides an advantage that cannot be ignored.
Good points, I don’t particularly care for either so I may well be wrong. My perception was that women’s gymnastics was the more difficult and prestigious, based purely on the eye test.
It’s relatively easy for us - I assume mostly cis people - to weigh in on this. Does anyone have any good write ups from trans people on their feelings around the Olympics and other such competitions?
That’s a good question, and I don’t know if that group has a great outlet for their voice nor do I know as many are listening. I am under the impression that the woman who competed in the wresting piece that wound up making the national channels, she wanted to compete with the boys and they said no.
We’re not talking about a very large group. It’s not as if the marginal acceptance now opened a flood gate of people wanting to transition. It’s expensive, emotional, and the group itself has a very, very high rate of suicide. I want them to compete in sports if that is their passion. I suppose it’s naive to think this could be addressed on an individual basis for children. If she wants to compete with men, let her. Same with cis-women. If they want that challenge, why not? The other way around is a bigger challenge.
There’s actually a big schism in feminism right now where some feminists perceive transgender women as trying to create their own definition of femininity, effectively erasing cis-women in the process, and these feminists see this as an essentially misogynist process. Having trans-women compete in high-level competition with cis-women could be seen as an illustration of this.
I’d be happy with a rule that if you’ve ever self-presented as male, you can’t compete with female athletes…
You know all the big blockbots? They didnt actually originate from Gamergate, but from an incredibly long running radfem vs trans flame war which I’ve been witness too and is a more a blood feud these days and crosses into real life, physical violence and court cases across the globe. I know and like lots of radfems and without a doubt sympathise with many of the points they raise, but distanced myself over recent years as i became more involved with LGBT activists in various Pride committees, Stonewall, Mermaids, Sparkle etc and now pull it back to at the most, hidden neutrality.
but its a blood feud now, i cant see how either the vocal radfems or the TRAs will reach a compromise. Everyone in between the two in the LGBT community seems to just get on with pragmatic compromise that work for nearly everyone.
Having trans-women compete in high-level competition with cis-women could be seen as an illustration of this.
That line was Karen White. A non-passing, non-medically transitioning trans woman who previously as a male, was a multiple rapist and sex offender. They put her in a womens prison and she raped several prisoners and it headlined in the press a few months ago and its a radfem warcry now.
Not that… really care to know, really, but do “radfems” actually exist? Because i hear about them, TERFs is an acrynom i just discovered the meaning of, but have actually never - i mean literally never - heard or read a single thing by a single self identifying TERF… ever.
Is it like these “People are saying on social media” pseudo-news articles where somebody said something to somebody terrible, but the offending party had zero retweets, zero likes, and basically zero followers?
It’s like there is this dialog about evil TERFs and i can’t tell if they actually exist. It feels like the “Judaizers” label during the days of the Grand Dutchy of Moscow or the accusation of being a “Troskyites” during the Stalinist purges, this vague, unknown, seditious label you can accuse and be accused of, yet whose sinister nature and countless numbers always cast a long shadow just over the next hill in the imaginations of those exposed to the propaganda, fearful of the threat of fifth columnists and “counter-revolution”.
They certainly exist and of course they don’t self identify as it, they consider it “hate speech” or some such.
I mean it’s not like it’s an inconceivable concept. A lot of people don’t like trans people, that some of them would be feminists isn’t that out there.
Oh, sure, i mean there are probably some very legitimate concerns if you’re a feminist and see this “dialog space” or “discourse” they helped make suddenly being used and dominated by trans people in ways you may find uncomfortable.
But… i’ve literally never read or heard or even seen a link to a true TERF that wasn’t an obvious male troll or bot. It’s just weird that most of the time, in progressive circles, you see “this thing makes me mad” and then they link to it and talk about it. While here i read “TERFs make me mad” yet i never see any links to what, exactly, made them mad, or who or what or anything. It’s like the struggle is against the idea of TERFs more than the reality of them.
It probably doesn’t help that you need a guide book to keep up with all the terms, abbreviations, and groups in order to have these conversations.
For the average Jane and Joe to get aboard the hey let’s include this group in the best way we can club, we need simpler terminology. I do my best but umm, I have to use Google to remember, or really not remember, what is what.
