I think that argument only really works well if you eliminate gender categories entirely
Comment on A real question about trans athletes and records
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
So, as an elder Millennial, the whole trans thing was foreign to me, and still is to many people my age. We just didn’t talk about it like we do now, and when we did, it was always a joke, so the idea made us uncomfortable. I’m saying it’s right, I’m saying that’s where a lot of people my age and older were raised on.
My default response to this was to agree that men should not play women’s sports.
It was a Reddit conversation that made me change my mind. One person had said If we are banning people who were born with a penis from women’s sports because they were born with an unfair advantage over other competitors, why aren’t we banning people over 6.5’ tall from the NBA? They were clearly born with an advantage that the rest of us don’t have. Some people are born smarter, faster, stronger than others, that’s just the way it is. There are a disproportionate number of black professional athletes, is that evidence that they were all born with an advantage? Would nearly as many people agree with banning black athletes from professional sports because of this apparent advantage? Of course not. They would call it out as a blatant hate crime, which is exactly what they are doing with trans people.
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 day ago
FireRetardant@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Did you mean to say “I’m not saying it’s right,…” at the end of your first paragraph?
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh shit. 🤦🏻♂️ Thanks. Better fix that.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 day ago
Because womens sport divisions and leagues were specifically created because women physically cannot compete at the same level as men. Biologically they’re built differently - they’re not as strong, as fast, as tall, etc.
What you’re saying is “why even have womens divisions at all?”. If that’s what you want then fair enough, but just know that it basically eliminates female athletes altogether apart from a few select sports like gymnastics.
No one is calling to BAN trans people from sport - just to have them compete with others of their SEX, not their self identified “gender identity”. That’s not a “hate crime”, that’s just fairness in sport.
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 day ago
After 2 years HRT, any advantages a trans woman may have had are statistically gone. Most sports require 2 years of HRT to compete in the women’s category.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 22 hours ago
Does HRT shrink your height? Reduce your lung capacity? Shrink your arms? Change your bone structure? Muscle density?
Nope! Does none of that, and those are only 4 of the obvious differences between men and women that give men physical advantages.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Women actually aren’t as inferior to men as you seem to think.
You pick any female athlete. I’ll challenge her at her preferred sport, and I’ll bet against myself 99/100 times.
Anyone who’s going through transition would have far less testosterone than I, and what I have isn’t going to help me beat a female athlete.
What it’s really doing is dehumanizing people. How would you feel if you tried out for a team and they said YOU had to play on the other genders team? No matter what you said, you could not convince them that you were what you know you are. Would you still play? No, you’d do exactly what they want you to do, just go away. Stay out of our sight because you’re strange and you don’t belong here.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 day ago
Physically yes, they are. This isn’t new or controversial. It is the entire reason why we have womens categories in sports in the first place. There are countless videos and stories of things like the USA womens olympic soccer team playing against boys high school soccer teams and getting thrashed. Not just losing, oh no - getting annihilated…by high school boys. Any average boys high school basketball team would win the WNBA championship without losing a single match. The worst college male college basketball player would win the MVP of the WNBA unanimously (if the judges were fair of course, which we know they’re not since someone voted for Angel Reese as the rookie of the year lol).
That says more about you than anything else. I would absolutely beat many olympic womens athletes at their sports with the minimal training I’ve done, because well we can see how fast they are, how much they can lift, etc - and their records and performances are way behind the mens, and I would bet my life savings on me beating them.
For example, in the USA in 2024 alone, the 10 fastest 100m sprinters ran faster than the Womens Olympic gold medalist from 2024 (trackandfieldnews.com/2024-high-school-boys-absol…, www.olympics.com/en/olympic-games/…/women-100m ). Not by a tiny amount either - the 10th fastest male high school athlete was half a second faster than the womens gold medal winner lol. I don’t know if you know much about athletics, but half a second in the 100m sprint is an eternity. It’s bigger than the gap between 1st and last almost all of the time.
There are just so many examples. Back in their prime, Serena and Venus Williams both played a set of tennis against the 206th (iirc, he was just over 200) ranked male tennis player. He smoked in between points. He beat them both without raising a sweat, I think it was 6-0 against one and 6-1 against the other. Each set only took like 15 minutes because they could barely even get to his serve to return it.
No it’s not. Accepting that there are differences between sexes is just accepting reality.
Sports aren’t based on gender, they’re based on sex due to all of the reasons listed above. Gender is irrelevant since it’s just an “identity”, a feeling.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
The question is, what really is different between a woman or a short man in basketball? Both can not compete because of their genetics.
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 1 day ago
But many, many short men have competed in the NBA and other basketball competitions to great success.
Did you know that there is no rule saying that the NBA is male-only? Women can play in the NBA. Why do you think there has never been a single female NBA player?