I think that things are getting very out of hand when a transgender weightlifter such as Laurel Hubbard gets herself on the Olympic woman's team for New Zealand. This person grew up male, with all the developments that male puberty naturally goes through. If she had started from the same position as the woman she will be competing against but took all the banned drugs such as testosterone to gain an advantage, she would not have been selected - unless she was Russian maybe. This is just not fair and I don't need to tell you why not.
Now, an artist called Jess de Wahls has had her embroidered flowers removed from the gift shop of the Royal Academy for putting out a Tweet saying that Trans women and other woman are not the same - also for obvious reasons which I don't need to tell you about. This is not an opinion, it is a FACT, but having received 6 complaints against de Wahls for trans-phobia, the R.A. have pulled her items for sale on their premises, for fear of being accused of supporting a trans-phobic.
I really do not care how someone wishes to be identified, and I really do care about the individuals who feel - or know - that they were born in the wrong body, but for Christ's sake, you cannot have it all and be more happy for it.
Generally, my position is: Live and let live. Regarding sports: Anything that disrupts the level playing field in not appropriate.
ReplyDeleteThere are ways of levelling out the playing field and only upsetting a handful of people, or rather leaving the same handful with no real cause for being upset. Create a third category, for instance. Or maybe a fourth - legalise banned substances and give the takers of them their own category too.
Delete^^^this!^^^
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ReplyDeleteere's the question I have: If a woman athlete is taking male hormones to boost her performance, that would be illegal, right? So...a blood test should determine whether a person is allowed to compete.
That being said, I am of the firm conviction that the genitalia of others, the relationships of others fall squarely into "Not My Business".
Agreed. The genitalia of Caster Semenya is nobody's business but her own, and it was degrading and inhumane to put her through that test. If a 'freak of nature' turns up on the scene, we should just bear with them until their career is naturally over. Trans athletes are not freaks of nature.
DeleteI guess that I am not sure what you are saying Tom. I called no one a freak of nature. Nor would I. I believe that everyone deserves respect. In the area of competitive sports it seems like a simple blood test would determine whether you can compete as a woman or not.
DeleteSuch a tricky area ... to deny a trans woman womanhood is a way of saying she doesn't exist and I can see why the backlash to so-called terfs such as Greer is so vociferous. At the same time cis women runners who are born with more testosterone than 'normal' are cut out of the race. I guess when it comes to sport, hormone testing is the way to go, to even the playing field but, as above, this can impact upon cis women too.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have any skin in this fight (and kinda agree with Debby here) but friends have been accused of being a terf in the past, who argue that the main problem is that of trans women weighing in on women's reproductive rights, not sport, and if they speak out, they are pilloried as haters. Speaks to the binary/tribalism everyone seems to get boxed into these days.
See my reply to Debby above regarding naturally high testosterone levels in female athletes. I don't think it is - or it shouldn't be - offensive to distinguish between women and females, especially in sport and reproductive matters. I suppose there will come a time when scientists will be able to transplant a viable womb into transgender women, but they ought to consider widening the pelvic opening before causing agony and death of both mother and child at birth. There are basic facts which have to be discussed without being branded as transphobic.
DeleteHear, hear Tom!
ReplyDeleteIn the sensible old days a man with his penis cut off was called a eunuch
I am not asking for any trans people to be insulted. Comments like yours taken out of context are what get people branded as transphobic.
DeleteYou say what many of us are thinking.
ReplyDeleteTalking about what we are thinking shouldn't automatically allow extremists to destroy innocent people's lives by pointing a finger and accusing. If genuinely transphobic people were allowed to discuss their beliefs in public, they might learn something.
DeleteMy son's transgender. The more I see of the situation firsthand, the less abstract (and the more emotional) it becomes - and the more inclined I am to let the trans community call the shots when it comes to these issues.
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