- Yes, sports are always won by people with unusual advantages. No, that doesn’t mean that categories don’t matter.
- No, transwomen aren’t LITERALLY women.
- There is no evidence that transwomen lose their advantages.
This one should be a no-brainer. Women have categories to give them a chance. I could win the 5-year-olds weight lifting competition hands down; that is why there is an age category. If you get arguments, go to @fondofbeetles, Emma Hilton, or @ScienceOfSport, Ross Tucker – they are true world leading experts. Follow them anyway!
The “intersex” athletes are a complex issue, but this is irrelevant to transwomen competing as women. Transwomen are not intersex. There is a good discussion here, if you are interested.
Short version: anyone who had male puberty will lose little of their edge by cutting their testosterone level. Pound for pound, male physiology means their muscles are stronger. Even the Williams sisters – incredible players of tennis – couldn’t beat mediocre men.
The adaptation to the female frame for our reproductive role means our hips are wider and our joints less adapted to running. Teenage boys can routinely outrun world champion female athletes. That cannot be undone, and the result is not only unfair for women but unsafe. Women are so far from men in most things that matter in sports that they might as well be a different species.
Yes, Michael Phelps was a genetic one-off. So was Usain Bolt. But putting a man against a woman is like asking Phelps to swim against a dolphin or asking Bolt to race against a cheetah. Or pitting Laurel Hubbard against a gorilla, tempting though it sounds.
Forward to Trans people are the most oppressed group in the world, though
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