What caught my eye about this story, though, is that this powerlifting group has a completely different standard here than strongman sports. Strongman Corporation is completely willing to accept transgender competitors. They just want you to provide evidence that your testosterone levels in the blood are low enough if you want to compete as a woman. This is what Rep. Oman is claiming is unnecessary, as I understand her remarks.
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar recommended Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison investigate USA Powerlifting for barring biological males from women’s events, according to a Jan. 31 letter she sent USA Powerlifting.Lest you think she's out in left field here, it turns out that another American powerlifting organization -- USPA -- has no relevant rules at all. They just say they welcome everyone, compete however you like. USPA, however, also doesn't test for performance enhancing drugs of any kind -- so if you're pumped up on steroids, and can inject as much testosterone as you like, what's the big deal about some natural testosterone?
Omar called it a “myth” that men who identify as transgender women have a “direct competitive advantage” and copied Ellison on the letter, “with a recommendation that he investigate this discriminatory behavior.”
I suppose free associations can do whatever they want here, and all of these solutions make a certain degree of sense. The American way, as it were.
Renee Richards was a male tennis player who transitioned to female in the 1970s. Richards sued the USTA to be allowed to compete as a woman and won the suit. Richards had some success as a female tennis player although Richards age at the time of transition (41) meant Richards was not competing in the prime of life. According to Wikipedia (citing a Slate article):
ReplyDeleteRichards has since expressed ambivalence about her legacy, and came to believe her past as a man provided her with advantages over her competitors, saying "Having lived for the past 30 years, I know if I'd had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me. And so I've reconsidered my opinion."
As you say, free associations can do whatever they want and biological women can decide whether to complete or not. Classifying USA Powerlifting's ban as "discriminatory behavior", however, would reinforce allowing biological males to complete against biological girls and women in all sports in all venues. Sad news for girls and women who are hoping for athletic scholarships or simply some hope of a victory.
Western civilization has long stewed in their safe bubbles of competing only within certain strict limits for fairness and sport.
ReplyDeleteIn the day of Jean De Arc, facing knights trained from 7 years old on, while she only received divine inspiration at 14 years on a farm, beating them in sparring had nothing to do with "fair". Surviving a siege while climbing a ladder and falling in full plate was not a "competition", a "sport" or a "fair bout".
The techniques required to defeat stronger, tougher, faster, bigger men in feats of contest, life and death, is something only a few of us have became aware of and even fewer have mastered in this life and plane.
Let complete freedom and kaos reign supreme. For in that day and age, the truly Divine and Immortal techniques will prove their worth.
I am still here, while a list of those associated with the Clintons are long buried and gone. Same for Planned Profit. Same for the rest of the evil crats.
The goal of trans athletes isn't to see how they'll do in competition- that was open to them before, and still would be without controversy if they were ok competing in their 'native gender'.
ReplyDeleteBut their goal is to destroy women's sports.
They just might succeed too.
I don't know if that's fair, Douglas. I compete in Strongman sports myself, but not in a professional way. I'm just an amateur who enjoys the competition, and likes having the occasional (say twice a year) requirement to show up and prove what I can do. It keeps me honest, as it were; I have to show up at the gym three times a week all year because I know I'm going to be called to account on those two days.
ReplyDeleteI've received an invitation to the national events, but I never thought of going. I'm not in their league, and don't even aspire to be. I just want the necessity of showing up and lifting rocks, in front of friends and family, so that I don't take the easy road and decide to slide out of hitting the weights today.
99% of people who do these competitions aren't really competitive. It's strange, because except at these competitions I never run into anyone as strong as me; but at the competitions, I'm not even anywhere near the top. I'm not going to win, I'm going for the accountability alone. And almost everyone there knows they'll never win; that isn't why they are there either.
So I wouldn't say that every trans* competitor is trying to post numbers that will destroy women's sports. My guess is that most of them -- far and away most -- just want to lift, for reasons that aren't related to coming in first.
I have so little interest in sports that my perspective is skewed. I can see that a lot of sports have divisions intended to make the competition more interesting. Boxing contests, for instance, are arranged by weight, right? The idea being that no one particularly enjoys seeing a heavyweight face off against a welterweight. I confess I don't really get that. If the huge guy has an overwhelming advantage, why not let him be the champion in that sport, and smaller guys compete in other sports where they have an advantage, like acrobatics or sprinting?
ReplyDeleteDitto for men and women. Maybe in ping-pong it doesn't make much difference how much testosterone you have. But does anyone really want to watch women play football badly enough either to have all-woman teams or to force male teams to accept token females? Is basketball different? Golf? Do we need height and weight divisions in all these sports? Should there be Asian leagues?
So I confess I don't care all that much about the future of "women's sports" in general--but possibly because I also have no deep feeling for sports in general. So I may consistently miss the point here.
most of them -- far and away most -- just want to lift, for reasons that aren't related to coming in first.
ReplyDeleteThen perhaps they can lift in the men's competition. Or lift in the women's competition with the understanding that they will not be considered in the prize rankings.
I'd be less skeptical about the motives of male-to-female trans-sexual athletes if they had actually finished transition before starting to compete. Someone who is still producing testosterone and has not had the surgeries is not really "playing fair" when competing with women. Those who simply declare themselves female without doing anything else also make me suspicious.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
Grim, all the reasons you give they could fulfill by competing in their native gender. Their are only two reasons I can see why they feel they must compete in women's sports- One is simply for affirmation. The other is that they want to beat the women. Those are the personal reasons. The result, either way, is that it's going to chase actual girls out of sports they would have loved to compete in because biological boys are playing in them and they don't want to get their leg broken like the Australian Handball case, or get pummeled as in the MMA case. No one like to compete in unfair competitions but those who seek only to glorify themselves and see that they can dominate. You'll notice that both personal reasons for doing this have something to do with domination and control.
ReplyDeleteIt's pathological, frankly.
Oh, and let me add, you're never going to see a native woman compete as a trans man in male sports. Why would he?
ReplyDeleteI think that's telling as well.