Males, females, sports, and politics (Part 3 of 3)
One can respect transgender people while arguing against gender self-identification in sports
For reasons which I think were likely obvious to most of us to begin with (and if not, are obvious after reading my last 2 articles) natal males have an unfair advantage over natal females if they compete in the female division. If not, why do we have a female category in the first place?
The female division is essentially a handicap division. (Julie’s words, not mine - so come after her for that one!). Females are born with physical disadvantages in terms of sports, which are then greatly accentuated by an increase in sexual dimorphism during puberty.
The “male” division, is perhaps better thought of as the “open” division. No female, or trans person, has an advantage over men and thus can compete fairly in that division.
This is not an anti-trans issue. Case in point: you will never hear about FTM transitioners in this controversy. This is because they do not present a problem for sports governing bodies, as natal females have no advantage over men in sport if they decide to identify as men. No FTM trans person has ever made an olympic team or won a medal at a high level, and my prediction is that none ever will in any sport where size, strength, speed, or endurance are a benefit.
But MTF trans in sport is a big issue. Trans volleyball players in high school. 6’4” Tiffany Abreu in Olympic volleyball. Cece Telfer pictured above. Lia Thomas, Caster Semenya, Laurel Hubbard, Fallon Fox, and on-and-on. Some argue that this issue is a distraction, unimportant because MTF-trans only represent a tiny proportion of athletes in the female division. But because MTF-trans or intersex athletes have significant advantages over natal females, they easily rise to the top, displacing natal females from their (rightful) podium positions, scholarships, and prizes. Competitive sport is a zero-sum game, and to “make an inclusive space” for MTF-trans in female sports, we necessarily discriminate against and exclude women.
This issue should not be ignored by anyone who cares about the integrity of women’s sport. Just because you do not take an interest in politics does not mean that politics will not take an interest in you. This issue is spreading. In all likelihood if it’s not a local issue for you yet, it will be soon, as the number of young people identifying as trans has EXPLODED in the last few years.
Getting to know Julie on the Peggy’s Cove Loop
When Julie and I first met, she had heard I was a cyclist. So not long after our first date she suggested we go cycling. “I’d love to!” I said, eager to impress. “Where do you want to go”. We lived in Halifax at the time. “Let’s just do the Peggy’s Cove loop”, she said off-handedly. What could I say at that moment? So I said “Sure!”
I went home and expressed my grave concerns to my roommate. We pulled out a paper map (it was 1994). We speculated that it might be 100Km or more. Uh-oh. For me “a bike ride” was 30 or 40K, usually with a long coffee shop break in the middle. I was in over my head. But I was committed, and had to impress her. So that weekend, off we went.
I was a mess by the time we reached Peggy’s Cove. “You don’t look very well. Are you bonking?” she said. I didn’t know what “bonking” meant at the time. It sounded vaguely sexual. But she was right. I was out of gas. I invested the $1.50 or so in my pocket in candy at the Peggy’s Cove souvenir shop, stuffed my face, and then managed to straggle home only by being what in the cycling world is called a “wheel-sucking pig”, trying desperately to stay in her slipstream.
It was far from the last time that Julie hurt me on the bike. I was a good runner, but her years of experience and training, and her amazing genetic gifts for endurance sport, meant that she was far better than me on the bicycle when we first met. She was also a Canada Games and university-level swimmer, so did (and still) beat(s) me in the water.
It took me several years of training and racing triathlons until I finally bested her. During our years living in Kingston Ontario and doing the local K-town Tri, the announcer would always announce to the crowd how far behind Julie I was when I got off the bicycle. Year-by-year I got closer and closer, until by our 4th year or so racing, I finally caught and passed her on the run. Julie teased me with “Congratulations on being first woman”. Thanks, I think…
But her point was good. Julie was well into the 99.9th percentile as a female endurance athlete. As a male, I was in the top 10%. I wasn’t a “better athlete” because I could beat her. The physical advantages afforded to me by my male sex meant that even when I finished ahead of her - one of the best triathletes in the country - I was way behind the top male, and often didn’t even win my own age division.
What if I had transitioned and started to identify as a female? Would it be fair for me to take the top female prizes from Julie? To take her place on the national team, and the free travel and other advantages it afforded? Her sports-apparel sponsorships? Would I really have become “the top woman” if I started to identify as one?
What’s right is obvious, but politically incorrect
What is right and wrong here is obvious to most of us. But as with many things, “institutional capture” means that many bad ideas - including the idea that “trans women are women - period - even in sports” - become implanted and then enforced from the top down by governing bodies, even when the vast majority of us can see that this concept is wrong.
Our society has been consumed by the idea of RIGHTS. But very few of us understand negative versus positive rights. Negative rights can be thought of as freedom FROM something. The right to be left alone - freedom from violence; the right to say what you want -freedom from censorship; the right to not have your things stolen - freedom from theft. Basically the right not to be interfered with.
But our society has mixed negative rights (which are fundamental to a functional society) with POSITIVE rights (which can perhaps better be thought of as “privileges provided by others”). A positive right is the right TO something. The right to housing. The right to healthcare. The right to be called by the right pronouns. The right to compete in whatever sporting division I choose. The problem with positive rights is that they all involve taking something from someone else - infringing on their rights. If I have the “right” to housing or healthcare, the government is empowered to take money from others to provide it to me. If I have the right to insist you call me zhe and not he, you no longer have the right to free speech. If I have the right to define myself as a woman for the purposes of sport, you no longer have the right to compete in a division with only natal females.
It is better to laugh than to cry
I was hesitant to use some of this material, as of course some people will find it offensive. But it is worth pointing out the absurdity of allowing people to self-define as “female” for sports.
Zuby (if you haven’t heard of him, check out his great podcast!) came to public prominence a few years back when he briefly identified as female and broke the women’s deadlift record to make a point about the absurdity of trans women in sport.
South Park, as it is know for, was completely irreverent, offensive, and pulled no punches in its sendup of trans women in sport. (Watch it before it gets censored!)
The line between parody and reality is blurry in 2023
That South Park clip is off the wall, eh? Completely unrealistic, right? Nothing that crazy would ever happen in real life.
It is said that when a society becomes sufficiently absurd it can no longer be parodied. It appears we are getting there. Recently Anne Andres, a natal male powerlifter who identifies as female, crushed the natal females at the Western Canadian Powerlifting Championships. For instance, Anne bench pressed 270lbs whereas the nearest a natal female came was 220lbs. In response to questions, Anne said:
Indeed Anne! Why don’t they just try harder? Work out more? Be more dedicated? What the hell is wrong with these pitiful women?
Is the South Park clip still a parody, or blurring into reality?
We need to talk about this!
As society first became politically correct, and now has transitioned to being woke, more and more topics have become "nuclear waste” - nobody wants to go anywhere near them. Matters of race and gender are very rarely discussed openly except in furtive whispers off-the-record, with people you can trust. Ujjal Dosanjh was one of the first to point out that those without victim status feel more and more left out of conversations in modern society.
Many intellectuals (of all races, genders and sexual orientations) - Christina Hoff Sommers, Coleman Hughes, Andrew Doyle, Jordan Peterson, Camille Paglia, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Thomas Sowell and more - have pointed out the destruction that results when political correctness trumps truth and free speech.
“You wouldn’t understand because you’re not (insert victim status here)” or “You wouldn’t understand because you are (insert white, male, cis, rich, etc here)” have become standard conversation-enders. Ideas are now evaluated more based on the identity group of their proponent than on their actual merit.
With this issue of MTF trans in sport, the invocation of “cis privilege,” accusations of lack of understanding of transgenderism, or charges of lack of empathy for transgender people have all been used to shut down conversations and silence voices of those who advocate for keeping women’s divisions in sport open only to natal females.
When we advocate against allowing natal males into female divisions, are we advocating AGAINST trans women, or FOR natal females.? Why do we have a female division in the first place? Is it to provide women a space in which they can fairly and realistically compete, and rise to the top when they excel? Or is the purpose of having a female division to give transgender women a space to feel included? We cannot accomplish both goals at the same time - they are mutually exclusive.
I’m not alone in my views. Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner is on record as saying regarding this issue: "It just isn't fair. And we have to protect girls' sports in our schools." Martina Navratilova has spoken out similarly. It is hard to accuse Ms. Navratilova as being “anti-trans” and impossible to accuse Jenner. (Although Larry Elder was accused of being a white supremacist, so I suppose anything is possible.)
The Independent Women’s Forum has produced an excellent and clear document on this issue of natal males entering female divisions in sport. It is worth reading.
From their document:
The evidence is clear: In almost every sport, allowing natal males to compete on women’s teams or in women’s events will put female athletes at a significant competitive disadvantage. In some cases, it will deny female athletes the opportunity to compete at all. Female athletes have fought too long and too hard for equal athletic opportunity to let that happen.
Where is this all heading
When I took over as the head of the Cape Breton Roadrunners - a volunteer role I filled from 2008 to 2021 - a number of our races were still organized based on the legacy of running being a male sport. Several races had no female division, or if they did, the prizes were unequal. There were several permanent trophies that would only have the male winner’s name (“The Top Runner”) inscribed each year. When winners appeared in the newspaper - photos or results - they often did not include the top female(s). One of the first things I did when I took over was to insist that women and men have separate divisions, equal prizes, and equal recognition. I felt it was as much of an accomplishment for the top woman to beat all the other females as it was for the top man to beat all the males.
Over a few years, our races went from being heavily skewed towards male participation to being well over 50% female. The equalization of awards and recognition was perhaps only a small part of why, but I feel that this change was necessary and fair. (Why amateur running has become more and more tilted towards female participation is another discussion, and whether my insistence on equal prizes for both sexes in amateur/community events should be applied to pro sports [hint - I think not!] is a different issue beyond the scope of this Substack)
Woke culture is pushing inexorably in one direction on the issue of MTF-trans in sport. And remember the old saying: If you don’t change where you’re heading, you’ll get to where you’re going.
As I see it, there are three options going forward.
clarify the rules around who is a “woman” for the purposes of sport classification, which necessarily means excluding natal males, and many people with DSD’s, from female divisions. Make it clear the male division is the “open” division, for everyone who is not a natal female.
create a third “trans” division for those who self-ID as something other than their birth gender.
keep the status quo/new normal of allowing people to self-identify as to whether they prefer to compete as a male or as a female
If we stay silent, by default we choose option three.
Consider this. The one-mile world record by a woman is 4 minutes and 12 seconds. The one-mile world record for a high-school boy is 3 minutes and 53 seconds. At any time, there are thousands of men who can beat the top woman in the world in a one-mile race. If boys can simply choose to identify as girls in sport, even if one of those several thousand chose to change their sports classification to female, the top natal female loses. Until we speak up and stop this insanity, there will be a more and more Melissa Bishops standing on the sidelines watching medal presentations and biting their tongues until they bleed.
We can love trans people AND want fairness for women
I think it’s important to speak out about these things NOW, before it becomes an issue for you locally. Once it does, any such discussion is interpreted as attacking a specific trans individual who is succeeding in women’s sport. It becomes much more personal and emotional, instead of a rational and dispassionate discussion.
We can respect and love trans people while still advocating for fairness in women’s sport. Although in my opinion, people should be free to dress, talk, or identify however they so choose (negative rights), I don’t think a natal male should be free to compete against women in sport. Not because I’m anti-trans, but because I’m pro-woman.
We need to speak up for what we know in our hearts is right and not be cowed into silence.
I only recently came across this documentary by Matt Walsh which does an admirable job in pointing out the absurdity of the subversion of biological reality. And I just love the Masai scene!
What Is A Woman
https://sp.rmbl.ws/s8/2/J/g/c/h/Jgchg.caa.mp4?u=3&b=0
Thank you so much for stating these facts so clearly and rationally. I've thouroughly enjoyed reading all three of these articles.
I've been writing about these issues myself for a while now, making similar points, though I tend to do it in a bit of a harsher tone than you do.🙂 I've been coming to some realizations recently that there is definitely a need for a more rigorous understanding from both sides of this issue. As you said, opposing transwomen in sports need not equate to opposing transwomen. Still, people do need to say something, and it seems more people are beginning to.
I'm very encouraged by this kind of writing, so thanks again.