I love this article so much Christine. My thoughts lately: I'm 5'10" with very long legs, massive lung capacity, and a genetic pre-disposition for building muscle more easily than most of my fellow athletes. Should I step back from competition because I have an unfair advantage over the average person assigned female at birth? It's obviously not a real question, but it does make me wonder whether women's sports is now on the path towards an untenable and ultimately hellish scientific process of elimination. I truly feel for the handful of ciswomen athletes who have lost trophies to transwomen but reductive biological determinism has never, ever moved society in the direction of fairness.
The transgender issue doesn’t just impact those individuals. We don’t operate in a vacuum. The movement generally is seeking to remake the definitions of gender identity for all of our society while telling anyone who isn’t on the “right” side of any related issue to sit down and shut up. It doesn’t work that way. And I am never in favor of shaming people for asking questions no matter how many people agree with one side or another.
You attempt to minimize the affect of males playing girls sports and undermine the importance of winning for girls and women. For example, a single transgender athlete in swimming affects not just the 7 other competitors in their final heat, but potentially hundreds of swimmers who competed in preliminary rounds, missed qualification cutoffs, or compete in the same events across multiple seasons. The impact cascades throughout the competitive ecosystem. A biological male like Rothenberger in Minnesota pitching is affecting at least 12 girls at each game multiply that by a whole season and you have hundreds of girls being affected, you have a season affected, stats and the entire league. Girls that may have missed scholarship opportunities.
This mathematical reality means that even a small number of participants can have disproportionate competitive effects across an entire sport. The focus should be on the magnitude of the competitive advantage rather than the raw number of athletes.
Fantastic piece!
I love this article so much Christine. My thoughts lately: I'm 5'10" with very long legs, massive lung capacity, and a genetic pre-disposition for building muscle more easily than most of my fellow athletes. Should I step back from competition because I have an unfair advantage over the average person assigned female at birth? It's obviously not a real question, but it does make me wonder whether women's sports is now on the path towards an untenable and ultimately hellish scientific process of elimination. I truly feel for the handful of ciswomen athletes who have lost trophies to transwomen but reductive biological determinism has never, ever moved society in the direction of fairness.
Fully support this. 🙌🏻
The transgender issue doesn’t just impact those individuals. We don’t operate in a vacuum. The movement generally is seeking to remake the definitions of gender identity for all of our society while telling anyone who isn’t on the “right” side of any related issue to sit down and shut up. It doesn’t work that way. And I am never in favor of shaming people for asking questions no matter how many people agree with one side or another.
So so so good and true, Christine 💜💜💜
You attempt to minimize the affect of males playing girls sports and undermine the importance of winning for girls and women. For example, a single transgender athlete in swimming affects not just the 7 other competitors in their final heat, but potentially hundreds of swimmers who competed in preliminary rounds, missed qualification cutoffs, or compete in the same events across multiple seasons. The impact cascades throughout the competitive ecosystem. A biological male like Rothenberger in Minnesota pitching is affecting at least 12 girls at each game multiply that by a whole season and you have hundreds of girls being affected, you have a season affected, stats and the entire league. Girls that may have missed scholarship opportunities.
This mathematical reality means that even a small number of participants can have disproportionate competitive effects across an entire sport. The focus should be on the magnitude of the competitive advantage rather than the raw number of athletes.