Competitions are so exclusive
But they have to exclude, no matter what.
Will new Olympics rules exclude or include transgender athletes?
Most athletes are not included in the Olympics. That’s why the Olympics are such a big deal: they’re a contest among the very best.
Backlash against transgender and non-binary competitors in Tokyo has highlighted the problems preventing inclusion in sports at all levels
But “inclusion” isn’t a goal of the Olympics. They’re not supposed to exclude for reasons irrelevant to the competition, but they are both allowed and supposed to exclude most hopefuls, because that’s the whole point – excluding competitors over and over until there are only three left, who win bronze silver and gold.
When Grace McKenzie decided to undergo gender transition and live openly as a woman three years ago, she resigned herself to giving up team sports.
As a child, she played everything from baseball and soccer to karate, and these communities were crucial to her well-being. But transphobia is rife in mainstream sports, and she didn’t see how she could be accepted as a transgender woman.
It’s not “transphobia” to exclude men from women’s sports. McKenzie was right not force himself on women, and wrong when he changed his mind.
…she’s become a committed player for the Golden Gate Women’s Rugby Club in San Francisco, and a fierce advocate for trans-inclusion in sports.
That “fierce” doesn’t sound as admirable when you remember this is a man, advocating for the inclusion of men in women’s sports.
“The community let me in, affirmed me and showed me I can define womanhood for myself and not let it be defined for me,” she said. “It’s one of the most beautiful gifts I’ve been given.”
What nonsense. Men can’t define womanhood for themselves. It’s insulting and damaging and all too “fierce.”
Across the world, evolving gender norms are challenging and reshaping the way we approach competitive sports, which have traditionally been segregated into ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories.
No shit; that’s because of the physical differences between the two sexes. If you don’t segregate them then women can’t be in competitive sports at all.
While the participation in Tokyo of non-binary athletes such as American skateboarder Alana Smith and Canadian soccer player Quinn were deemed less controversial, they were also repeatedly misgendered by commentators.
“If you compare the conversation around Laurel to [that around] Quinn, the trans [women] misogyny is evident,” Mckenzie said. “It’s only trans women who are ‘unfair’ and ‘shouldn’t compete’. Quinn is [deemed] fine because cisgender women don’t necessarily support or believe in non-binary [identities].”
Of course it’s only trans women who are unfair: because they are men competing against women. The meaningless “non-binary” has nothing to do with it unless it’s a “non-binary” man competing against women.
The article goes on for many more words, all of them as stupid as the ones above.
Once you see the sleight of hand you can’t unsee it.
Nobody has ever even suggested excluding transgender athletes from the Olympic games. All we want is for them to compete in the correct sex category.
This is the thing isn’t it. Trans athletes are not seeking inclusion in women’s divisions because they want to compete/play sport. They are doing so because they want (a) validation, (b) to win, where they can’t competing against men, or (c) both. Many trans now say they don’t want to undergo surgery or even take hormones, they want to keep fully male bodies. Well, if that’s the case I have absolutely no issue in them competing in the male category as a trans woman. Absolutely allowed under the rules and I’ll cheer them on. Mind you, I suspect very few would qualify (see (b) above). If on the other hand a man wants surgery and/or hormone treatment to present as feminine and that makes any thought of competing in the men’s division untenable (because (b) again), well unless the playing field can be properly levelled they should not be eligible to compete against women because it is self evidently unfair and basically cheating. Sometimes you can’t have everything you want.
Note the erasure of the inconvenient fact: the Canadian soccer player is a woman who wants to be male. She has continued competing on the WOMEN’S team. Is there a single example of a trans-man seriously attempting to participate in men’s sports?
And no, the girls competing in high-school wrestling in the smallest weight categories don’t really count. Those aren’t just small ponds, they’re scarcely puddles.