Updating
Bowls England say they are updating their “historical and outdated” guidance on transgender bowlers after a trans female was barred from competing.
Stella Moore, 67, who has lived for three years as a woman, is unable [to] play for her Hampshire lawn bowls club.
There’s no such thing as “living as a woman,” any more than there’s such a thing as living as a bear or a tulip or a recycling plant.
Also, is Moore really unable to play for her club? Or is it just that she’s unable to play “as a woman”?
The Portsmouth and District Women’s Bowling Association say they have been following guidance published in 2014.
It required gender reassignment surgery three years before or for Stella to hold a gender recognition certificate.
The guidance is crap; men shouldn’t be allowed to play on women’s teams at all.
Stella, from Hayling Island, is continuing to campaign to be allowed to play in women’s competitions and for the guidelines to be changed after some of the tone and language upset her.
Well we can’t have this guy called Stella upset, can we.
“I was distraught, I love bowls” she told BBC South Today.
“I get it that if it’s boxing a guy can’t suddenly go, ‘I want to be a woman and fight other women’, but this is bowls.”
Actually he can, and then he smashes a woman’s skull in the first minute of the “fight.”
Stella is on hormone treatment to increase her female characteristics and reduce her strength, meaning she now has “the strength of a 30-year-old woman”, which she says can be clinically proven by her GP and the gender clinic.
People can say anything. It’s still not true.
“We are in the process of developing a new trans and gender-diverse policy,” chief executive Jon Cockroft said.
“Whilst the physical demands of bowls are more modest than most sports, it is still a gender-affected sport.
“Our new policy is being designed to balance a desire for inclusivity, so everybody can feel welcome in bowls, with the importance of ensuring fair competition.”
Don’t do that. Don’t “balance” fairness to the women with the man’s desire for “inclusivity” that is unfair to women.
The debate on bowls updating its policy comes at a time when World Rugby has banned transgender women from competing at the highest levels of the women’s game.
Because World Rugby draws the line at breaking women’s necks for sport.
When I took bowling in college for a PE credit, it was patently obvious that the males in the class were flinging the balls down the lanes with a lot more strength than the females. My husband isn’t even an athlete, and he can make the ball go faster and harder than most women.
The answer is simple. “She” loves bowling, “she” can bowl as a man. And I doubt that her strength is that of a 30 year old woman; most men don’t lose their strength or muscle mass down to the level of women. Although, “she” is 67, so has probably lost some to the natural process of aging.
This man should not be competing against women. Period. Transwomen ARE NOT women.
iknklast:
A slight quibble: this is lawn bowls, which is different. It’s a much gentler game. I have no idea or opinion about whether men have a competitive advantage in lawn bowls or not.
This makes it an interesting case because it helps us to remember that women shouldn’t need a reason or excuse to have their own team with no men in it. In the UK, sex is a protected characteristic whether certain people like it or not and it’s legally fine for women to have their own spaces and teams.
Don’t get me wrong, fairness is a vital issue in sport, but part of me always wants to scream that it shouldn’t even matter if there’s no competitive advantage either way: women should get to say that they don’t want men on their team and they shouldn’t have to give a reason.
“guy”,
“want to be a woman”,
“can’t […] fight other women”
Room 101!
How?
Bjarte, that’s that neat little language trick, isn’t it? Gender…sex…sex…gender…everyone is so confused by now they just say stupid shit without thinking about it.
Latsot, my Grandad was a passionate lawn bowls player and a couple of decades later I worked with a young guy who was very competitive.
While arguably strength plays no part in the game there are other factors that affect sporting opportunities. Even in lawn bowls, there has been a trend to become more physical by using stronger and more frequent drives (where a bowl is sent down at high speed in a more or less straight line). men still have an advantage then.
Two of the other issues affecting access to sports and recreation is access to time and money. I used to be actively involved in a sport that required a reasonable income to participate in, but more importantly a huge amount of free time. being actively involved meant usually a minimum of a full day if not two during most weekends, plus additional time in evenings. It also dominated most holidays and long weekends. The pool of women who had access to both significant discretionary income AND large amounts of ‘me’ time is simply much smaller than for men. Top competitive women in that sport exist, but they’re as rare as unicorns.
While that was an extreme example it holds true to an extent in many sports. If you can’t put in the time to become really really good, and afford the equipment, coaching, and travel, well you’re simply not going to be good (and available) enough to make a top mixed team. So, even in a sport that is fairly level in physical strength attributes, being a woman severely restricts participation unless that opportunity is carved out.
Challenge accepted!
I advise starting with Live as a Cat. Work your way up.
“Stella is on hormone treatment to increase her female characteristics and reduce her strength, meaning she now has “the strength of a 30-year-old woman”, which she says can be clinically proven by her GP and the gender clinic.”
I appreciate this comment for its implicit admission: a 67 year old man, after having his strength reduced, is still as strong as a woman in the prime adulthood. This guy is going to get yelled at by other TRAs when they hear he has strayed from the script!
Teller lives as a cat:
https://youtu.be/-Z7QeWLlgAU
There doesn’t have to be a skill differential by sex. If it’s a women’s league, he can’t play. He can play in a men’s league, or in a mixed sex league. You don’t get to have everything, just because you want it. What is he, two?
They are all two. That’s why we have to cater to their fantasies, because they are not capable of behaving in an adult manner and recognizing that the world does not revolve around them. For many of us, we learned that by 5 or 6, certainly by our teen years, even if we didn’t always act on it. But some people will remain stuck in 2 for the rest of their lives, unfortunately in adult bodies.
maddog
What I’m saying. Women don’t need a reason to exclude men from their sports, even though the reasons are all really good ones. Men should stop demanding entry to women’s sports and everyone should stop demanding a reason when women tell them to fuck off.
Homes @8 (and anyone else interested),
Google ‘graph of male vs female grip strength by age’ it’s informative.