Jack Turban tells girls to shut up and deal with it
In Scientific American of all places. I know they have precedent, thanks to that crappy article the zealots used to point to, but there oughta be a limit. Jack Turban of all people – and the title Trans Girls Belong on Girls’ Sports Teams. Yeah sure: boys belong on girls’ sports teams, SciAm says so.
You may be wondering what this is doing in a science magazine, but the subtitle explains all:
There is no scientific case for excluding them
That’s sneaky, of course, because it’s not a purely scientific issue in the first place. It’s not science that says grown men shouldn’t punch babies in the face. There are some relevant facts though, which can be disputed or backed up or rejected via evidence, some of which we know via scientific research. Summary version: males have physical advantages compared to females. For more see a biology textbook. The second step isn’t science, it’s a should: males shouldn’t exploit that advantage; fair sport shouldn’t allow (let alone encourage) males to do that.
So what does Jack Turban say?
There is no epidemic of transgender girls dominating female sports.
What if there were? If it’s a problem when there’s an epidemic of it why would it be ok when only a few do it?
Attempts to force transgender girls to play on the boys’ teams are unconscionable attacks on already marginalized transgender children
blows whistle Manipulative wording cheat! Red card! Nobody is forcing boys who claim to be girls to do anything. but people who give a shit about fairness want to stop boys invading girls’ sports.
As a child psychiatry fellow, I spend a lot of time with kids. They have many worries on their minds: bullying, sexual assault, divorcing parents, concerns they won’t get into college. What they’re not worried about is transgender girls playing on girls’ sports teams.
Unless of course they are girls on such teams, but we’ll just pretend they don’t exist.
It’s pathetic that SciAm published this male-centric special pleading nonsense.
Would that be the same Jack Turban whose work is funded by companies that make puberty blockers?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/advocate-rather-scientist-compromised-research-103012784.html
Oh well, if no girl athletes have told Jack Turban they have concerns about having trans girls on their team, then we can rest assured that no such concerns exist. After all, female athletes would feel totally confident in sharing any discomfort about trans girl teammates with Jack Turban, who totally seems like he would be a sympathetic ear and definitely wouldn’t sneer and call them transphobes.
SciAm has become such a pitiful, cheap rag.
guest – oh yes, so it would. Thanks for the reminder.
Ah well, everything changes. Nothing stays the same. You can’t cross the same river twice. Still, a copy of that cheap rag might make good lining for a cat’s bed or box. The cat’s mouse catching could improve as a result.
Endless possibilities there. Look on the bright side, I always say.
[…] Commenter guest reminded us that Jack Turban has conflicts of interest. Let’s refresh our memories on those conflicts. […]
I think we can postulate a general rule from this example, along with others, to wit:
“Anything that embraces trans activism turns to shit.”
To do science we’d need to begin with a well-formulated hypothesis, wouldn’t we? Something we could attempt to falsify. Jack doesn’t seem to have one of those. He should ask me, I’ve got loads. How about “men have numerous competitive advantages over women in many sports”? Or maybe “women and society benefit when women and girls are able to compete fairly in sports”? Or, more in keeping with my current mood, “women and society suffer when men are allowed to cheat women out of sporting places and wins.”
I know, I know, these are not technically well-formulated hypotheses, but all we need to add are the means by which they could be tested, which practically write themselves. This shit ain’t hard, Jack, what’s your excuse?
guest@1: Is. He. Ever.
Then again: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/men-resist-green-behavior-as-unmanly/
Oh good find.
Guest #1
Sounds rather similar to conflict of interest Andrew Wakefield had with his vaccine *research*.