One thing I didn’t realize until last year is that, in elite professional tennis, the women use different tennis balls from the men. I’ve only ever gone to the sporting goods store and bought a can of “tennis balls.” I thought they were all one standard, but evidently not.
The general performance differences are of course highly important in the effort to keep women’s sports for women.
People I see calling for “trans inclusion”, though, tend to point out examples like exceptionally tall women or exceptionally strong women. They are not swayed by pointing out that “transwomen” are tall, any more than they are swayed by pointing out that a certain set of African women are tall. Trans-identified men are not being kept out of women’s competitions because they are large, but because they are men. If “Lia” Thomas can compete in the women’s competition, why can’t Michael Phelps¹? I wish the “inclusion” advocates could see that they are in effect advocating for the elimination of separate divisions for men and women, and that their opponents are not calling for “tall” or “heavy” or “strong” divisions in a whole bunch of sports.
But yes, one of the key reasons there are male and female divisions in sports is because of these performance differences. Just like there are separate divisions by age, even though some kids are very tall/heavy/strong and some adults are not.
¹ I would bet money that, if there were a competition with no sex divisions at all, few if any trans-identified males would bother to enter. They want to beat the wimmins, not just compete.
@Sackbut, I once engaged in a many days long argument with a researcher who claimed that, in his study, there was no significant difference between female athletic performance and trans women on CSH and testosterone suppression. His finding, which to me invalidated the entire enterprise, was that the TW in his study were 104% of female size. I tried in vain to point out that regardless of the small size of TW in his study, males are on average 140% of female size, and do not shrink with transition, and therefore he needed to account for these average sized male athletic performance, not the bizarre sample he was working with (and presumably establishing sports policy with).
Women’s rights are human rights.
One thing I didn’t realize until last year is that, in elite professional tennis, the women use different tennis balls from the men. I’ve only ever gone to the sporting goods store and bought a can of “tennis balls.” I thought they were all one standard, but evidently not.
I didn’t know that either.
Not quite so (about women’s balls).
https://tennisladys.com/whats-the-difference-between-mens-and-womens-tennis-balls/
Seems some women prefer “men’s balls”, others require them.
*snort*
The general performance differences are of course highly important in the effort to keep women’s sports for women.
People I see calling for “trans inclusion”, though, tend to point out examples like exceptionally tall women or exceptionally strong women. They are not swayed by pointing out that “transwomen” are tall, any more than they are swayed by pointing out that a certain set of African women are tall. Trans-identified men are not being kept out of women’s competitions because they are large, but because they are men. If “Lia” Thomas can compete in the women’s competition, why can’t Michael Phelps¹? I wish the “inclusion” advocates could see that they are in effect advocating for the elimination of separate divisions for men and women, and that their opponents are not calling for “tall” or “heavy” or “strong” divisions in a whole bunch of sports.
But yes, one of the key reasons there are male and female divisions in sports is because of these performance differences. Just like there are separate divisions by age, even though some kids are very tall/heavy/strong and some adults are not.
¹ I would bet money that, if there were a competition with no sex divisions at all, few if any trans-identified males would bother to enter. They want to beat the wimmins, not just compete.
@Sackbut, I once engaged in a many days long argument with a researcher who claimed that, in his study, there was no significant difference between female athletic performance and trans women on CSH and testosterone suppression. His finding, which to me invalidated the entire enterprise, was that the TW in his study were 104% of female size. I tried in vain to point out that regardless of the small size of TW in his study, males are on average 140% of female size, and do not shrink with transition, and therefore he needed to account for these average sized male athletic performance, not the bizarre sample he was working with (and presumably establishing sports policy with).