But let’s not pretend she doesn’t have a point. Men and women’s bodies are different. Men are, quite simply, bigger. They have larger organs, bigger bones, and a higher ratio of muscle mass; they have bigger lungs, bigger hearts, and higher oxygen carrying capacity than women. They are generally stronger and faster than women.Men and women are biologically different in many ways beyond this, but for the purposes of discussing what is “fair” and what is not, in sport, these points are obvious to most. The truth is, there is no possible way to change an adult male, physiologically, into a female.
Well actually, men and women come in a range of sizes, theres very small men and very big women. if you just go on averages men are on average slightly taller. But there are plenty of women who are stronger and taller than the majority of men. Athletes are usually those women , the average height for a woman in the UK is 5’3″ , i doubt there are many female athletes that height.There are trans women athletes who sacrificed a lot of muscular strength and advantage so they can more comfortably live as women by taking oestrogen and androgen blockers.Theres are cis women who are athletes that have much higher than average anabolic hormone levels, naturally, athletes are genetic freaks in a way.If a trans women is not taking HRT or hormone blockers, she is at an advantage and should compete against other people with similar advantages .. in this case it would probably be Men.Categories in sport are not about identity they are about advantage. Otherwise i think sport would be mixed. For example I identified as Male before i took hormones, i did not really mind being classified as female in the competition.. because i did have female biological limitations.In fact i would suggest we have even MORE categories based on advantage.. why stop there!why not have high jump for short people for the short people who always wanted to compete but were at a disadvantage?I’m fairly short for a man and it is a disadvantage in loads of sport, lets have a short persons strongman competition! We have weight catagories .. we could have more!At the end of the day sport is a pretty useless but enjoyable part of society .. we basically just like watching beautiful superhumans do amazing things we could never imagine doing for our amusement… so I don’t really see why trans people can’t be included in that.
There are two aspects of your response I would like to highlight.
First, you suggest in (while I believe) is a mocking tone that there should be more divisions in sports based on advantage. Assuming this was in jest, what you fail to appreciate is that underlying your argument is the assumption that advantage does not matter. Ergo, in sports there should be no division whatsoever. Let us then go away with all women’s sports. The NBA and WNBA are separate entities based on advantage. Are you really suggesting that since all humans are different and, therefore, some will have an advantage in sports, that the disparity with trans athletes should therefore be ignored?
Second, you final sentence is, with respect, a flawed appeal to emotion. Trans people absolutely can engage in the beautiful practice of sports. The only question is where is it fair and just that they engage in sports.
You say “…sport is pretty useless…”. I would encourage you to examine your prejudice against athletes.
Well actually, men and women come in a range of sizes, theres very small men and very big women. if you just go on averages men are on average slightly taller. But there are plenty of women who are stronger and taller than the majority of men. Athletes are usually those women , the average height for a woman in the UK is 5’3″ , i doubt there are many female athletes that height.There are trans women athletes who sacrificed a lot of muscular strength and advantage so they can more comfortably live as women by taking oestrogen and androgen blockers.Theres are cis women who are athletes that have much higher than average anabolic hormone levels, naturally, athletes are genetic freaks in a way.If a trans women is not taking HRT or hormone blockers, she is at an advantage and should compete against other people with similar advantages .. in this case it would probably be Men.Categories in sport are not about identity they are about advantage. Otherwise i think sport would be mixed. For example I identified as Male before i took hormones, i did not really mind being classified as female in the competition.. because i did have female biological limitations.In fact i would suggest we have even MORE categories based on advantage.. why stop there!why not have high jump for short people for the short people who always wanted to compete but were at a disadvantage?I’m fairly short for a man and it is a disadvantage in loads of sport, lets have a short persons strongman competition! We have weight catagories .. we could have more!At the end of the day sport is a pretty useless but enjoyable part of society .. we basically just like watching beautiful superhumans do amazing things we could never imagine doing for our amusement… so I don’t really see why trans people can’t be included in that.
There are two aspects of your response I would like to highlight.
First, you suggest in (while I believe) is a mocking tone that there should be more divisions in sports based on advantage. Assuming this was in jest, what you fail to appreciate is that underlying your argument is the assumption that advantage does not matter. Ergo, in sports there should be no division whatsoever. Let us then go away with all women’s sports. The NBA and WNBA are separate entities based on advantage. Are you really suggesting that since all humans are different and, therefore, some will have an advantage in sports, that the disparity with trans athletes should therefore be ignored?
Second, you final sentence is, with respect, a flawed appeal to emotion. Trans people absolutely can engage in the beautiful practice of sports. The only question is where is it fair and just that they engage in sports.
You say “…sport is pretty useless…”. I would encourage you to examine your prejudice against athletes.