Trans women who have undergone male puberty should probably not compete against cis women. If you believe there should be women’s sports at all, rather than categories based on weight. I do think there is a place for women’s sports because men are stronger and faster than women in most sports. Sports for girls are amazing! At elite level…
Trans women who have undergone male puberty should probably not compete against cis women. If you believe there should be women’s sports at all, rather than categories based on weight. I do think there is a place for women’s sports because men are stronger and faster than women in most sports. Sports for girls are amazing! At elite levels I don’t see how you can argue that it’s fair for people who have gone through male puberty to compete in a women’s division. It affects lean muscle mass, bone density, density of slow-twitch vs fast twitch fibers. There are biological differences.
As a trans person, I would agree that there are biological differences in the abstract.
It’s just that those biological differences are much more complex than most people (on either side of the argument) are generally willing to admit.
Some cisgender women have unusually high testosterone. Some cisgender men have unusually high estrogen. Some cisgender people are biologically intersex and don’t discover this until well into adulthood. And some trans people delay puberty and don’t actually go through the puberty of their genders assigned at birth.
The problem we see with cases like Imane Khelif’s is that “biological sex” doesn’t fit into neat boxes, and forcing social structures to pretend otherwise ultimately ends up perpetuating racism, classism, and the patriarchy.
That said, yes, unironically, girls rock. And we should keep society from repressing the ways that girls rock in the name of conformity: masculinity should not be the default.
Trans women who have undergone male puberty should probably not compete against cis women. If you believe there should be women’s sports at all, rather than categories based on weight. I do think there is a place for women’s sports because men are stronger and faster than women in most sports. Sports for girls are amazing! At elite levels I don’t see how you can argue that it’s fair for people who have gone through male puberty to compete in a women’s division. It affects lean muscle mass, bone density, density of slow-twitch vs fast twitch fibers. There are biological differences.
As a trans person, I would agree that there are biological differences in the abstract.
It’s just that those biological differences are much more complex than most people (on either side of the argument) are generally willing to admit.
Some cisgender women have unusually high testosterone. Some cisgender men have unusually high estrogen. Some cisgender people are biologically intersex and don’t discover this until well into adulthood. And some trans people delay puberty and don’t actually go through the puberty of their genders assigned at birth.
The problem we see with cases like Imane Khelif’s is that “biological sex” doesn’t fit into neat boxes, and forcing social structures to pretend otherwise ultimately ends up perpetuating racism, classism, and the patriarchy.
That said, yes, unironically, girls rock. And we should keep society from repressing the ways that girls rock in the name of conformity: masculinity should not be the default.