I don’t know exactly if the anatomy of trans women is similar to that of non-trans women. I’m ignorant about this. However, if there are equal conditions, it can happen in trances. If there are no equal conditions, I think it can be opened to a separate category. Why shouldn’t there be an extra category of trans women or trans men next to men and women?
Current science actually shows that trans women perform worse than cis women in several categories and identical in others. Which correlates with the fact that in the 20 years that trans women have been allowed to compete in the olympics, not a single one has made it there. It was a small study and needs to be expanded upon, but is still better evidence than what any of the reactionary bans have.
Here’s a link to an article that includes a link to the actual study https://www.outsports.com/2024/4/12/24091267/transgender-athletes-study-research-science-sports-governing-bodies/
Sabine Hossenfelder did a video on trans women in sports, and despite her checkered history of non-physics related topics, she raised some good points. ( on YouTube )
Hossenfelder she points out, whether we’re looking at college sports, pro sports or the Olympics, we’re less seeking fair competitions as we are interesting ones. (As she notes, it’s not fair that Usain Bolt got long legs and she didn’t), as a result we sometimes separate contestants into classes. Boxing, for instance, is separated not just by sex, but by three weight classes, because otherwise, the 120kg mountain of pure muscle punches all the featherweights over the ropes.
What we’re looking for when matchmaking is the same that we are when we match-make for gaming competitions, which is to say near-peers where the outcome of a contest is closely undecided, where we are unable to guess with much accuracy who would win until after the outcome. And in today’s athletic classes we’re able to categorize trans women with other athletic women who are near-peers and get exciting contests where the outcome is unpredictable.
Hossenfelder suggests all this is going to change once it becomes routine to genetically engineer our offspring. But that will be another era.
Sorry, but after her Trans care Video I don’t have a single ounce of respect left for her. Surely you can find better people to quote here?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r6Kau7bO3Fw
I think there’s another one of these videos too. Don’t trust anything she says outside of physics. She’s a physicist, but she confidently speaks on issues she has no knowledge on. She’s a bad educational YouTube because she lies and pretends like she has knowledge she doesn’t have.
This YouTube also has a great video about Sabine’s pro-capitalism video where she is varifiably wrong about many things but just doesn’t care. She’s not reliable, except maybe within her field… possibly.
Honestly we might just need a different metric than gender to separate sports. Something like testosterone level or something, similar to weight classes. Because no matter how you look at it, this isn’t really fair for their opponents, regardless of gender. But then again, there’s also other body differences that might not have anything to do with current testosterone level, so I don’t know.
Fair for her opponent? The punch that ended the fight didn’t knock out her opponent nor did it break her nose nor even give her a nose bleed. And suddenly all the rules need to be changed? Trying to get that granulated opens a whole new can of worms. What about arm length and height? Blood sugar levels? Angle of shoulders and hips? By this logic Shaquille O’Neal had a unfair competitive advantage on everyone.
I didn’t say her in particular, I didn’t even watch that fight. But as the world transitions to treating the genders as no longer binary, doesn’t it make sense to change the binary gender sports rules as well?
The governing body for whatever sport and region already making those rules. The Olympics already has rules in place for trans athletes. So what else needs to be done? This whole panic over this is way overblown and is a distraction that negatively impacts women and trans athletes.
Testosterone is complicated. Women athletes have higher than average testosterone. Some have higher than athletes who are men! Also T-levels don’t accurately correlate to performance, so there’s a factor of hormonal responsiveness as well.
But yeah, boxing also has weight classes, so we already know that sometimes we have to segregate leagues in order to keep contests among near peers and exciting.
The issue is that these athletes are already exceptional. If I, a 6’ tall man, got into the ring with any of these women I’d get my ass handed to me. I’m not asking them to make a division that I could win though.
I don’t know what the best solution is, but there should be an open “Premier league” that anyone can compete in. If we decide to have other leagues then that gets complicated. Should we have one for class differences, hormone levels, mental capacity, or all other conditions? I’m unsure. The playing field can never be leveled though.
Here’s an interesting article about that: https://daily.jstor.org/gender-incommensurability-in-sports/
For sure, I have no clue how all that works but there has got to be a better way to do it than just separating by genders.
The “problem” is that gender is a spectrum and there doesn’t exist any real metric to discern or categorize people into a social binary. Honestly, I’m surprised this topic is even popping up again when I thought this was hashed out several years and Olympics ago when right wingers were bringing this up back then. Trying to categorize and disqualify women by testosterone content just doesn’t work. This is all ultimately a method of trying to police and control women’s bodies.
In a similar vein, why aren’t men looked at in the same manner. Why not say that any particular man either has too much estrogen and is either too womanly or not manly enough to qualify or compete. It’s because these people aren’t looking for fairness, safety, or any other dog whistle they might cry about. It’s all just about controlling women.
I think there are already limits to T levels? I don’t follow sports closely though.
there’s also other body differences that might not have anything to do with current testosterone level
Like what? Bone density changes with hrt, that’s the only example I see people use.
I’m not saying this would happen, because it’d have a lot of side effects, but I could see a situation like how wrestlers try to drop as much water weight and everything else before weighing in, people drop as much testosterone before measurement. Again, this is purely a hypothetical and not a criticism of anything in our world today, just something I could imagine. Sex/gender is complicated, but hormone levels are also probably also not ideal measurements because it could lead to issues like the above, which I’m sure isn’t healthy. I really don’t know what the right solution is, but there’s clearly no perfect one.
Would a 99% Muslim country like Algeria really allow a trans person to represent it at the Olympics? I highly doubt it.
I mean Iran recognizes trans women as women and trans men as men. Treats both like shit and is wildly homophobic but it does nominally recognize binary trans people post transition (mid transition is a different story). And Casablanca was at one time a bottom surgery hotspot to a point that a trans person “going to Casablanca/morocco” had an understood reason akin to Thailand today
How are you able to believe that. Is there some sort of concrete evidence that everyone else is missing or is it a gut feeling justification?
The international boxing association Russian president claimed that the DNA results showed two athletes had xy chromosomes but never published the results. That claim only came after Imane, an Algerian boxer, defeated the Russian boxer Azalia, and the claim was used to disqualify Imane’s victory.
Of all the conspiracy theories, isn’t it more reasonable that the Russian president wanted to protect the Russian boxer and made up a reason to DQ Imane to ensure that his home country wasn’t stained by a loss?
Honestly, I find the whole things reeks of ignorance. I don’t expect everyone to know everything, but I thought Algeria is a well known enough country; and I am surprised that the fact Imane came from there did not clue in everyone as to why she can’t be a transwoman! I am in a discussions group and one person brought up the controversy in the chat. The guy is a boomer and probably fell easily to fake news from social media. I gave the simple response that she’s from Algeria to clue him in, but others had to explain several times why it is fake news that Imane is supposedly a transwoman!
As I grow older, I realise that people can’t know what you know and vice versa. Which is completely fine; but on the one side it shows how each of us are in our own bubble which can have detrimental effects, not just for our own personal growth, but also to the wider society.
Why are conservatives so weird when it comes to women playing sports? Like why do they care about their genitals?
Maybe we need to start calling them perverts.
They are so perverted.
Except here’s the thing; I’m pretty sure I’ve read this athlete has a vagina, and has had one all of her life. They just don’t understand sex, and how complex it can be.
Imane is literally a cis-gender woman and there’s no evidence that she is intersex, trans, or anything that indicates non-normative chromosome or hormone production.
It is completely fair for her to compete and it’s just right wing people who are trying to claim and decide that she’s not womanly enough to be considered a woman.
There are literally no trans people competing in the Olympics this year and only two non-binary competitors. This is all being posed as if the entirety of the Olympics is being skewed by trans competitors when there aren’t any and this controversy is just being invented for the sake of affirming control over women.
Honestly, most conservatives are just directing their rage toward whatever conservative politicians and talking heads tell them to direct it at. Conservatism lives and thrives on hate, requiring in-groups and out-groups that must be pitted against one another. The new fad is to care about a person’s genitals.
You see, conservatives don’t believe in gender equality, so someone who isn’t a cis woman will always perform better than cis women, because they believe that women are inherently weak and men are inherently strong, failing to believe that any other form of gender identity even exists.
Easy way to get arrested by one of said weirdos/perverts. Self-defense isn’t particularly straightforward if you aren’t straight and white.
