mister butafuco
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2020
How do you guys respond to the argument that trans women should be allowed to compete against biological females because "all sports are about genetic advantages, basketball players are taller, baseball players have better reaction times, etc." It all seems very self-evident to me that the suite of differences between biological males and females are much more significant and numerous than something like NBA players being taller on average, but I admit that it's somewhat hard to articulate.
The difference is this. Basketball is not segregated by height. Baseball is not segregated by reaction times. Sports ARE pretty much all segregated by sex. Their argument would only be valid if we had a league for people below 5'4'' (on the basis that short people are at such a disadvantage they wouldn't get to play competitively without special leagues) and we allowed taller people in if they identified as short. Would they be okay with people boxing in lower weight divisions because they were dysphoric about their weight?
The advantages of transwomen in female sports is not the same as the advantage of tall/muscular/quick females. Having fast reaction time will give you a tiny advantage, which may or not result in a medal as the woman will be competing against other women with their own slight advantages, skills and training levels. On the other hand, male advantage is huge: TW were usually pretty mediocre when competing as males and only reveal their advantage when competing against females.
When I talk to people who think TW in women's sport is no big deal I ask them the following: height, body shape, reaction times, etc. all give people genetic advantages in sport; are you saying that 'being born male' is just another innate advantage in female sport?
In some sports, coaches look out for youngsters with the right physical attributes for their sports. A very tall kid is going to be approached by basketball coaches, a tall and broad kid is going to having American football and rowing coaches fighting over them. Should coaches of girls' sports just appraoch trans girls?
Edited to add:
Here is a proper scientific takedown of the 'Phelps Gambit': the idea that if Phelps' advantage is okay, then why not transwomen:
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