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Appears to be transgender girls playing in girls sports -- conservatives have found their new Flag of Discrimination to pump up their activists.
From a more nonbinary perspective, being neither a woman nor transgender, but instead gender nonconforming, it feels like a pointless war over who should count as second class while playing sports, but the LGBTs want to support the Ts against transphobia ... though the issue is more complicated than just transphobia.
I was talking with a friend about this issue recently, and I said the ultimate problem is that we conduct sports in an elitist way, we're all about competition and who is #1, instead of cooperation and having fun. Because of that, we had to segregate sports by sex, otherwise sex differences among elite athletes would make it impossible to become #1 in a particular sport unless you were born as one particular sex. But it is still impossible to become #1 in a particular sport unless you were born with the correct speed/dexterity/strength genes, and then practice for hours per day for years, and then ... why do we even care? Why should I care whether you're the fastest marathon runner of either sex?
Sure, sports is a big industry and a lot of people enjoy watching sports and a smaller number of people enjoy taking part in sports, but it is essentially an elitist system that worships the small number of people who can scramble to the top; and to allow some women to scramble to the top we created a sex-segregated system, but we still spend most of our cash and attention on the male sports because the focus is on who is #1 on whatever measurement.
Transgender athletes, just by wanting to play along, uncover this system for what it is -- an elitist system that is segregated by sex. So now there are women who feel they'll never have a chance to become #1 because AMABs will move in and take over the elite rung of "their" sports.
I have no sympathy for people who feel sad that they'll never have a chance to become #1 at playing a game, unless those who are better at it are excluded.
In many sports we've come up with handicap systems, because it's no fun playing if you ALWAYS lose. But segregating by sex is a inefficient handicap system. There's a huge amount of overlap between the sexes, and a wide range of abilities within the sexes. There's plenty of women who can run faster than me, for example.
It is one of the areas where your sex at birth can make a difference, if you also have other elite characteristics. But maybe the problem isn't whether we correctly segregate the athletes so that we have one set of AMABs who are elite and one set of AFABs who are elite. Maybe the problem is that we give a fuck who is #1 at playing a game. Maybe we shouldn't give a fuck. Maybe we should just let boys and girls and transgender kids all play together, and teach people that what's important is playing together, not becoming #1. Everybody who wants to play on a team gets to play on the team, no tryouts, no cuts, no second string, and everybody gets equal time playing, and it's about having fun whether you win or lose. Maybe the winners take the losers out to dinner and everybody laughs about it either way.
To me the issue is far larger than whether transgender girls should be allowed to play with other girls. I'm against segregation and elitism in sports. I think everybody should be able to play any game they want. I think sports should be fun and inclusive all around, not segregated by sex or focused on elite competition.
From a more nonbinary perspective, being neither a woman nor transgender, but instead gender nonconforming, it feels like a pointless war over who should count as second class while playing sports, but the LGBTs want to support the Ts against transphobia ... though the issue is more complicated than just transphobia.
I was talking with a friend about this issue recently, and I said the ultimate problem is that we conduct sports in an elitist way, we're all about competition and who is #1, instead of cooperation and having fun. Because of that, we had to segregate sports by sex, otherwise sex differences among elite athletes would make it impossible to become #1 in a particular sport unless you were born as one particular sex. But it is still impossible to become #1 in a particular sport unless you were born with the correct speed/dexterity/strength genes, and then practice for hours per day for years, and then ... why do we even care? Why should I care whether you're the fastest marathon runner of either sex?
Sure, sports is a big industry and a lot of people enjoy watching sports and a smaller number of people enjoy taking part in sports, but it is essentially an elitist system that worships the small number of people who can scramble to the top; and to allow some women to scramble to the top we created a sex-segregated system, but we still spend most of our cash and attention on the male sports because the focus is on who is #1 on whatever measurement.
Transgender athletes, just by wanting to play along, uncover this system for what it is -- an elitist system that is segregated by sex. So now there are women who feel they'll never have a chance to become #1 because AMABs will move in and take over the elite rung of "their" sports.
I have no sympathy for people who feel sad that they'll never have a chance to become #1 at playing a game, unless those who are better at it are excluded.
In many sports we've come up with handicap systems, because it's no fun playing if you ALWAYS lose. But segregating by sex is a inefficient handicap system. There's a huge amount of overlap between the sexes, and a wide range of abilities within the sexes. There's plenty of women who can run faster than me, for example.
It is one of the areas where your sex at birth can make a difference, if you also have other elite characteristics. But maybe the problem isn't whether we correctly segregate the athletes so that we have one set of AMABs who are elite and one set of AFABs who are elite. Maybe the problem is that we give a fuck who is #1 at playing a game. Maybe we shouldn't give a fuck. Maybe we should just let boys and girls and transgender kids all play together, and teach people that what's important is playing together, not becoming #1. Everybody who wants to play on a team gets to play on the team, no tryouts, no cuts, no second string, and everybody gets equal time playing, and it's about having fun whether you win or lose. Maybe the winners take the losers out to dinner and everybody laughs about it either way.
To me the issue is far larger than whether transgender girls should be allowed to play with other girls. I'm against segregation and elitism in sports. I think everybody should be able to play any game they want. I think sports should be fun and inclusive all around, not segregated by sex or focused on elite competition.
