this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
24 points (69.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26903 readers
221 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hello everyone,

I'm interested in gathering thoughts and perspectives, particularly from the trans community, regarding trans women's participation in women's sports. This is a topic that often sparks debate, and I want to understand the various viewpoints better.

My question is: What are your opinions on biologically male trans individuals competing in women's sports? Do you think there should be separate categories for trans athletes, or should they compete in accordance with their gender identity? I am looking for thoughtful, respectful discussions, as my intention is not to discriminate but to understand the complexities of this issue better.

Thank you for sharing your insights!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This question is loaded. Trans women are not really biologically male, depending on the time transition happened there will be varying degrees of masculinised secondary sex characteristics but things such as fat distribution, muscle mass, organ size changes etc are going to look much more "standard" female than male.

AFAB women aren't excluded from sport if they're unusually tall, or have PCOS, or some other hormone variation that leads to an advantage. Women with PCOS will have an advantage in sport involving strength because they have much higher levels of testosterone (some grow patchy beards ffs) but nobody makes a fuss over that.

All sport is inherently unfair, we try and set limits of degree of unfairness. There is no evidence that trans women have more advantages than all the usual variations in women we allow competition among without issue. The Olympics has allowed trans competitors since 2004, where are all the trans gold medalists? where are all the trans women winning everything? Have you seen the differences in male and female records for most sports? If trans women are meaningfully similar to men then the average trans women would just demolish many sports. This doesn't happen, only a few people have attracted attention for success and that's in an environment of media controversy with actively trying to seek them out.

[–] groet@feddit.de 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

One caveat about the Olympics is, you can't just choose to compete there yourself as an athlete, even if you are world class. You have to be part, and chosen by, a national organisation. So even if the Olympics allow trans athletes, as long as most countries don't, there won't be trans athletes any time soon. I agree on the rest, I just don't think the Olympics will be a forerunner in terms of trans representation.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It would only take one country to field a team of trans women for prestige (quietly of course) if there was a clear advantage. Countries have engaged in various other schemes to supposedly improve performance previously.