• knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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      3 days ago

      So you’re saying that people like Michael Phelps should be excluded from competing in sports due to the famous athelete’s “biological advantages”?

            • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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              2 days ago

              Depends on what the point is.

              If the point is to give everyone a chance to compete fairly then breaking the sport into tiers based on ability makes sense and gender segregation would be unnecessary.

              If the point is to make space for women to participate in sports, then excluding certain kinds of women because of some personal characteristic outside of their control would defeat the purpose. Trans women deserve not to have to play with the boys too.

                • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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                  2 days ago

                  If genotype and hormone testing aren’t mandatory then it’s gender segregregated. Sex isn’t a property one can assume from outward appearances.

                  • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                    2 days ago

                    Of course it is. You can instantly tell the sex of 99% of people from a single glance. And it’s pretty simple to clear up that last 1% with a single brief exchange.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        The women’s section is separate from the open section specifically so that women can get their place to compete without being dominated by men’s biological advantages over them. Micheal Phelps is competing in the open section, which is… Well… Open. Also please leave strawmanning to the conservatives.

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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          3 days ago

          You missed my point.

          If the argument is that unfair competition due to “biological advantages” should be reduced then I agree. Sports should be segregated by performance classes and open to all genders.

          But if the point of segregating sports is to make space for women in sports, then excluding trans women is nothing more than discrimination on par with excluding black or disabled women. Trans women deserve not to have to play with the boys too.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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            3 days ago

            If the argument is that unfair competition due to “biological advantages” should be reduced then I agree. Sports should be segregated by performance classes and open to all genders.

            That’s probably the ideal solution, but the problem is that nobody’s gonna watch anything except the top leagues. I mean watching the kinda good but not really amazing people’s football league just isn’t an appealing prospect, unless I misunderstood what you meant by performance classes. The whole point of this debate (other than conservatives shitting on trans women anyway) is that you need a framework where:

            1-trans people can compete, 2-cis women aren’t unfairly disadvantaged and 3-that people would actually watch.

            I’m frankly not sure such a thing exists.

            • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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              2 days ago

              If we can only have two of those three then ditching the commerciality of it all would be my preference. Sports are actually worth watching when they aren’t just an excuse to extract profit from professional and collegiate athletes.

              Realistically, we can’t have 3 in any case. Women’s sports gets a tiny fraction of the viewership as it is and I don’t see the inclusion or exclusion of trans women affecting those numbers much.

    • oakey66@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      This is a really stupid argument. The thing that makes athletes special is their biology.

      There’s a reason that DK Metcalf towers over all of the cornerbacks in the NFL. He’s a biological specimen that has incredible agility, height, muscle mass, and speed.

      https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/d-k-metcalf-proves-he-s-an-athletic-freak-at-combine

      Michael Phelps also has a biological advantage that very few humans have.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/we-celebrated-michael-phelpss-genetic-differences-why-punish-caster-semenya-for-hers/2019/05/02/93d08c8c-6c2b-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html

      None of this excludes them over their competition.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        I’ll just copy my reply to the other guy.

        The women’s section is separate from the open section specifically so that women can get their place to compete without being dominated by men’s biological advantages over them. Micheal Phelps is competing in the open section, which is… Well… Open.