Transwoman Rugby player experienced severe bullying

[Bambambini]

I thought this was an interesting blog from a transwoman athlete and her experiences of bullying from team mates and opponents. I'm concerned about transwomen entereing female sports but there's not really much being said on it, or how the TW and women in sport really feel about it or what they think.

carolinelayt.tumblr.com/post/150343141737/now-i-know-why-i-was-so-hated-whilst-playing

[Bambambini]

carolinelayt.tumblr.com/post/150343141737/now-i-know-why-i-was-so-hated-whilst-playing

[JacquettaWoodville]

I'm very sorry Layt was beaten up by teammates acting in concert. There is no excuse for that.

"My training worked a treat, as I won the women’s 35-39 years 100-200 metres double, as well as winning the long jump 4.06 at the Sydney Gay Games. My 100/200 metre winning times were 13.54/28.14. My 100 metre time was much slower than when I ran the 100 metre open division at the GPS Meeting 1983 11.73 as a young male athlete.
My 100/200/400 metre personal best times as a male athlete were 11.28/23.70/50.80. It’s easy to see through the hormone therapy and my loss of muscle mass as me now being female, I had lost strength, power and speed, which equated to my slower times."

I would also expect slower times from anyone 19 years older than the age at which they ran their PB.

[nagsandovalballs]

I play women's rugby and a friend of mine was called up to play army/raf/navy level. We play at a decent level but she is a better, stronger, fitter player than me. There was a transwoman playing against her and she said she had never, ever been hit so hard or found it so hard to hit someone as that person.
I've tried tackling men when playing causally in the park and can vouch it is another level of pain against their strength and sinewy, hard musculature.

Having said that, if a transwoman had been taking hormones since puberty then I would have no issue with it as they wouldn't have had all the hormonal advantages of being an adult man.

[sonlypuppyfat]

They would still have the skeleton of a man, they have different hip bones and freer joint movement in the hips. How on earth can a man compete with women? I could paint myself green but it wouldn't make me a frog!

[LowAMH]

Can't be arsed to read all that self indulgent waffle.

"I'd go so far as to say some TERFS have penis envy" FFS Missing the point by a mile. Get a grip you deluded prat.

[fldsmdfr]

I like how Layt can simultaneously believe 'I'm much slower/weaker than I used to be therefore I should definitely be allowed to compete against women' and 'I won all these trophies and beat all these women therefore I'm really good at sport and should definitely be allowed to compete against women'.

[ageingrunner]

I couldn't be arsed to read all of it either. Men shouldn't be playing rugby against women though. The author also said something about terfs having been unpopular at school and that's why we want to pick on poor tw. It was a quote from Paris lees. Such a deep analysis of women's concerns

[schbittery]

i know someone who had gender reassignment surgery early twenties and now plays womens hockey competitively. She is way bigger now than she was as a teenage boy. I think its wrong really as i dont think the women she plays with know she is TG. She is an extremely powerful looking person with a bone crunching handshake.

[CrikeyJoseph]

Why another fucking trans thread. In feminism.

God I'm bored of this.

[JacquettaWoodville]

On the latest Site Stuff thread, it was suggested by some all trans issue related threads be moved to FWR!

[Bambambini]

I was marking a young girl who had first represented the NSW team the previous year. I thought I’m going to use all my guile and experience and I’m going to make her regret marking me. All my rhythm started coming back to me. I’d hit it up and I saw fear in her eyes. I had seen this fear in other players eyes before when I was in my prime and making representative teams on a regular basis.
It only made me go harder. I was also hitting her hard in defence. In attack each time I ran at her, I could tell she was rattled and scared to tackle me. I was making metres of yardage each time I ran the ball forward and I knew I had mentally broken her

Sorry, how can this not be feminist issue?

[HeavenOrSpace]

As I'm slogging through their life story hoping to get to the point, my main impression is of a total disdain for women. But no, we have penis envy.

[JacquettaWoodville]

There's a shorter version in the DM from earlier this month. The invective against women has not been included.

Layt is now 50 and retired from women's rugby two years ago.

[ApplesinmyPocket]

"To be honest, my first reaction was “What kind of a real woman would want to run around in the insect ridden wilds of Michigan? Are you kidding? This is something you really want to do?” Camping in the woods and bonding with nature among our own gender sounds like a “guy thing” is what these “womyn” really want to do."

Caroline seems very satisfied that the 'trans-exclusionary policy' of Michigan Womyn's Music Festival led to its closing down as obviously it is not fair to keep even one single event for women-born-women, but Caroline is mystified why any woman would want to go to it because Caroline is a REAL woman you see, inside, where it counts, more Woman than women-born-women and Caroline knows it's not womanly to run around in the woods together doing basically boy stuff.

[ageingrunner]

Above all else I didn’t want to be a parody in a dress and I didn’t want to be an ugly woman! If that was going to be the case, I thought to myself, forget it, I’ll stay a boy!

As is often the case, it's all about appearance and stereotypes of how women should look

[RufusTheSpartacusReindeer]

crikey

Dont fucking read it then

It was perfectly clear that it was a "trans" thread from the title

[fldsmdfr]

Exactly ageingrunner, god forbid he end up an 'ugly woman', could there be anything worse?

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

I read the first few hundred words or so of misogynist waffle then couldn't take it any more.
If he has been set upon and beaten up that is not ok.
His views are also not ok.
Except they are, in this brave new world where hating women is fine as long as you call them TERFs.

[HeavenOrSpace]

Telling that he compares his career with that of Fallon Fox

The tone throughout is just so superior. Nasty TERFs who refuse to fawn all over you. Don't worry though, they'll learn.

Hormones and surgery can do nowt for male entitlement.

[ftw]

If a penis lets you travel through life with the Teflon brains and sense of entitlement/righteousness some men/TWs have, I'll call myself envious.

[JacquettaWoodville]

I am guessing, by the nature of competitive sport, that there are a fair amount of decisions by the coach that the player disagrees with.

[ChocChocPorridge]

I just couldn't read it all - it was very hate-filled, but he seems to be gloating that women got angry when they discovered that he was trans, that the women he hurt, that he aggressively and unfairly competed with were upset by that.

I think I'd be angry if I discovered someone was competing in the wrong class too. I think that's justified, particularly in a contact sport like rugby where it's downright dangerous.

[Bambambini]

This was how Caroline looked when she played rugby as a man. I can't get my head round the entitlement and lack of care to the women rugby players concerns that she decides can then just play against women.

[Felascloak]

What a load of self indulgent blaaaaaah
I am probably a "mean girl feminist" though and everyone hated me at school.

I particularly like how he thought our mums would be fine if we went through their stuff while out because we are "cis". My mum would've gone absolutely totally apeshit. As would I if my kids did that. Nothing to do with trans issues, more to do with respecting people's boundaries, possessions and privacy.

[Felascloak]

OMG just read their post on their home page. What a piece of work. Manages somehow to make the suicide of someone they bullied mercilessly at school all about them and their trans issues. Just a breathtaking lack of empathy.
I actually feel really upset by that post. That poor man (the one who committed suicide).