In Connecticut, two teenage boys who identify as girls have come 1st and 2nd in the girls' 100m sprint

[OrchidInTheSun]

twitter.com/GameTimeCT/status/1003739370736816129

Reposted from Feminism Chat as more people need to see this.

Neither Miller nor Yearwood have got times that would be remotely remarkable for boys (200th and 443rd respectively) but they are smashing the girls' records out of the park as now they identify as girls, they're allowed to race them instead.

Watch the face of the girl who comes third. That's pretty much her best ever 100m race. But she didn't win.

Self identification means this kind of thing will keep on happening. If you value women's sport and think that women and girls deserve to compete on a level playing field, please sign the petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/214118

Because they have stated horse racing is a sport where the sex/ gender of the rider doesn't make much difference. Men and women jockeys compete against each other anyway

Um.....I totally agree equestrianism is a sport where the physiological differences of sex are less important.

However Kate Weatherley doesn't ride a horse....

There's no such thing as downhill horse riding

Oh yeah! Soz. Didn't know cyclists were called riders. I thought this was referring to the jockey who has recently returned to horse racing but that is Victoria Smith. My mistake!

Wiki trans is written by transactivists who conspire on an anti-feminist stance

I saw a conversation on a closed trans group where the aim was to add tranwomen feminists (the right kind of feminists) on the main Wiki Feminist page and remove “terfy” feminists like Greer (the wrong kind of feminists). Some posting were well known TW.

Thanks for that link TimeLady

This paragraph is interesting

Richards has since expressed ambivalence about her legacy, and came to believe her past as a man provided her with advantages over her competitors, saying “Having lived for the past 30 years, I know if I’d had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me. And so I’ve reconsidered my opinion

And the point of the Renee Richard's story is that back in the 70s, when they realised they were expected to compete against a TIM, most of the professional women tennis players boycotted the competition in protest.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33062241 (if you don't like wiki)

Well perhaps you could read the links that people helpfully provide before getting on your high horse in future (and no, that's not a kind of equestrian sport either)

SupermatchGame

Because they have stated horse racing is a sport where the sex/ gender of the rider doesn't make much difference. Men and women jockeys compete against each other anyway.

But the link is about downhill cycling. Or is the bicycle self-IDing as a horse?

The push-back is starting, I hope other parents really take it up and run (sorry!) with it;

usatodayhss.com/2018/connecticut-parents-ban-transgender-track-athletes

Not sure where to begin with this from the article .. ......

“I understand that it appears to many people as an inequitable playing field, but they don’t have any context or knowledge about how that athlete’s life would be if she weren’t transgender. And it would be possible she’d be beating their daughters if she was cisgender (someone who identifies with their birth sex).”

You really have to perform some mental gymnastics in order to carry on justifying this kind of thing.
Either that or just flat out admit that you hate don't give a shit about girls and women.
Either way, more and more people are beginning to see through it.

We're just hopping on to briefly request that the discussion is kept civil and respectful - and that TGs are kept in mind when posting.

Thanks all

Where do we even go from here? There is literally no point in girls competing any more.

What a message it sends to young girls: you are not important. A man’s opinion is more important than you. Everything g you do must be run through the prism of ‘will men mind?’ Staggering. It is going to roll back a hundred years of advances for women and girls.

I think if it was me I’d be boycotting.

I fail to understand how anyone can defend this.

For those saying trans athletes had no advantage (having taken blockers and/or cross sex hormones) then why are they consistently winning?

Not just in this case, but countless others.

Why is sport so regulated against drug use? To ensure that competition is fair. So how can you then welcome people actively taking drugs to compete? Save me the argument that in the case of MTF CSH's suppress performance. The impact will vary massively on the point at development when they were taken and at what dosage. The idea that they automatically level the play field is ridiculous.

Yet it's all about the right of trans to compete isn't it? Nothing about the girls and women being denied placings and potentially scholarships.

That's not equality and it's not damn fair.

It's not "joining" or "participating" in womanhood - it's usurping it.

It's not "joining" or "participating" in womanhood - it's usurping it.

Hear hear 👏👏👏

On misgendering, with stories like this.

if misgendering is 100% not allowed, then the story is "two girls beat the other girls race".

That's the natural conclusion and where the TAs want to get to, right?

So how will anyone be able to discuss this in a meaningful way?

It's exactly the same as the crime stats and when certain (trans)women talk about how empowering it is to get harassed on the street and women who don't like it are prudes. Or others saying that women who don't shave their legs are dirty - these messages - they read differently if they are understood as coming from a woman or a transwoman.

Sardine: re reading differently...

I was talking to friends recently about a transwoman. I didn’t mention they were trans but we were discussing outfits at work and I said that someone I work with wears hot pants, ankle socks with high heels etc etc. My friends were very judgemental. When I said the person was trans it was awkward. They back pedalled a bit and were uncomfortable.

Those girls are being robbed of possible university places by boys who wouldn't have a prayer if they competed with other males. They should either run against the other boys, or in an "Open" category.

I can understand why people are focusing on this because it is a concrete reason why women are being disadvantaged but I think it is a mistake for this to be a main focus - it leaves us open to posters like the pp saying "but it is the college acceptance system which is wrong - change that" etc.

Does a woman have to lose money or the opportunity for an education for this to be wrong. Even if the girl who should have won has an academic scholarship in the bag for Harvard, isn't it simply enough that she trains hard, works hard, tries her best for years and is robbed of the prize and title she should have got? She shouldn't have to prove damage - the damage is she didn't win the place she earned.

As someone said upthread, 2 boys spots were created in the male competition by these guys identifying as girls. 2 extra boys made it into the field. And 2 girls were cut - didn't make the grade for inter-states etc.

How did the idea of misgendering ever gain any traction? It's rubbish.

In referrring to the 1st and 2nd placed athletes as male I am correctly sexing them

I sometimes get mis-sexed by post as I have a unisex name. I'm not bothered as I know i am female.

I also - happily - get mis-aged as younger. Should I be saying "don't mis-age me!"

Mis-gendering is the definition of a ‘first world problem’.

Not to mention the fact that women have been mis named for an awful long time and yet whenever we complained about it we were variosuly told

it's trivial
don't you have anything better to worry about
it's too difficult for other people
it's tradition
it doesn't matter what you say that is your name

Situation with women being given wrong title (usually mrs instead of ms, dr etc)

and

women being called "mrs dh first name dh surname" even if their name is "ms firstname original surname"

So this is mistitling, misgendering, and misnaming yet we are told to suck it up.

Why is it ok to call a woman whose name is ms sue smith, mrs david brown?

Also on the tube, they are moving away fro saying ladies and gentlemen, due to trans, although women have been complaining about the highly loaded term "ladies" forever.

So essentially some of the issues are similar,

But women got told to STFU

TAs get it in law and society changes super-fast.

It's a bit annoying TBH.

In the mis naming thing,

It's done because in the past we were property. We belonged to our husband, we were an adjunt, nothing more.

And yet when we complain about something that is in place becasue historically we were property we are told it's traditional and trivial and don't make a fuss.

fuxake.

Really shows where women are in the scheme of things.

Of course in some parts of the world we are still property.

In many we are in practice even if not in law.

I can't think of another situation where a group asking to stop being referenced by words that indicated their place as property, would be told to stop making a silly fuss.

longlostpal
Again I’m not an expert but I believe that the argument is that gender is distinct from sex and the former is performative and socially constructed rather than natural or innate. The trans people I know are super into Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble and that book also speaks to me as a cis woman.

I don't understand this argument and I have asked trans people to explain but have yet to get a decent answer. If gender is socially constructed and not innate, why do those who trans switch to the stereotypical version of their chosen gender??? Why do women who transition to male gender grow beards and start wearing suits? Why do males who trans to female grow their hair and nails long, start wearing dresses and generally start dressing like lapdancers? If they are so against these sorts of socially constructed gender stereotypes, why do they immediately follow them? Its like they are saying "I feel like I am a woman so I need to dress like a woman" but at the same time saying gender is socially constructed and therefore not "real" but just a version of reality. So how can they "feel" like a woman it its not innate? Not sure if I am explaining this well but I genuinely don't understand their argument.