Public outcry over women's sport - do we think the IOC etc will listen?

[teawamutu]

The debate feels huge to me because they're hasn't been one for so long, but is in actual fact probably missable.

OTOH it's very, very clearly 99%-plus in favour of single sex support and has some respected names and actual scientists on side. Do you think there's any chance of a review of eligibility?

*sport not support, obvs.

Well, the BBC is not listening, the police are not listening, Labour, Lib Dems, the Greens, possibly SNP are not listening.
The IOC and all the other sports organisations are very patriarchal, when they made their decision to allow transgender athletes to compete in their desired category, there wer 20 people on the commission - 14 guys, 4 women, 1 transwoman and 1 intersex woman.

The IOC has a terrible track record when it comes to the treatment of women.....however, the public are not blind to the very real threat of men eradicating womens sports......whatever they decide won’t just quietly be rolled out with no one noticing.....they must draw a clear line between DSD and transsexual athletes.

We're only one country.
It would need to spread to the rest of the world to have any hope of an impact.
Fingers crossed.

No, they won't listen.

I think it will depend on Caster’s decision, if women can complete with male levels of testosterone (even though it’s a medical condition) it follows that the next court case will be that there can be no upper limit on testosterone produced naturally.

The IOC care about one thing and one thing only: How much money they can get out of selling their TV rights to the USA.

Thats why they want baseball back after a failed experiment and four expensive white elephant stadiums where not one single game of baseball has ever been played on an Olympic baseball park after the games in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing. That's why they don't want squash but are having breakdancing. That's why they tried to drop the most popular small dinghy class in favour of kite-surfing.

They are a buch of disco-dads who desperately want to be down with the kids.

It will be hard to roll back these ridiculous rules but Raxhel McKinnon and many other trans activists want to make them even more ridiculous, thats where the fight is now

The medical physicist who advises the IOC on regulations for transgender athletes and is herself transgender, according to the bbc - so what hope do we have?!

My suspicion is that they won’t listen.

Awful for those women who will miss out on their medals.

But perhaps the next Olympics will become such a shitstorm that they will be forced to reconsider.

But perhaps the next Olympics will become such a shitstorm that they will be forced to reconsider.

Yes. When a woman from USA loses to a male transperson.

But that will depend on how many male transpeople the USA have in their team, and how well they do.

I think it will become a joke before they do anything about it.

So say it takes three Olympic cycles to become a joke - that's a whole generation of women robbed of success.

I don't think they will listen

And also olympic rules are probably seen as the guide for all the sports orgs down the chain

What I want to know is

Are men with low testosterone who are not trans allowed to compete agianst the women

MeAgainAgain

It is a good question. I've had a quick dig:

The IOC introduced sex testing in 1968 after doubts about the Press sisters and others. This was a simple visual medical examination, but from 1972 to 1996 it was a chromasome test.

From 2000, there was no universal testing, but any athlete about whom there was a doubt would be liable to be subject to a measure of their testosterone levels and possible further medical tests.

The rule now is only based on testosterone, but the rules mention that female events are open to 'anyone who is legally female,' though in what jurisdiction they do not say.

Presumably there are countries which do not make provision for legal sex change.
So I wonder if we will see transwomen athletes from those countries moving to places that do.

Geopolitically speaking, it would be a smart move for China to not field transwomen athletes. China could then point at the 'decadent' West and its unfair rules and score world leadership points. Same with Russia.

I see a lot of tweets and a lot of re-tweeting. Is there any power to harnessing a targeted re-tweet to a specific body?

McKinnon has just been on the Today programme, unchallenged because she will not debate. If one prescient tweet was composed to convey our outrage and then that tweet was retweeted to Today by as many people as possible, would that hold any sway do we think?

Millytant

And loads from countries where it is more or less compulsory for homosexuals - ie Iran

The anyone who is legally female bit is interesting

In many countries you still have quite a long process eg UK and activists are trying to change to simple form

I think canada and ireland both have self id canada fields a lot of athletes in major competitions so they will be an early view on what happens

In fact canada winter games right now are on self id so will be interesting to see how that pans out

The legally female bit is interesting. If it's all about testosterone levels then why the legally female bit needed? If all you're looking for is an "even" playing field (hahahaha)

Worst case scenario it could be a repeat of the FA's 1921 decision to ban women from playing at FA affiliated grounds. It took 50 years for the ban to be lifted and another 50 before women's football recovered (still doesn't attract the attention and crowds it did in 1920).

Except that this will be all women's sports in all countries.

I'm optimistic.
I think the IOC will very obliged to change the rules in the face of public pressure. It's still only the beginning and female sports women are coming out now, the public are outraged.

the public are outraged.

They are. And it is they who pay.

We just need to get more of them outraged.

They won't listen.

Nothing will change.

It will get worse.

If sports can't make the distinction between male and female bodies there is no hope of women keeping their sex based rights. They're gone now. Probably forever.

But climate change will destroy the world in about 60 years anyway so sports and women's rights won't really be needed.

Silver lining and all that.