More Or Less, BBC podcast ‘Testosterone & Sport’i

[SuperSleepyBaby]

Posting this in case there isn’t already a thread started

podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/more-or-less-behind-the-stats/id267300884?i=1000550943999

Fundamentally - a really helpful programme. If only the relevant people would actually listen to it!

• Good that they referred to LT as 'born male'
• Frustrating that they didn't say how recent the nmol/L rule concept even is: they made it sound like it had always existed
• I get annoyed when people talk about the changes in male puberty without even referring to the changes that happen in female puberty

Bizarrely, talking about testosterone is becoming a way of avoiding talking about sex. Which is just how the TRAs like it. They police this debate so forcefully to keep it on their turf. And referring to 'trans women athletes' in a 'female' category. Pfui.

Yes, it's as if it were somehow more complicated than Thomas pretending to be a woman, to win swimming prizes.

How in Hell is he going to justify his behaviour, when we quiz him on it in 20 years' time?

I don't care about Thomas's motivation. The rules are the rules and that's the issue. Thomas may be the most trans of transwomen, to be persistent and insistent and all the rest. I don't care. The reason she's done this is irrelevant. The rules are insane.

More or less is very good journalism, they present facts not opinion either way. Apparently it is being looked into as a matter of urgency

There's still an angle. Nothing is written from a purely objective viewpoint. I'm not a philosopher but I don't think it's possible for a human being to present any issue completely neutrally. Even the choice of words is an expression of culture and requires taking a viewpoint. But I agree, it's a helpful piece.

I think it is important that facts about the long lasting physical benefits of going through a male puberty are more widely aired and used as evidence of an unfair advantage, it is not just about testosterone levels on the day or prior to competition.