Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The Guardian: Head of Team GB Olympic cycling calls for transgender rule change.

38 replies

ControversialOpening · 06/04/2022 16:10

www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/apr/06/head-of-team-gb-olympic-cycling-transgender-rule-change-uci

About time

OP posts:
Enough4me · 06/04/2022 16:13

It's great to see the kickback now more people have seen that genderID lets men pick and choose, while pushing women out of their legitimate spaces.

ControversialOpening · 06/04/2022 16:35

I'm happy that people finally feel they are able to talk about this. Even a few weeks ago most people would not have dared have an opinion.

"No debate" seems to be finished as far as the general population are concerned. The T still seem to be pushing the idea, as they've recently managed to have an LGBTQ+ (I don't think I've missed anyone out) conference cancelled - as if it hurts anyone but themselves.

OP posts:
InvisibleDragon · 06/04/2022 16:35

This is pretty close to the top of the page on the Guardian website too, not just buried in sports.

That's a big shift.

Artichokeleaves · 06/04/2022 16:40

“We believe that the rule is asymmetric and thus discriminatory in that it advantages only biological male athletes by providing them greater opportunity to compete and enjoy the rewards of sport at its highest level.”

Word.

It's amazing, it feels like the world is finally waking up.

bellinisurge · 06/04/2022 16:41

It's coming. Tick tock TRAs. Not Tiktok.

Justanotherobserver · 06/04/2022 16:50

Trans women are allowed to race in the female category if they reduce their testosterone levels to below 5 nmol/L for at least 12 months

What gets me is that such statements are almost never followed by saying that 5 nmol/L is up to ten times the amount of testosterone that women have.

nepeta · 06/04/2022 16:55

@Justanotherobserver

Trans women are allowed to race in the female category if they reduce their testosterone levels to below 5 nmol/L for at least 12 months

What gets me is that such statements are almost never followed by saying that 5 nmol/L is up to ten times the amount of testosterone that women have.

Or that at least two recent and well done studies demonstrate that the twelve months reduction of testosterone has only negligible effects on the performance differences of MTF transitioners. It's all those earlier years in their lives when the testosterone worked on their bodies that matter much more, in particular going through male puberty.
Justanotherobserver · 06/04/2022 16:58

There's all that too, nepeta, and all of it just boils my piss.

Weefreetiffany · 06/04/2022 17:02

I don’t understand the testosterone thing. If a woman gets pregnant with a boy there will be a month of her pregnancy when she has the same testosterone levels as an adult man, followed by a month where she has the same amount as a pubescent teenager. She doesn’t turn into a man for those two months. Yet by the Olympic standards she must do and could race in the mens category. Or at the least would be excluded from the women’s. Madness.

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 06/04/2022 17:02

@bellinisurge

It's coming. Tick tock TRAs. Not Tiktok.
"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman." —I always think of this line from the short story.

“We believe that the rule is asymmetric and thus discriminatory in that it advantages only biological male athletes by providing them greater opportunity to compete and enjoy the rewards of sport at its highest level.”

Break out the metal polish and the softest polishing cloths and make that golden bridge shine. Let it glow and beckon those who need safe harbour from the Land of Compelled Kindness as they wake up to what they have been endorsing and the harms that they have facilitated.

There has to be a golden bridge in Sun Tzu terms otherwise people will fight to the death when there's no viable escape route. I'm ready to greet whomever has the courage to reflect and make the journey across the bridge.

Justanotherobserver · 06/04/2022 17:08

Sounds good to me, EmbarrassingHadrosaurus

Point me at that that bridge.

bellinisurge · 06/04/2022 17:09

Agree. Those that claim not to have thought it through in detail until now, come on over. The Pullmans, OJs and others can go fuck themselves

lakeswimmer · 06/04/2022 17:11

@bellinisurge

Agree. Those that claim not to have thought it through in detail until now, come on over. The Pullmans, OJs and others can go fuck themselves
Hopefully Lil OJs head is imploding right now.
Deliriumoftheendless · 06/04/2022 17:16

I love this forum for the obscure, nerdy sci fi references.

Absurdle · 06/04/2022 17:16

Or that at least two recent and well done studies demonstrate that the twelve months reduction of testosterone has only negligible effects on the performance differences of MTF transitioners. It's all those earlier years in their lives when the testosterone worked on their bodies that matter much more, in particular going through male puberty.

It occurs to me that all the people who think that it's all about testosterone levels and that a few years of testosterone is sufficient should, for consistency, think that it's perfectly fine for men who have in the past doped with testosterone to compete in men's sport, provided they aren't doping right now.

And in fact they should be fine with male competitors who are currently doping with testosterone provided their T levels aren't any higher than ten times the male average. Then their position would be logically consistent with their position on womens' sport. The advantage of doping is considerably less than the advantage provided by male puberty after all.

And there have been very few longitidinal studies done, how can siuch flimsy evidence justify the exclusion of dopers? Given the wide range of physiological variation,dopers don't automatically have any kind of advantage. Look at Michael Phelps! etc etc.

LizzieSiddal · 06/04/2022 17:19

It seems like the dam is about to burst and it can’t come soon enough.

nauticant · 06/04/2022 17:19

"asymmetric" is exactly the word and what's been said on here for years, the best example being that a teenage girl wanting to transition away from where puberty is taking her is not a mirror image of a 40 year old man with his own kids "realising he's always been a woman".

miri1985 · 06/04/2022 17:24

@Weefreetiffany

I don’t understand the testosterone thing. If a woman gets pregnant with a boy there will be a month of her pregnancy when she has the same testosterone levels as an adult man, followed by a month where she has the same amount as a pubescent teenager. She doesn’t turn into a man for those two months. Yet by the Olympic standards she must do and could race in the mens category. Or at the least would be excluded from the women’s. Madness.
There are no natural testosterone limits for women with XX chromosomes, the testosterone limits are for intersex women who have a Y chromosome or trans women.

www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_Semenya_ASA_IAAF_decision.pdf

www.letsrun.com/news/2019/05/what-no-one-is-telling-you-about-caster-semenya-she-has-xy-chromosomes/

Somanysocks · 06/04/2022 17:31

Is it possible for a male to reduce their testosterone to similar to a woman and what would happen to their body if they did?

Is it safe or the fact that ten times more is the benchmark shows any lower would harm them.

donquixotedelamancha · 06/04/2022 17:32

Break out the metal polish and the softest polishing cloths and make that golden bridge shine. Let it glow and beckon those who need safe harbour from the Land of Compelled Kindness as they wake up to what they have been endorsing and the harms that they have facilitated.

This.

I actually doubt this is anyone changing their minds- it's just that enough of a crack has been opened to allow current competitors to risk weighing in.

Its still far from risk free- well done to them.

LosingTheWill2022 · 06/04/2022 17:35

Halleluja
A woman is not a man with low testosterone!

LosingTheWill2022 · 06/04/2022 17:36

Nor is a man with low testosterone a woman!

AtrociousCircumstance · 06/04/2022 17:38

Fuuuuuck is the Guardian finally supporting women’s rights?

They’ve got a lot of backtracking to do, to tidy up their misogyny.

This is good news.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 06/04/2022 17:46

This is a positive step.
Of course, one test will be whether they allow accurate and factual contributions from women below the line. Or whether they're zapped by the anti women brigade as soon as they're posted.

EmbarrassingHadrosaurus · 06/04/2022 17:52

@Weefreetiffany

I don’t understand the testosterone thing. If a woman gets pregnant with a boy there will be a month of her pregnancy when she has the same testosterone levels as an adult man, followed by a month where she has the same amount as a pubescent teenager. She doesn’t turn into a man for those two months. Yet by the Olympic standards she must do and could race in the mens category. Or at the least would be excluded from the women’s. Madness.
I agree that too many sporting groups are adopting crude approaches to a single biomarker wherease, as you indicate, it's considerably more nuanced than that.

The first part of this is relevant and should be open access:

*Serum androgen levels are increased in pregnancy. Testosterone levels in nonpregnant women (without polycystic ovary syndrome [PCOS]) are generally