Cycling reaches new low

[FemaleAndLearning]

Friend shared this from a Women's Rights Network tweet
twitter.com/WomensRightsNet/status/1532804764664225792?t=3t37LIrWtiNxXb86BoQQ2A&s=19
So new categories Lightening and Thunder for those with a gender identity, meaning men in women's cycling. But if you are 'cis' you can't choose your category. Confused yes me too. Anyone got more info?

*they, a restaurant in London

*arrested for stickering! Really should preview, apologies.

Someone please explain what your issue actually is with this? You complain when transwomen enter a women only competition but when some one develops a trans inclusive one, which the women entering will have entered knowing the competition rules, you still complain? Just admit you are all transphobic and simply don’t want them to be able to compete in any shape or form.

mildly amusing, courtesy of private eye.

Sherbet290

Maybe, just maybe, you should read the thread and read the posts discussing how females now have less opportunity to race and win money and further their opportunities.

Because your post comes across as someone who is merely here to admonish and denigrate people discussing how an event now has two events where males can dominate, and they did, and how out of the top 6 places the female UK champion came sixth and was the only female.

Your post really only shows that your are either ignorant of the impacts or you just want to direct your pointy finger of shame at others who do understand what you don’t.

You complain when transwomen enter a women only competition but when some one develops a trans inclusive one, which the women entering will have entered knowing the competition rules, you still complain?

Yes. And yet you seem not to have any understanding of how discriminatory that is or even how ‘indirect’ discrimination works.

Yes. The females entered know they had absolutely little chance to win against those males.

And here you are, and others, calling this what? A win for female sports?

I will admit that, because if material reality, a sense of fairness, support for female athletes, being a sports scientist, that I don't want men competing in women's sports.

I don't care how transwomen will compete, that isn't my issue to fix, nor women's sport to be given up to.

which the women entering will have entered knowing the competition rules

You mean they will have entered as these are the only races they can enter, that this is their career, they have little choice, have never been asked, and are too scared to speak out against?

Don't be so swift to be kind. You give away more than you know. For all women, not just yourself.

allowing trans women in the F category totally invalidates/makes a mockery of it.

what might have been more interesting is an event with two categories, one for cis women only, the other for either cis or trans women. cis men would have been left out in the cold but, hey, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs?

mildly amusing, courtesy of private eye.

Haha I think that was from a while back. You really can't parody this stuff, it's not possible to be more absurd than reality.

Someone please explain what your issue actually is with this?

As someone has already said, the issue is that there used to be 3 / 6 top spots for women and now there's only 1/6. Next time there might be none at all.
Very inclusive.

The whole point of the event was to be inclusive, no? An event that openly welcomed trans people, no? So why are people shocked and surprised that trans people have entered?

Were this an event advertised as for women only, and a trans woman won, I’d fully support your view - but it’s not.

Do you think they'd be able to get away with an event "for women only"?

And why could the trans women not have entered the other category?
It was "cis men and trans men and women and non binary people whose performance most closely aligned with cis men" or something like that.
Given that the winner was still winning mens races a few months ago I can't see that they would have found this too difficult.

Yes, they should be able to. That’s my point. There should be a mix of all options. Mens events. Womens events and trans inclusive events. Then women who are happy to enter the inclusive event can.

All cycling races are inclusive of trans people. Both Emily and Lilly race in the mens races normally

Just admit you are all transphobic and simply don’t want them to be able to compete in any shape or form.

It is tedious having this tired old trope rolled out by posters who think they are onto something those hateful MNers have never been accused of before.

Why is it transphobic to say sports are separated by sex?

Why is it transphobic to acknowledge that humans do not ever change sex?

Why is it transphobic to understand that male puberty and actually just being born a male delivers advantages physically as well as being free from negative sexist discrimination and so females need their own category?

Why is it transphobic to understand that males lowering their testosterone is actually just like any other performance limiting medical treatment? And that a huge number of elite level athletes have to make the decision between medical treatment and sport performance and they don’t get to move to a different category of sports (age, sex, weight, or disability) to accommodate their medical treatment unless there is a specific category set up just for that group of people?

Seriously, I would like some posters to answer these questions and in a way that cannot be construed as misogyny or just shitting on females.

Otherwise, your post should not be reported so that it can stay for readers to see the level of inept ability to grasp the discriminatory nature of this particular event.

Please show us the female only event at this cycling day.

It's fucking mental that we are even having to ask these questions but here we are.

I live in hope that someone, somewhere will come onto MN and answer. -Holds breath-

That’s my point. There should be a mix of all options. Mens events. Womens events and trans inclusive events. Then women who are happy to enter the inclusive event can.
But there was no mens event or womens event. And while the 2 different 'trans inclusive' events were just fine for men, they did not fairly serve women.

By all means have female, male and 'open'. But not this unfair, unkind nonsense.

And if there was no ‘female only’ race… please tell us how inclusive this was to females? How were females given equal opportunity to fairly win a race here?

It's particularly galling that this is cycling. Cycling has long had a big, and unfair difference in opportunities for men and for women. This year will be the first time in years that there's anything approaching a decent Tour de France option for women, for ages it's just been a single day vs a three week race.
I watched the men's Giro on telly recently. But could I find coverage of the women's Giro that took place just after? It wasn't easy.

It seems just as the opportunities are opening up a tiny bit, they are likely to be taken away again.

Yes plasmo.

Just as women are getting more equal footing, so to speak, other events where they can be fairly competing and recognised for their excellence are disappearing.

And apparently, it is those discussing this disappearance that are being hateful, not the people removing the fairness and directly removing the opportunity.

Maybe some posters should ’Just admit you are all misogynistic or haters of females and simply don’t want them to be able to compete in any shape or form.’

Or maybe, just maybe, those pointing the finger of shame will admit that males can continue to compete with males. Call it an ‘open division’ if they must and leave female sport categories to females. And not rely on the sleight of hand about calling it ‘women’s sport’ and talk about inclusion to obfuscate the reality.

That reality is males competing in female categories or categories being renamed and leaving females without an equal opportunity to win in a fair competition.

What is of concern is that there is talk that Jo Smith was involved in organising the races, as well as competing.

Well, of competing for the club that organises the races. She still may not feel she can be honest, but she has chosen to be part of the team that organises the event.

or she might be fully supportive.

We may never know. I think a whole lot of eyes will be on her from now on. Which I would not want if I was in her position.

Maybe it was just a fun race and in this case she felt it really didn't matter.
Maybe she isn't relying on the winnings to fund further training or races.
Maybe she's not bothered about other women competitors who might feel it does matter and it is important.
Maybe she is bothered, but feels she can't say anything because she might be labelled "transphobic".
It's an awkward position to be in as we've said already as whatever you say / do in this situation you're never going to be able to please everyone.
It's typical though that everyone is now going to be interrogating a woman's motives for this whole thing. Presumably she didn't come up with the idea on her own.