Emily Bridges in the news again

[BatDuck]

There’s a lot to unpack here. The violent abuse Bridges received is utter disgraceful and rightly it should be acknowledged that Bridges should be able to live Bridges life without fear or harassment.

The tenor of the debate is not helped by these woe is me articles that have been dripping into the media since the New Year. Quite frankly, it feels like propaganda as there’s no push back on the issue at play: males do not belong in female sport.

www.itv.com/news/2022-06-07/emily-bridges-had-physical-threats-after-pms-trans-participation-comments

I read the report used as the basis of the new cycling recommendations. It uses the language of the gender identity ideology and applies the word 'female' to trans women but also once to biological sex. As far as I can tell, the recommendations don't follow from the report, except in a very fuzzy sense of just opting for something longer in time and lower in testosterone levels than the current rules.

It has one sentence on the male skeletal advantages which I understand are probably very significant in cycling. It's not explicitly biased, but accepting the language of a belief system does suggest that the writer is a congregant.

So Emily is female, but would become unhealthy at standard female hormone levels ? How odd! It’s almost like Emily is male after all.

Gosh, who would have thought that eh?

I can understand Mrs B wants to protect her child, so on and so forth but she seems to have lost all sense of perspective and is just now angrily flailing round Twitter, lashing out at anyone who is pointing out that the emperor can’t compete in the women’s classes has no clothes.

I am going to post facts. No comment.

Emily's mum was a competitive very successful long jump athlete. As (deadname), Emily was an extraordinary cyclist. Emily's career was on an absolutely stellar trajectory until they had an accident and a career ending injury. They were dropped from British cycling's elite team.

Emily has now transitioned.

Thanks, that's it. I think the tweet in question was probably a combination of:

(a) a general swipe at Sharron Davies, insinuating that SD has atypically high T levels, possibly as a result of doping[?] or, likelier, it's suggesting that SD's T levels are increasing over time as a result of the menopause... the latter's obviously a nonsense, in both sexes T levels decline over time, but you can sort of see the logic to it in a 'twitter trans lobby' sense in that it's vaguely ageist/vaguely hinting that old women are becoming 'less woman'/vaguely hinting that falling estrogen levels will somehow 'open the gates' for more T.

(b) wanting to imply [rather than outright state] that the [old] 5 nmol/L T limit was a level that was fairly commonplace/unremarkable by female standards [when in fact it's unheard of in a healthy XX woman - even the new 2.5 nmol/L limit is exceptional].

"Its pure male entitlement, which frankly needs to start being recognised as one of the most dangerous aspects of male behaviour. I want it so I will have it, regardless of how it impacts anyone else - particularly females because because they are less than me. The entire world needs to stop pandering to this behaviour and thinking. It is behind the vast majority of male violence, and its impact on our children and our natural world is devastating."

Not really. Transwomen don't see themselves as male. They see themselves as female ... but know that, because of their bodies, they'll always have trouble fitting in. They'll always be a tiny minority amongst natal women, and will often be bullied by natal women as a result.

To me, it's beyond pathetic that the bullying group here - natal women - persists in presenting itself as the bullied group.

As for the 'natural world' thing you added: Utter nonsense. Transwomen have a miniscule detrimental effect on the natural world - compared to the second most powerful demographic in the world: that of natal women.

I think it's time we faced it: we natal women have, through feminism, haven't won all of the prizes, but we've won a huge number of them. I know it's hard to give up that identity of 'damsels in distress' ... but we do need to do so, stage by stage, when it no longer fits.

Because ... there really isn't anything, frankly, as nauseatingly pathetic as bullies pretending that they're actually victims.

I have no interest whatsoever in what anyone sees themself as. I am only interested in what they are.

Transwomen don't see themselves as male. They see themselves as female ... but know that, because of their bodies, they'll always have trouble fitting in.

They can see themselves however they want, but biological reality will always trump feels.

The biological reality, when discussing sport, is that males have physical advantages over females that will not be changed by tinkering with hormones.

It is not “bullying” for women to be angry about males trying to push their way into female protected categories and then cry “transphobe” and “bigot” when women push back.

I know right. All those TW claiming to be pure innocent victims who just want to pee while sending women rape and death threats. I’m so glad you agree. Now, how do we stop them? They’ve managed to convince people that bullying women into giving up their spaces words is progressive and kind, so I’m glad you’ve managed to expose their behaviour so well. Thankyou for standing up for women and calling out the male abuse.

I read it last night. It's interesting, in terms of the philosophical arguments though that's not my field.

He is saying that there is no logical way of expanding the definition of 'women' in a way which would satisfy certain basic rules and which would still leave feminism concerned with adult human females and their rights (though also perhaps adding others to the group 'women'). The difference between what one is and what one identifies as.

As for the 'natural world' thing you added: Utter nonsense. Transwomen have a miniscule detrimental effect on the natural world - compared to the second most powerful demographic in the world: that of natal women.

So the most powerful demographic in the world is natal men? Natal women the second? What else is there, to put into that ranking? Children? But they grow into one of those two groups.

They'll always be a tiny minority amongst natal women, and will often be bullied by natal women as a result.

Saying that transwomen are still men isn't bullying - it's just a statement of fact. Even those who have had surgery still aren't women.

I love it when a poster pops in to tell us to ‘be kind”. I wonder if they go and tell the TRA to be kind and stop bullying women. I’d love to see that. It might open up a few eyes.

The demands for empathy only go in one direction.

Perhaps they can also tell Bridges and Bridges’ mum to be kind to the women they plan to displace in their own sport.

Clymene the facts you post tell a big part of this.

And I can't get Emily's initial story done with Sky in 2020 out of my mind.

Hasn't ever fitted in, doesn't know why....

Exactly @BatDuck if a person or persons has a boundary (ie female spaces), surely the kind thing would be to respect that boundary and not stomp your way in and bully the person with the boundary. In any other context that is abuse. Why do male feelings matter more than women’s? What benefit do women get from allowing males into their spaces and sports?

But in this sad lonely life, there's cycling.... and there's dreams of Olympics

I pity Emily, but their mother reaches new levels of tiger mum in all this.

It isn't being a victim to be definable as a group. I wouldn't be being unreasonable or bullying anyone if I questioned why a 25 year old woman had been awarded the top spot for over 50s in a sporting event. For fuck's sake.

Because ... there really isn't anything, frankly, as nauseatingly pathetic as bullies pretending that they're actually victims.

So you choose to ignore women raped, sexually assaulted in prison, hospital, changing rooms? You decide to overlook the women hounded out if their jobs, their professions? You won't think about the women, disabled or not, harrassed, arrested, left waiting for months by the CPS?

Why not? What is it about the crimes committed by transwomen and their allies that you cannot see?

Imagine being so manipulative that you claim to perceive women discussing their own lives as oppression of someone else. How emotionally abusive of that poster, to try to coerce women here, through the blatant use of shaming and other, widely recognised, abusive tactics into conceding their rights to same sex sports and facilities.

On your bike, matey.

Emily's mum is beginning to remind me of Mrs. Bennet

@Ides... I wonder if you just posted that to get reactions.

I am sitting on my hands and finding it hard not to engage.

Do you think women deserve equal access to sporting opportunities as men? Do you think that exists right now? Do you understand why the sex categories in sport exist?

The CAS ruling on DSD's is a really good place to start to understand the answer to this even though DSD's are a totally different topic.

What a load of shit.

I find it interesting that the first men's Olympic cycling event was in 1896, and the first women's was in 1984. However, there seems to be this idea that women have enjoying competitive sports and have attained equality and equal access to sports for a long time. In reality you only have to casually glance at the sports channels to see that women's sport is in no way taken as seriously as men's - I am still surprised as a middle-aged person when I see female commentators and pundits, and I'm glad to see the growing amount of female sports shown, although it will be a long way behind the men's for a long time to come, I suspect.

But female competitors are supposed to happily allow people to compete with them who have naturally developed more athletic powers granted to them by male puberty, and have often trained for years and competed in the male category? And it's bullying if they don't??

12,000 years of women being bullied by men (I'd say that's a reasonable definition of patriarchy) that women are still dragging ourselves out of step by step, but we are privileged bullies apparently.

women are still dragging ourselves out of step by step, but we are privileged bullies apparently.

It's interesting to note what a successful diversionary tactic it is for deflecting attention from those who hold the most power in social, financial, civic dynamics etc.