i share that frustration too.
For too long the ‘it is only a few’ argument has been used. From sport, to male prisoners in female prisons, to supposedly sex balanced boards / panels and to wimen’s awards recognising their contribution. The list is great. The negative impact has been constantly dismissed and diminished when people use the mantra ‘it is only a few’ or any iteration of that mantra.
With sport, the women’s groups are tracking just how many girls and women are displaced. The numbers add up very quickly.
I suspect that the loss of the benefits of recognition will mount up quickly too. In some cases there is not just the displacement of a female person, there is also then a sense of lack of proportion to the received acclaim. Where the benefit of receiving that recognition gets a bonus lift that female person receiving the recognition wouldn’t or doesn’t get. The extra benefits that come. An example for instance is what has been offered to Khelif who is a male boxer in a female category, who has been treated in ways, such as invites to fashion week and celebrity events that I don’t recall any female boxer receiving. Or the UN role that Bergdorf has been offered after being on Women’s Day lists. Would women receive the same opportunities after being recognised, or are these male people singled out for additional benefit? Based on their special category, while trying to convince everyone that they are just like any other woman.
A bit like the continued issue if having male people in female representational positions. When male people who take the Women’s officer roles in political parties or in unions and then in the future end up in meetings with ministers where male voices are over represented but some male people are there supposedly representing female people’s needs.
It would be very interesting to see just how many of the female women’s officers go on to be offered further activist roles and whether there is an unequal % of those male people in those female representational roles that get offered those pathways to influence.