To clarify, the pictured poster Caroline Kwan is an ally, not a TERF. The TERFs referred to in the title are the ones ‘protecting a very specific idea of what a woman is’

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yes, we really need to make sure a sport where people punch each other into unconsciousness is safe.

      Why didn’t I realize that before?

      And yes, people who want protection do have to ask for it.

      • FlorianSimon@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Regulations in general contradict you. You’re forced to wear a seatbelt whether you asked for it or not, even if you don’t want to. Not sure how that related to trans rights or sports, though.

    • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      Oh cool, let’s check out some TERF messaging:

      Sport is inherently physical, so the different physiologies of the sexes matters. Whilst everyone should be able to participate in sport, the Sports Councils’ Equality Group’s International Research Literature Review states “There are significant differences between the sexes which render direct competition between males and females unfair in most ‘gender-affected sports’”. The peer-reviewed scientific literature found evidence that:

      Alright, pretty reasonable start. We all want fairness.

      On average, compared to age-matched females at any given body weight, adult males have:

      • 40- 50% greater upper limb strength
      • 20-40% greater lower limb strength
      • 12kg more skeletal muscle mass [1]

      Hold up, did we just use a study about (cis) adult males to argue that trans women shouldn’t be allowed? Oh no, that doesn’t seem very scientific… Well, I’m sure it’s fine, let’s check their references:

      [1] Janssen et al 2000, Handelsman et al 2018

      Okay, it’s fine, I’ll look them up myself:

      Skeletal muscle mass and distribution in 468 men and women aged 18-88 yr

      Okay well, that can’t be right, their numbers are just coming from a comparison to men, they’re just pushing the narrative that trans women and men are equal. Huh. Let’s check their other reference:

      Circulating Testosterone as the Hormonal Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance

      Wait, this study doesn’t prove anything about trans women either. In fact, considering their comparisons of low and high-level testosterone in males, you could reasonably extrapolate that trans women on feminising HRT are comparable to their peers from this study. I wonder why the post didn’t bring up that possibility? Ah well, let’s move on, shall we?

      Handgrip strength is often seen as a wider indicator human muscle strength[2] and mean maximal hand-grip strength over 2,000 European young adult males and females shows:

      Oh, huh, still conflating cis men and trans women…

      • Female handgrip at 329 Newtons
      • Male handgrip at 541 Newtons
      • Highly trained female athletes still have weaker hand grip than 75% of untrained male subjects [3]

      Hmm, it doesn’t seem very feminist to perpetuate the wildly inaccurate myth that the majority of males would outcompete elite female athletes…

      Okay, so would you like me to keep picking this apart, or could we agree that it’s scientifically unsound now? If any of these “facts” were relevant to the discussion of trans women in sports, I might (reluctantly) agree that there’s a safety argument to be made. But I think what this conversation lacks most is empirical evidence. It seems that if an organisation like the one you linked above, who ostensibly want what’s safest for all women, that they’d love to fund such a study that proves definitively what’s safest. That they wouldn’t care what the result was. So why have no studies into actual trans women been done?

      I know this is quite anecdotal, but myself and most trans femmes I’ve talked too (who are on HRT) can describe the experience of losing that strength that comes alongside testosterone. If you want something more empirical, I have read countless instances of trans female athletes being unable to come close to matching their pre-transition Personal Best’s. In fact, the gap between their pre and post-transition PBs is often on par with the gap between female and male results more generally. I can’t recall a single instance where their PB went up after hormones. Whereas most athletes in their prime continue to push their PB higher.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        The link was to disprove the previous claim and provide at least one example of women in sport calling for protection.

        Whether or not they are justified in asking for a balance between saftey and fairness is a can of worms I’m leaving closed.

        • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 months ago

          All I see is another progressive organisation that has been infiltrated by TERFs. The page you link too reeks of their tactics and arguments. The fact they’re based on TERF Island (UK) says a lot as well.

          For the women involved that aren’t TERFs, I think it can be all too easy to subscribe to their arguments when you’ve worked so hard to achieve fairness and equality. But the conflation of trans women and cis men as equals, without any scientific proof, leads me to believe that even they are being deceptive here. I mean, the TERF tactic of denying trans men their identities also shows up towards the end:

          Transgender men and boys, or non-binary women and girls, who do not take hormones or who have not undergone any form of medical transition, share the same physiological features as biological women and therefore should be welcomed in the female category.

          Like, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s fair to use people who dislike trans people to prove your point. You’re fair and reasonable to not want to open that can of worms. All I’m saying is that finding a definitively anti-transgender reference doesn’t prove your point, because there’s no way to seperate the TERF from the science in that article. Meanwhile, I have never seen an Olympic-class athlete complain about transgender women in sports until Angela Carini. And even she has turned around and profusely apologised for what she said:

          “It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini said. “Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”

          She added that if she met Khelif again, she would “embrace her”.

          So, I dunno, I don’t really think you’ve disproven that claim at all.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            finding a definitively anti-transgender reference doesn’t prove your point

            Ok. I think I can provide an example and avoid any sensitive topics. Co-ed soccer has different rules (e.g no slide tackles) because women have asked to be protected.

            I have never seen an Olympic-class athlete complain about transgender women in sports

            That wasn’t the claim I was countering. A more general statement was made.

            Olympic-class women athletes have never asked for protection from transgender women in sports.

            The original statement made was too broad.