The weaker sex?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Transgender women and girls couldn’t play on girls and women’s school sports teams under a bill passed by a Florida House committee on Wednesday.
The bill, called the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, would require that anyone participating in girls and women’s sports at the K-12 and college level be biologically eligible to do so. If challenged, they would have to get confirmation from a health care provider that they are female. That could include a doctor examining their genitals.
The most insidious and insulting argument hiding in this nonsense is that all males are naturally stronger, faster, and more powerful than all females, and so any physical competition between them would be inherently unfair and would yield only male winners.
Do you believe that?
Recent reports about the violent coup in Myanmar include the fact that men there - soldiers no less - are frightened by women's clothing, especially their underwear.
Some Florida men seem equally afraid and are determined to make sure that no "boy" beats a "girl" at anything. Because?
Fairness, as a concept, is more or less fundamental to sports, and is often assured by separating competitors by age and weight, two of the most deterministic - but not the only - features of athletic prowess. And all serious athletes know that their most valuable success comes from competing with the best.
There is nothing deterministic about our genitals. In fact, the only legitimate reason to determine weather another person has a penis or a vagina is to establish sexual compatibility. That's what our genitals for. There's no such thing as "women's sports", except as determined by men too afraid to lose to a girl.
On any given week, a fair number of male PGA Tour players would be bested by a fair number of female pros. 350-yard tee shots do not win tournaments. Putting does. The same applies throughout the realm of physical competition, which is why men (the weaker sex?) refuse to compete with women.
Men who might say, "you throw like a girl!", probably haven't tried to hit a fastball thrown underhanded by one. The whole argument falls apart when you realize who it serves. If you think the fearful men who are insulting your children are right, then please ask yourself why it's okay to take home a "First Place" trophy won against only half of the field.
Now, even though we are finally beginning to understand more about gender identity, we remain uncertain of how to integrate it into our understanding of our humanity. But we can be absolutely certain that this is not it.
Contacting our legislators is a little more tedious than it ought to be, but we all owe it to each other to make sure they hear what we think. So please, reach out. Links can be found here:
