Today’s post is at the Stream: Olympics Might Allow Men Pretending to be Women to Compete as Women.
If you are a true egalitarian, if you actually believe in the equality of sexes and are not lying, exaggerating, or signalling your cultural holiness, then you must advocate for the complete and utter removal of all distinctions between the sexes.
Take for instance the Olympics. It currently enforces inequality, dictating that men and women compete separately. Come, now, all you true equalitarians: agree and state that this inequality must cease forthwith. (Say so in the comments.)
If you do not agree that this manifest unequal status should cease, then you are not a true egalitarian or equalitarian; it means that you hold that there are fundamental, ineradicable differences between the sexes. Further, it means that others are right to ascribe a lack of equalitarian earnestness in you. That being so, it is then rational to not only notice sex differences, but to make decisions about and to treat people differently based on their sex…
Here is the twist. There are predictions the International Olympic Committee will allow, with one small proviso, what they consider a version of the equalitarian ideal in its upcoming contests. The proviso is that the contests will still be separated by sex, but that men pretending to be women will be allowed to compete as women, and vice versa…
Chris Mosier is a woman pretending to be a man, though discovering that takes work. For instance, this left-wing ESPN article buries the fact deep within. That article also mentions Mosier’s “transition to physically becoming a man.” This is, of course, scientifically and biologically impossible. Not unlikely, mind you. Impossible. That ESPN says otherwise is a clear indication that this once-prestigious network has lost its mind.
But never mind that. The curious thing is that the Frankenstein-like treatments that good lady Mosier had included “doping”, which is to say, being drugged with testosterone, among other chemicals. Now it used to be the Olympics cast a dim view on these kinds of artificial enhancements. But Outsports thinks they will now look past this in their strive toward Equality.
This would appear to be good news for athletes who want to cheat…
Updates See the comment from MattS and my reply first. MattS brings up the good point of males who are born with an extra X chromosome. Now these men are typically less physically capable than XY-men. XXY-men are thus disadvantaged. Should they, like women pretending to be men (WPM), be able to use chemically or surgical enhancement to bring themselves to the same levels as male Olympian athletes?
If so, why not alter everybody so that all are equal? A true level playing field.
https://twitter.com/mattstat/status/695013141327917056
50 Years of Sex Changes, Mental Disorders, and Too Many Suicides
Come one, these people went to tremendous expense to become what they are not. Cut ’em some slack. Isn’t it every guy’s dream to win against girls fair and square, without being called a coward or a fake? Now it can be done. In the name of complete fairness, however, there should not be separate groups for those calling themselves male and those calling themselves female. This is about solidarity, after all, and separation by sexual preference is not solidarity. All one team, no divisions. Let’s see actual equality. (And guys, you’ll still win and you won’t be called a coward or a fake. It’s a win-win for you.)
I’m waiting for the “I am a dog, cat, cow, horse, etc” surgery and new rights for these “chosen species” creatures. After all, if a guy and girl can change to the opposite sex, there’s nothing stopping a human being from changing to be a greyhound, except speciesism. Long live the new greyhound creatures! (People already claim to be parents to dogs and cats. Can’t be far from claiming to BE dogs and cats, can we?)
With a guesstimated proportion of the population that might fall into this category [transgender] at about 0.3% and given the competition to get selected for an Olympic team (not to mention inevitable biases of those making the final determinations*) being particularly discriminating…the odds of this being a real issue, or even the occasional curiosity, are teensy weensy. Perhaps on par with the number of athletes that make national teams who’ve also been struck by lightning (there’s some statistical analysis that would actually be interesting, if briefly … along with a pointless debate on defining what “teensy weensy” might or might not mean).
So rare, in other words, that debating it as if it were a real issue seems like a waste of time….
* Regarding biases consider the famous U.S. “Miracle on Ice” hockey team that beat the Soviets in 1980: Out of a national tryout 11 of the 20 selected were from Minnesota (MN), same place the team’s coach hailed from & most of those 11 were familiar to the coach. While MN was & remains a regional powerhouse for producing hockey talent it is by far not unique in this respect & the disproportionate selection of players is not (and then was not) considered a reflection of an “objective” selection process…but they won & such sins of bias were ignored/forgiven.
Ken,
True about its rarity. But the deluded competitors aren’t the real problem. It’s that elites will require us to agree that men pretending to be women are women. Look for it in laws near you, soon.
You are correct Briggs. This is the source of real power.
“You are a slow learner, Winston.”
“How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”
“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
? George Orwell, 1984
Sheri, you have been anticipated by H.G. Wells (in reverse).
“But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.”
? H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau
Sheri, I hate to say it, but it’s happening: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3419631/Woman-says-s-CAT-trapped-human-body.html
How does this decision square with the ballyhooed “war on women”?
Sheri, have you ever heard of Jocelyn Wildenstein?
She’s got cat class and she’s got cat style.
Well, there’s no rule against those who are deluded by fantasies of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a sure sign of mental illness, so I don’t see the problem with men who think they’re women and vice versa.
JMJ
JMJ,
But you’d object to be forced to say Jesus was God, yes?
I find the feminists an endless source of amusement. They claim there is no difference between men and women and then they spend lots of time complaining about male behavior.
Oh, what joy! Equality to the max, and with it goes the hope of any woman winning anything ever again. I guess we could call this the feminist just desserts. Then again, we should all be a little crestfallen that soon every woman in the public eye will be replaced by a bearded tranny.
JMJ,
If you are an honest man, you will give consideration to the following.
If there is no intellectual honesty in a debate it is not worth having and brings a playground element. I think you can do better especially if you mean what you say.
Prof John Lennox claims the experience you call a delusion.
So of course you exaggerate or you can’t justify how such a high functioning man could sustain such a delusion?
There are rare genetic and developmental anomalies. People with XXY chromosomes and people who are genetically male but naturally develop female rather than male genitalia during fetal development.
Is there any place in your world view for those people?
What gender is someone with an XXY chromosome?
What gender would you assign someone who is genetically male but physically female at birth?
It’s very difficult to distinguish the latter from those who have gone through M->F gender reassignment surgery without invasive medical testing (basically, you would need an x-ray, ultra-sound or MRI to verify the presence of a uterus).
MattS,
“What gender is someone with an XXY chromosome?”
Source:
I don’t believe (somebody can correct me here) that those very few who take on more feminine characteristics develop ovaries and other internal reproductive apparatuses.
So XXY folks are genetic males. And, of course, nobody’s “gender” is “assigned”. People are what they are.
Now folks who are born XXY obviously have no choice. Those who are born XY and pretend they are female do have a choice. It is at best folly for these individuals to call themselves “female”. It is insane to require that we call or treat them as female. And vice versa for XX folks.
You can also sometimes not tell, without being invasive, if an un-surgically-altered man wearing a dress is really a man. But that difficulty doesn’t make him a woman.
Briggs, according to the Christian tradition it certainly can be said that Jesus is God. Why would I have a problem acknowledging that? It’s none of my business anyway. I’m not religious. Just like you’re not gay – just nosy.
Joy, to answer your question, the human mind is a funny thing, capable of sustaining all sorts of dissonance, irrationality and hypocrisy.
JMJ
Ken: Gay marriage was a “teensy weensy” issue a couple of decades back. “Teensy weensy” does not mean it won’t cause problems. Remember, ISIS was the JV team according to Obama.
Scotian: Seems I have been.
Anon: Arrrgggh. I should never have thought this was in the future, should I? My bad.
Steve E: I had not heard of her. Checked Wiki—it appears my comment is definitely outdated.
JMJ: A personal relationship with JC is not considered deluded except amongst scientists and progressives. Believing one is a cat is delusional under virtually all sections of psychology.
So all the folks that voted to support gays but are not gay themselves are nosy? Cool, I guess you do get it after all. (Especially your last comment.)
Briggs – RE: “But the deluded competitors aren’t the real problem. It’s that elites will require us to agree that men pretending to be women are women. Look for it in laws near you, soon.”
It’s doubtful that biological but ‘modified’ men would compete as women as their physiology would confer a genetic physical advantage & they might not be allowed to compete (and women with a weaker physiology, at least upper body, almost certainly wouldn’t want to compete against men)
…recall some of the debates, and trial, with Pistorius & his artificial legs below the knees, which were alleged to give him an advantage. He won by legal trial much on the basis that those artificial limbs didn’t add “spring” or whatever vs. real limbs … though it remains debatable if by having much less blood vessels to burden his heart if that conferred an advantage and if or to what extent that was considered — though his artificial limbs would not confer an advantage (pretend true if one doesn’t believe) his heart & lungs, configured for a full body were thus providing excess/over capacity..an advantage that [if I understood right] the court didn’t seriously consider.
In other words, if/when such things come to trial the competitive advantage of fundamental biological/physiological difference will become a factor along with weighing social values — i.e., a competitor’s body/physiology will be a determinant along with social values based on the person being a “person” of whatever type.
A male reconfigured to appear female would have to be able to show–before competing as a female–that s/he didn’t have a bio/physiological advantage (e.g. derived by not taking female hormones to boost testosterone & strength before competing)…if or how that could be policed is another matter…
If someone has disabled their penis or their vagina they should compete in the Special Olympics.
As a female, what troubles me is the unshakeable feeling that the trans movement deliberately caricatures women, and not in a good way. I feel like women are the butt of some terrible cosmic joke, in that most of us will never achieve the appearance or attain the wardrobe of a pampered millionaire man in a dress.
A man can live his life—from his teens to old age—in a state of virility, God willing. Ask Abraham. Heck, ask Tony Randall. But a woman has to come to terms with the fleeting nature of her fertility. This is the essence of womanhood.
When a girl has her menses thrust upon her when she is too young to understand what is happening. “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret,” and all the feminine-product brochures and videos with dancing girls in leotards and technical explanations don’t get to the matter of what “it” is. “It” has to be experienced. Sometimes “it” is a problem—humiliating and intrusive; but sometimes “it” is a gift.
Some women have debilitating cramps, and they can’t function. Yes, they put on a brave face, because they must, and they aren’t allowed the luxury of taking it easy since there is “no difference between the sexes.”
Then there is pregnancy. It is true that not all women become pregnant, and fewer women deliver a live birth than in the past, thanks to the various forms of birth control and women having “ownership” over their body. If getting one’s period is a surprise, then pregnancy and childbirth is astounding. The changes are spectacular, and then there is a life that must be nourished from one’s breasts.
The woman’s body resists its “owner’s” desires for a slimmer waist and firmer breasts. Ah, breasts. They are a problem, as they not only have to be carried around 24/7, but they also have to be dressed. The manufacturers of women’s clothing often do not take in account the breasts. As a result, hemlines are uneven, and blouses unwittingly show too much belly (no thank you)—because the breasts have taken more than their fair share of the fabric.
Later in life, the cycle dries up, and some women embrace the freedom that this signals, while others mourn that the ability to give life has been taken from them. Unlike a man, when it’s over, it’s over. When it’s over, it’s a blunt reminder that life itself is on the downswing.
It doesn’t quite bother me when a once-a-man wants to wear a dress or wear a wig and makeup—hair and makeup are not the measure of a woman. Ann Landers long ago sensitized Middle America to what was quaintly called cross-dressing, and explained that some men had some indescribable need to dress like a woman, and that they shouldn’t be “judged” for it; or rather, divorced because of it.
What does bother me is the assertion that this person is a “woman” when the title hasn’t been rightfully bestowed by the fluids of life, with the attendant discomforts, joys, grief, and sadness.
It is possible for someone to look like a female and not discover until puberty that they have one X and one y chromosome. They look and in their heads feel female. Society already “assigned” them female.
In this case nature has not met aesthetic or normal expectations because of androgen insensitivity.
Of course these people didn’t choose but there does seem to me to be something in such cases that might explain some of the desire of men wanting to become women.
It has caused so much controversy. It will be better understood one day. Making misguided and punitive laws regarding gender is damaging. It slows progress in medicine and does nothing for social cohesion. It’s regressive.
My first placement was with Mr. Muirhead-Allwood in orthopaedics. He was a very tall tweed and bow tie man at the Whittington. Now Sarah Muirhead-Allwood. I just can’t imagine why a person would want to change their sex but it doesn’t seem to me to be a whim.
It’s a puzzle.
JMJ
On dissonant irrational hypocrites:
Hypocrisy is a characterisation and isn’t necessary for lucidity.
Dissonance is not an illness.
The other assertion is that the man is irrational with respect to his world view. I take it you don’t mean he has occasional lapses of silliness but something fundamental.
Isn’t it a reach for someone irrational to deal professionally with rationalising nature, information theory, group theory logic and language?
The argument from atheism that everything comes from nothing is irrational! it is dissonant to ignore this fact. So which is it?
Lennox recommends “A brief history of the great one” by Lutz a psychiatrist who has also given his consideration to a long over repeated myth that atheism = sanity and theism = insanity. (to paraphrase.)
“I’In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions and religious institutions, in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper–namely, the fear of religion itself. I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.”
Thomas Nagel.
A girl: Your comments on menses seems more appropriate to the 1940’s or before in the USA. Girls start knowing what periods are in 4th or 5th grade, some schools start younger than that. They also know what it means. Your comments about women and virility match the 1800’s or so in the USA. Women don’t sit around worrying they can’t make babies anymore—heck, women that are 67 can do that with modern technology. I’m not seeing what you’re addressing happening. It honestly sounds more like the Dark Ages.
(The only time I did see this was with a relative who was female, with an idiot for father and no mother. She pretended she never reached menses, even when confronted with evidence. I blamed her father, not society.)
Women cross-dress ALL the time. Why is everyone mad when men do it?
Joy: Again, the tiny percentage of people who don’t fit in the male/female biological genders is not cause to redo all of society to accommodate them. What we are doing is defining deviancy and delusion as normal. There is NO mental illness. The guy that thinks he’s in the war and starts killing people should not be judged or confined to a jail or hospital since we can’t call him mentally ill. NO delusions can be called wrong if we allow the delusion that men are women and women are men in complete disregard for reality. This is where we are going. Gender is social construct, but so is the admonition against murder, so is the admonition against rape (which in ISIS there are rules on who you can rape and whose relatives you can rape.) Most of what we do is societal and a “do whatever you want” rule is not helpful—it’s anarchy. I will say that seems to be the goal of the progressive movement, anarchy and then rush in and “save” the population via an all-controlling, dictatorship of misery. If anyone thinks gays will fare well there, can you say “delusion”?
Dissonance is not all illness but it is a cause of stress, which society then labels illness and medicates, whereas the proper solution is to correct the conflicting mental states. As a way to destroy society, it ranks right up there. Keep people in constant stress and encourage irrational thinking.
Sheri,
Please read JMJ’s comments and my reply.
“JMJ:
Well, indeed, you provide evidence of your second point in your first paragraph; namely, confusion as to what is meant by ‘acknowledge’ as well as confusion about the question Briggs asked which wasn’t about what Christians acknowledged but about what JMJ could be obliged by law to acknowledge through public acts.
Joy, I have one X and one Y chromosome. (That’s not true, actually I have billions of X and billions of Y chromosomes; one for each cell in my body. Enough pedantry.) If I were to say “I feel like I am a woman” would your response be:
a) “Oh you poor soul, how can I help?”; or
b) “How do you know what it’s like to be a woman? You’re a man.”
Having posted that, I can see a potential problem, in that you might actually prefer a). So I will help you out. If you have a lick of common sense, you will answer b).
“But, but … there are millions of Americans who would answer a)! Are you suggesting that NONE of them has a lick of common sense?”
.
.
.
[crickets]
“Of course these people didn’t choose but there does seem to me to be something in such cases that might explain some of the desire of men wanting to become women.”
Is that in fact the case for the men who pursue gender-reassignment surgery? Most of them? Some of them? Bruce Jenner?
Oh Richard , You’re joking, not you as well shooting the messenger.
Can I chose C stop being a fool. Actually I would say ”false dichotomy’ but I might blush.
Multicellular organisms have more than one cell.
I stipulate “one” because the XXy reference. These people share the same code for gender that you and most men do. There are different abnormalities which cause the insensitivity to sex hormones. It’s a medical fact!
On gender assignment:
Given there are males who are societally mistaken for females until they fail to start their periods. They have been assigned a sex by default. Even the XY “girl” thinks she is an xx “girl” until tests are carried out. Isn’t that sad? I personally don’t agree with sex change surgery but Richard nobody asked me.
Who’s Jenner? My own reaction? I’m not moved to memorialise on here. Sorry and all that.
It’s tempting to believe given the media coverage and modern trends in flaunting these things that There are more and more cases but the number I believe won’t change from that which always occurred in the population. We just didn’t have it forced on us before.
As for “feel like a woman” (don’t start me singing) of course they don’t because they don’t have the real equipment!
The equipment they are given, they generally can’t steer properly.