"Gender is a social construct," looks like an argument, but it's actually begging the question--presuming the thing that remains to be proven. Some feminists (those now called TERFS) differenitate between sex and gender and assert that sex is real, while gender is a social construction. They're using the term gender to refer to things that are alleged to be sex differences but are, in fact, differences coercively imposed on sexed bodies by society. This is why they argue that gender should be abolished.
Most reasonable people would agree that some differences between men and women are not due to biology; they're due to socialization/culture. The problem is that it's very difficult to figure out which things are biology and which are culture. By simply asserting that gender is a social construct, they evade this complicated question. Additionally, because all of us develop within a culture, we probably cannot neatly divide the world into sex and gender. All of this said, the sex/gender distinction can be a helpful tool for thinking about the world and making arguments for respecting people's rights to express themselves however they want, regardless of sex.
HOWEVER, I suspect that bartholomew_maxwell is missing a big piece of the puzzle. This is the fact that current trans activism views sex and gender as social constructs. This is why so many argue that identifying as a woman makes one a woman. Try arguing that males should not be allowed to compete in women's categories because they have male advantage. Some will argue that transwomen can't have male advantage because they're women. This is disingenuous wordplay or a religious belief. Either way, it should not be be considered a valid argument in the public square. Quite simply, we're seeing factual reality subordinated to feeling states. As gender critical feminists have pointed out (those maligned as TERFS), it's also a movement that defines woman and man as social stereotypes, not distinct sex categories.
The really maddening aspect of this movement is that it allows males to dominate competitions, spaces, and even the words women use to talk about themselves and their bodies while calling those males women--sometimes even calling them female. "This can't be misogynistic because Lea is just as much of a woman as you are!"
I'm sick of the gaslighting. I'm expecially sick of the women who carry water for these anti-woman, psychopathic ideas. These are the kind of women who tend to be higher in female-typical personality traits (compassion, self-sacrifice), but these traits make them more susceptible to manipulation by bad-faith ideas and actors. "Progressives" are now calling women who advocate for female rights nasty, bigoted, immoral..."Shut up, bigoted old women. Where's your compassion?"
If males want to live "as if" they are women, socially, or vice versa, I'm okay with that. I am not okay with asking society to believe that this social or aesthetic transition makes people proper members of the other sex category. This is dangerous to all people--probably most of all to trans people.
You write with much thought but it is all wasted on the racist Armstrong.
He will not deal with one phrase without having an insult awaiting.Most foul excrement vile ones.
The AXIS-II personality disorders on display again.
Chart showing that the finishing times that caused Thomas to win the first place title in three different women's events at the Ivy League Championships would have put Thomas behind dead last place in each of the same races in the men's division:
This just shows that Lia is significanty slower as a a trans woman than as a cis-male (ie, hormone treatment slows her down). I don’t think this supports your contention.
The issue however is how a fully developed male athlete compares to female athletes. That hormone therapy will have any appreciable effect on that comparison is untenable. And that is assuming that Thomas is not sandbagging to avoid criticism, which Thomas has been accused of. The hero of our time. LOL.
The issue however is how a fully developed male athlete compares to female athletes. That hormone therapy will have any appreciable effect on that comparison is untenable. And that is assuming that Thomas is not sandbagging to avoid criticism, which Thomas has been accused of. The hero of our time. LOL.
My brother coaches swimming and having watched some video of Lia swimming, he echoes what one article a few weeks back suggested, that the "eye test" of Lia's form suggests she is holding back. I never swam so I can't really say, but I know a sandbagging runner when I see one, so I'm certain he can see it in his sport. Slightly off topic, but I always thought something similar about Caster Semenya, specifically when she ran the 1500 later in her career. I know her case involved a different "issue" re: gender, but it always felt like she knew she could absolutely dust her foes at 1500 so she took it easy and, at 2017 worlds for example, "only" went for a bronze, knowing she was good for gold at 800. In the 800, it was safer to go close to full effort because there wasn't enough time in a shorter race to make a total farce of it. At least in the category of victory spread.
Obviously I never met Thomas personally but from interviews and what I have read Thomas sees herself as a civil rights crusader breaking down barriers. If that is the case then completely dusting her biologically female opponents would defeat the "higher" purpose. But although I think there is definitely something to that, I also notice Thomas has just too much ego to tank completely and lose. The whole thing is a circus where zealots are trying to ram this down society's throats using coercion and mau-mauing with a quasi-religious fervor, but I do find that final egotistical aspect of it almost amusing.
As a former collegiate swimmer......MANY years ago, and a long time masters swimmer, this entire debacle disgusts me. I don't fault Thomas for being trans (any more so then I would fault Jenner), but I do for taking advantage of the "woke" and ridiculous policies now rampant within the NCAA and Ivy league that has allowed this to happen. Everyone is trying to jump on this stupid bandwagon and identify how "inclusive" they are, but all they are doing is destroying womens swimming. What a gaggle of fools and idiots.
No one is stopping USA Track & Field or WA from updating their policy. If they do that before the start of 23-24 season, that will be the policy for NCAA track & field.