Toni, I'm going to take your comment about transgender people as being based on lack of information rather than being willful disregard for the facts. I know that you have a predisposition to dismiss with disdain anything that falls into supposed liberal ideology, but you really are doing yourself a disservice by failing to examine some issues more closely.
Transgender people are not men dressed as women or women dressed as men purely for the emotional satisfaction of doing so. What you are referring to is cross-dressing, a related but separate subject. Cross-dressing is practiced by people who clearly identify with their physical gender and who don't wish to alter it but simply feel more comfortable wearing the clothing of the opposite sex for certain periods of time. It has nothing to do with their sexual orientation. Very many cross-dressing men are heterosexual, are married, work and live in traditional male roles and clothing. A transgender person is someone who is born with a particular physical gender but who psychologically and emotionally does not identify with that gender. They literally feel like they were born into the wrong body. The parts don't fit their own perception of self. In the past before sex reassignment surgery, the only recourse for transgender people to approximate life as their ideal selves was to cross dress as effectively as possible, thus leading to the common confusion with true cross-dressers. But for them this was not a temporary act, but as close to permanent as was manageable. Now that medical treatment is available, transgender people have more viable options that allow them to more accurately realize themselves.
As for the specifics of gender reassignment, if a fully transgender woman (born physically male but having completed reassignment surgery) wishes to compete in sports against other women, she does not possess the physical advantage you implied. The hormones she must take to maintain the effects of her reassignment surgery create real physical changes in her body including metabolic changes, adjustments to endurance, loss of muscle mass, bone density, weight redistribution and increased production of body fat. Renee Richards (one of the most famous trans athletes ever) was put through countless humiliating exercises by the Women's Tennis Association to prove her gender in court in the 1970s. Tons of fear based accusations were made that she would somehow be dominating fellow women players. She didn't. The combination of her age, the effects of her hormones and the quality of the women against whom she competed all proved greater than any supposed advantage she might have had by her birth gender. Considering the fact the transgender youth are coming to terms with their status at younger and younger ages and also being treated for it, these feared physical advantages are being even further negated.
So I really don't think it would matter one bit if a trans woman wanted to compete. The ISU would of course lead the reactionary traditionalist brigade to resist the effort, but thankfully the Court of Arbitration for Sport exists and would have the final say based on actual evidence rather than fear.
ETA: Blubonnet, why do all women have to fit into your narrow view of what they should be? Why can't every individual woman be the best and most fulfilling woman she wants to be rather than what society dictates for her? For that matter, why must men all fit into conceptions that are just as narrow? Variety and diversity are the most valuable traits of any successful species of life.
Transgender people are not men dressed as women or women dressed as men purely for the emotional satisfaction of doing so. What you are referring to is cross-dressing, a related but separate subject. Cross-dressing is practiced by people who clearly identify with their physical gender and who don't wish to alter it but simply feel more comfortable wearing the clothing of the opposite sex for certain periods of time. It has nothing to do with their sexual orientation. Very many cross-dressing men are heterosexual, are married, work and live in traditional male roles and clothing. A transgender person is someone who is born with a particular physical gender but who psychologically and emotionally does not identify with that gender. They literally feel like they were born into the wrong body. The parts don't fit their own perception of self. In the past before sex reassignment surgery, the only recourse for transgender people to approximate life as their ideal selves was to cross dress as effectively as possible, thus leading to the common confusion with true cross-dressers. But for them this was not a temporary act, but as close to permanent as was manageable. Now that medical treatment is available, transgender people have more viable options that allow them to more accurately realize themselves.
As for the specifics of gender reassignment, if a fully transgender woman (born physically male but having completed reassignment surgery) wishes to compete in sports against other women, she does not possess the physical advantage you implied. The hormones she must take to maintain the effects of her reassignment surgery create real physical changes in her body including metabolic changes, adjustments to endurance, loss of muscle mass, bone density, weight redistribution and increased production of body fat. Renee Richards (one of the most famous trans athletes ever) was put through countless humiliating exercises by the Women's Tennis Association to prove her gender in court in the 1970s. Tons of fear based accusations were made that she would somehow be dominating fellow women players. She didn't. The combination of her age, the effects of her hormones and the quality of the women against whom she competed all proved greater than any supposed advantage she might have had by her birth gender. Considering the fact the transgender youth are coming to terms with their status at younger and younger ages and also being treated for it, these feared physical advantages are being even further negated.
So I really don't think it would matter one bit if a trans woman wanted to compete. The ISU would of course lead the reactionary traditionalist brigade to resist the effort, but thankfully the Court of Arbitration for Sport exists and would have the final say based on actual evidence rather than fear.
ETA: Blubonnet, why do all women have to fit into your narrow view of what they should be? Why can't every individual woman be the best and most fulfilling woman she wants to be rather than what society dictates for her? For that matter, why must men all fit into conceptions that are just as narrow? Variety and diversity are the most valuable traits of any successful species of life.
Last edited:
The difference is so trivial, and if there is any negative connotation about "ladies", it is so petty and negligible. Has gender equality advanced so much that feminists now focus on trivial labels that bear little consequence? I'm pro-choice, pro-feminism, pro-cross-dressers, pro-hairdressers..., and I'm pro-"Ladies" as well.
thing. Not enough to start a major push to have it done away with, but enough to think, the more things change, the more they stay the same and then to forget about it.
Why daring to be different automatically deserves merits? Will you thank me for "daring to be different" if I say "All Americans are stupid and should go to hell"? A poor argument that is different from others is truly bad, indeed, although a good argument that deviates from the norm is extra admirable. Daring to be different should not always be encouraged. I certainly don't want to see somebody jump naked onto the rink and start shooting at the audience during a competition for the mere sake of "daring to be different".
