Interesting article (which many of you will have already read) on conflating sex and gender in sport and it being inherently unfair for women. Bit surprising coming from the Guardian who have been a bastion of woke thought mostly. I do wonder if it is the “sport” angle that is changing some minds and not the rights of women approach? Because of course sport “matters” and women’s spaces dont so much……. By conflating gender and sex we undermine sporting competition | Olympic Games | The Guardian

I think that’s it. Women’s spaces don’t matter. When it comes to sport people can see the problem but women’s prisons/refuges get no sympathy It’s frustrating but at least some questions are starting to be asked and it’s good to see the Guardian publishing this.

This was published in the age today too… https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/silencing-transgender-conversation-leads-us-nowhere-20210622-p58386.html Imagine if we can have a conversation about this instead of being shut down!

Longdarkteatime Some of the stuff I’ve seen on twitter. Someone called it cheating and a tra’s response was about how the Olympics was full of cheating. I dont think that supports the argument that this is fine!

Good article from Debbie Hayton about this here: https://thecritic.co.uk/a-gendered-soul Transwomen like me may need to compete with men — at least if we are to maintain fair competition between males and females — but that does not mean we need to change with men, or shower with men. Nor does it mean that our records should be indistinguishable from men. A campaign to provide separate facilities for anyone who does not wish to share communal facilities with their own sex does not compromise the rights of women, nor does separate record keeping. But this comes back to those two verbs. As long as the debate rests on who we are there will be trouble. Just like Brexit where Leavers and Remainers divided according to their feelings about identity (British or European?) identity politics divides rather than unifies. Shift the focus to what people can do, or maybe what we are prohibited from doing, and maybe we can begin to crawl out of the mess we are all in?

It’s so unfair. I don’t understand how a biological male competing against can look at those results and not feel incredibly ashamed. If this was happening to men (a biological impossibility of course), it would have stopped as soon as it started.

CoolasaCucumber I think that is the crux of it - if it was happening to men then it would simply be a non starter but it is not. However, I see the only reason it is getting some traction in the media and is because it is sport related and even though women’s sport rates a lowly also ran for men - it still interests them on some level and is Laurel Hubbard is pretty in your face as an intact biological male competing against biological women. The reality is sort of hard to deny!

Latest Guardian article on Laurel Hubbard

Longdarkteatime

Interesting article (which many of you will have already read) on conflating sex and gender in sport...