"It complicates matters that the rules of the sport allow teams in the Olympics to have only one entrant per weight class. Tracey Lambrechs, a lifter from New Zealand who competed in the same weight class as Hubbard, said that the sport’s national governing body gave her an ultimatum several years ago, after Hubbard had begun outperforming her: Drop to a lower weight class or retire. Hubbard’s participation, Lambrechs said, deprived other women a chance to compete. Her comments led to their own backlash. 'We’re all about equality for women in sport, but right now, that equality has been taken away from us,' Lambrechs told TVNZ. 'Weight lifters come up to me and say, like, what can we do? Like, this isn’t fair, what can we do? And unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do because every time we try to voice it, we get told to be quiet.' At the weight lifting competition in Tokyo, athletes have largely avoided discussing the significance of Hubbard’s presence at the Games.... 'I don’t know if there is a good solution where everybody is happy,” said Janae Marie Kroc, a world champion bodybuilder who stopped competing after she transitioned because she did not want to invite criticism of transgender athletes. 'My biggest fear is Laurel does really well, has her best performance and others falter, and then it’s used against trans athletes.'"
I question the phrase "Stokes Debate" in that headline. It seems more that the debate is suppressed. I notice that the NYT does not permit comments on this article, and I suspect that's because debate is not wanted on this issue. Has there ever been a more debate-provoking issue where the debate has been so thoroughly squelched?
But the NYT posted this article at Facebook, and there are over 3,000 comments there. 3 samples:
"Although she identifies as a woman, and more power to her, she was born a man. And the physical structure, down to the very bones, are that of a man, and not a woman. You just can’t change that, hence gifting Laurel an unfair advantage. Decades of battles for women’s rights and for their chance to be equal, destroyed with one ludicrous decision."
"I don't agree with a trans athlete competing in the category/gender they identify with, if they didn't went through hormonal therapy in their teenage years. Transwomen are superwomen by comparison with natural women and transmen are in complete disadvantage. Let's just stop this madness in sports!! Or, we can just let women and men compete together and in a decade or so, there will not be a place for natural women in sport competitions anymore."
"Who cares. So many more things to put our efforts into: poverty, the environment, health, education, love, empathy, live and let live. It's sport...it's not intellectual, it's not world changing, it doesn't advance the human race. Get a life."
७ टिप्पण्या:
Assistant Village Idiot said:
"Yes, it does seem that the phrase "stokes debate" means "Complaints leaked out anyway, dammit!" Good pickup.
"As for the issue, women's sports already have a problem attracting viewers. This will be one more obstacle. Even fewer people will be interested now."
Lloyd writes:
"I still don't know how this went from questionable or contentious to (for some) a settled issue in such a short time.Abortion by comparison remains at an uneasy stalemate. Gay marriage seemed to be stopped for a while, Obama etc., but now seems widely accepted. The general trend is: let's try to lessen the injustice that is inflicted on people who were previously identified as sinners, outsiders, or minorities.
"So how do we get from that to: if an individual identifies as a certain gender, with no reference to biology or any observable features at all, that individual can take a full part in women's sports as a trans woman? In a way when someone says "I'm going to tell you what gender I am, the authentic or real gender" they seem to mean something about nature, which it would be difficult and immoral to resist. But surely they are close to saying there is no such thing as nature--people can assert their way into any activity where they might succeed. This is related to applying "differential impact" to things like math. If a certain group persists in doing badly on certain tests, then the tests must be changed or abolished; people will assert their right to take a full part, and perhaps to win a Nobel prize."
MikeR writes:
""Who cares. So many more things to put our efforts into: poverty, the environment, health, education, love, empathy, live and let live. It's sport...it's not intellectual, it's not world changing, it doesn't advance the human race. Get a life."
"A) I agree about sports, but...
"B) This is a billion-dollar industry (trillion-dollar?) and literally millions of people invest hours a day and many years of their lives trying to reach the pinnacle of sports. By dismissing their struggles you diminish them. "it's not world changing" - transgender issues is the same: world-changing only because someone makes it all-important."
MJB Wolf writes:
"This is a good example of the post-modern journ-O-lism genre of apposite headlines that seem to say one thing (“stokes debate” or “raises questions” for example) but actually intentionally misinforms the reader of headlines. The article in this genre will invariably reveal facts that contravene the headline (“suppresses debate” or “suggests a conspiracy” to continue my examples) and means exactly the opposite as the headline. One has to read deep, as the reveal is often after the jump and certainly farther down than the first three ‘graphs that are used to support the headline and spin the story."
K writes:
"Chemistry is destiny. But why should that be so in the 21st century? In a flower a set of hormones forms the sepals, petals, stamens (male) and carpels (female). This is called the ABC model of flower development. "... [T]he sepals are solely characterized by the expression of A genes, while the petals are characterized by the co-expression of A and B genes. The B and C genes establish the identity of the stamens and the carpels only require C genes to be active." Such being the case it is natural to think that stamens could transform into carpels or vice versa by a chemical rearrangement caused by gene re-arrangements and hence likewise men could transform into women or vice versa. So just do it with some hormones we've got lying around. (Though as yet we don't really understand how to transform either flowers or men and women and we do not know the long-term consequences, e.g., how will the aging process (another chemical process) interact with such a transformation?) Why wait for science to crawl along toward certainty? The natural body of a man, the natural body of a woman carried to its highest physical expression and honored in a world-wide game - what a reactionary concept. Dump in some chemicals in some people and watch the Chemicals versus the Naturals."
Scott writes:
Ann,
You asked the question: "Has there ever been a more debate-provoking issue where the debate has been so thoroughly squelched? "
Just off the top of my head:
* Resistance to AGW
* Questioning the Vaccine
* Lab-leak hypothesis
* Questioning the accuracy of the 2020 Elections
* HCQ / Ivermectin as prophylaxis against COVID
I'm sure there are more examples of Big Tech Censorship out there. In all of these cases, there is a "narrative" created by the government/media, and any resistance to the narrative is suppressed. Amazon will shut down your servers, Twitter/Facebook will remove your accounts, Apple/Google will remove your apps from their app stores, and so on.
Right now, the hot issue that you're not allowed to dissent on is Vaccines and Ivermectin. If you step out of line, you risk losing your social media accounts. Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying have had to migrate their podcasts from YouTube to Odysee due to threats over their discussions of ivermectin.
And of course, nobody is allowed to dissent from the view that a biological man who calls himself a woman can now compete in women's sports.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently
opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer
@Scott
I think this issue surpasses those others.
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