It’s almost time to delete my account so I am sticking my neck out to potentially getting blasted.
I will preface by stating that gender identity is not an issue for me. Be who you want, use whatever bathroom you want. Just wash your hands/paws/tentacles.
My ignorant question is: for transgender athletes in competitive sports, should records be categorized differently or asterisked? Isn’t it kind of like using performance-enhancing drugs?
I don’t mind about actually competing, however if someone had 5-10 years of hormonal growth advantage during puberty, even if they no longer have that advantage, it seems like a big gray area. Yes, someone could naturally have that chemical makeup. Similarly, some exceptionally elite athletes have genetic variations that give them natural physical advantage.
When I was in school I was decent at swimming, in the top 5% of men. If I competed against women I would be like top 0.01% and making a career out of it. Though, if I started setting records I don’t know how I’d feel about it, given my advantage.
Honestly, writing these thoughts down is giving me some existential dread. What does it mean to be human, and why? Does anything even really matter?
I hope everyone has a nice day and is kind to each other.
categorizing sports between women and men separately always seemed weird to me. Why is it not a global ranking? A global ELO system that makes sure every athlete fights other athletes in the same ELO range, doesn’t matter man woman because it’s based on performance/skill instead.
Men would still on average out perform women in most categories, making it very difficult for women to get to the top of the chart. High ELOs would almost exclussively be men and thats where the media focus and attention would be on, drowing out some of the top women atheletes in lower ELOs. In a system where the highest ELO wins a medal or something i think it would be less fair than having gendered ELOs. Something like amateur or beer league sports might benefit more from genderless ELO but i think it would be controversial for pro athletes.
That’s precisely why we have sports separated by sex now though - because otherwise it’s all men up the top and all the women down the bottom.
Would you be ok with, for example, mixed sex boxing or mma?