Here’s Why Human Sex Is Not Binary
"Given what we know about biology across animals and in humans, efforts to represent human sex as binary based solely on what gametes one produces are not about biology but are about trying to restrict who counts as a full human in society.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-why-human-sex-is-not-binary/
Males enjoy physical performance advantages over females within competitive sport. The sex-based segregation into male and female sporting categories does not account for transgender persons who experience incongruence between their biological sex and their experienced gender identity. Accordingly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined criteria by which a transgender woman may be eligible to compete in the female category, requiring total serum testosterone levels to be suppressed below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to and during competition. Whether this regulation removes the male performance advantage has not been scrutinized. Here, we review how differences in biological characteristics between biological males and females affect sporting performance and assess whether evidence exists to support the assumption that testosterone suppression in transgender women removes the male performance advantage and thus delivers fair and safe competition. We report that the performance gap between males and females becomes significant at puberty and often amounts to 10–50% depending on sport. The performance gap is more pronounced in sporting activities relying on muscle mass and explosive strength, particularly in the upper body. Longitudinal studies examining the effects of testosterone suppression on muscle mass and strength in transgender women consistently show very modest changes, where the loss of lean body mass, muscle area and strength typically amounts to approximately 5% after 12 months of treatment. Thus, the muscular advantage enjoyed by transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed. Sports organizations should consider this evidence when reassessing current policies regarding participation of transgender women in the female category of sport.
@NoHomers @vmbrasseur easy fix imo -- there is no actual reason to segregate sports by sex and we don't have to keep doing that in perpetuity
Perhaps weight categories like in wrestling can catch on for all sports
@claude_cahun I literally said I didn't speak for them. I was expecting to be called a name by someone for posting the hard science, and it happened.
The thing is, you can't say it's all about the science and then ignore it when the science doesn't agree with you.
I have almost zero interest in this except insomuch as I believe in intellectual consistency and honesty.
@NoHomers You did speak for us. Saying you didn't doesn't change the fact that you are arguing for a transmisogynistic policy by saying that cis women agree with you. We don't. No one called you a name. I said that your interest in this topic derives from transmisogyny. It's the only reason you care about this topic. You don't care at all about women's sports or the real issues that women athletes actually deal with. This is obvious.
You posted one study. It is not the totality of the topic, which you would better understand if you had any knowledge of this. As you admit here, you have no knowledge of this! Stop using cis women as a weapon against trans women. You don't know what you're talking about.
@claude_cahun " I said that your interest in this topic derives from transmisogyny."
The amount of assumptions you're making about me and my motives is astounding, to the point where your soul intention is to shout me and any dialog down by making me out to be a caricature instead of trying to understand like two rational humans would do if they wanted dialogue instead of a one-directional diatribe that passes for debate these days.
No thanks.
The science is settled. For the most part I think the right wing push to ban sports for trans women is hurtful and unnecessary. (Oh sorry, did that not meet your apoplectic assumptions about me? Maybe you could ask instead of assuming.) But for professional sports, the cis women it has hurt have spoken out very much how they feel, I'm still not speaking for them. And if you're not one of them, maybe *you* could stand to listen to them as well? Just a thought.
The end.
@NoHomers You're deciding to uplift the voices of cis women athletes who agree with you, and you're deciding to dismiss the cis women athletes (including me) who disagree with you. You are making the decision on what data you'd like to use in order to declare "the science" to be settled so that it agrees with you. The article you cited, for instance, is riddled with concessions that the science isn't settled, and it doesn't even address athletes when making its most central claims about the effects of testosterone suppression. Citing this study as evidence that "the science" is settled when the article's authors don't even agree with you is honestly really embarrassing for someone who's only concerned about intellectual consistency and honesty. When you ignore everything that doesn't support your transmisogynistic perspective, reasonable people will start to think that you're motivated by transmisogyny. It's not my problem if your decisions make you feel close to Tucker Carlson.
For clarity: a cis woman athlete is telling you that you're wrong. I'm telling you to stop speaking for us, because despite you *saying* that you're not speaking for us, what you are *doing* is using the concept of "cis women athletes" to legitimize your transphobic position. Presumably you're insistent that you're not speaking for us because you realize that your transmisogyny looks the most innocent when you put it in our mouths, as though "people assigned female at birth are inherently physically inferior" is a feminist position so long as women say it first. You can stop doing that any time now.
@claude_cahun Transmisogyny is the reductive, false, "othering" label you tar me with to dismiss me or what I have to say out of hand. It's a disservice to the liberal notion of reasoned discourse I would otherwise be happy to engage in.
Enjoy your circle jerk.
And no, you're not a pro cis woman athlete, though apparently it's ok if you speak for them. 🙄
"people assigned female at birth are inherently physically inferior"
Inferior is a value judgment.
Verifiably, quantifiably, scientifically weaker and slower? Yes. That's science.
Domingo Flores 🏳️🌈
VM (Vicky) Brasseur
NoHomers
CurrentBias
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AutisticMumTo3
Mona⁷ de trapo ⟭⟬ ⟬⟭