Ok I admit that I am lib who is trying to learn more from my trans comrades. Forgive me if I'm asking a dumb question.
Isn't there a huge competitive advantage for trans athletes that have transitioned from male to female? There are just certain genetic benefits when it comes to things like bone structure and muscle density that seem to make for an uneven playing field. I feel like that's a factual take. I'm prepared to accept public shaming so that I can understand this issue better from people who have a more personal experience.
Quoting @ultraviolet who made a comment about this earlier:
This “debate” is usually framed in the context of “biological advantage” because it is true that top male athletes have an advantage over top female athletes so they believe that trans women (who are assigned male at birth) will have an advantage over cis women. However most top competitive sports (like the Olympics) have rules requiring the trans person to be on hrt for some time. Trans women who have been on hrt for a few years really have no biological advantage over cis women. Now some might resort to arguing that hrt does nothing to bone length (which is mostly true for trans women who started hrt after puberty) but then you don’t see them complaining that a cis person is being unfair because they were born with longer legs or anything like that. Furthermore the concern trolls seem to only come out whenever a trans person wins any event and they forget the times that trans athletes finish in 4th, 5th, etc. so they seem to only think it’s “fair” when a trans person loses.
You can also ask them to name a top female athlete. Chances are they will be a cis woman (or they can’t do it because none of them give a shit about women’s sports unless they can use it to hate trans people.) If trans women really were dominating then they should have disproportionate representation which is not the case.
Outside the top competitive events it gets really silly, like are you going to foam at the mouth because some local recreational league lets people of all genders participate? While it is true that top male athletes outperform top female athletes, there is a lot more variation in an “average” person so it’s really dumb to assume that a trans woman always has a “biological” advantage over a cis woman.
At the end of the day, if you care about “biological advantage” so much, then you should be advocating for more resources for young trans people (like puberty blockers) so they never have to go through the wrong puberty to begin with (and suffer a lot less dysphoria) but these people who yell about biological advantage never cared about trans people to begin with.
To add to what's already been said. This is what I remember reading about it from my endocrinology coursework.
Since this article is about transwomen I will be focusing on that.
First let's discuss HRT. While not every transperson undergoes HRT, (despite what the truscum say every transperson is valid), the effect of HRT on the body is relevant to this discussion.
Bone density can be affected by HRT.
If a transfemme is training while on HRT, it is harder for them to build muscle mass on account of the testosterone blockers that are used.
If a transfemme has finished HRT, they will build muscle mass at a similar level to ciswomen.
During HRT, transfolks must undergo regular tests for blood testosterone, cis athletes do not unless there is evidence of performance enhancing drugs. So there is scant data as far as I'm aware comparing the hormone levels of the two.
This confers no clear advantage to transfolks over cis.
Secondly hormone levels are not as cut and dry as gender essentialists will have you believe.
while amabs typically have more testosterone than afabs this isn't necessarily the case. I'd wager most people haven't even checked. Why would you unless a doctor advised you to? Gender essentialists just assume that:
man = big testosterone rawr
women = small testosterone :(
Based on nothing but a child's understanding of biology.
this poor view of endocrinology has led to afab women being punished by the rules transphobes campaigned for to restrict transwomen, (this has been mentioned in other users' comments on the Caster Semenya case so I'm not going to retread it here).
Formatting is a bit weird so apologies for that, I tried to use bullet points to space shit out so it wasn't just some big fucking wall of text.
Ok I admit that I am lib who is trying to learn more from my trans comrades. Forgive me if I'm asking a dumb question.
Isn't there a huge competitive advantage for trans athletes that have transitioned from male to female? There are just certain genetic benefits when it comes to things like bone structure and muscle density that seem to make for an uneven playing field. I feel like that's a factual take. I'm prepared to accept public shaming so that I can understand this issue better from people who have a more personal experience.
Quoting @ultraviolet who made a comment about this earlier:
Edit: There was a whole thread about this earlier peep on the deets there if you want more.
im legit smaller and weaker than the majority of women, if i have a competitive advantage, its mostly in the shitposting olympics
Forget the olympics, you're in the shitposting hall of fame.
Shitposting gold medalist Kristina. :gold-antifa:
To add to what's already been said. This is what I remember reading about it from my endocrinology coursework.
Since this article is about transwomen I will be focusing on that.
First let's discuss HRT. While not every transperson undergoes HRT, (despite what the truscum say every transperson is valid), the effect of HRT on the body is relevant to this discussion.
This confers no clear advantage to transfolks over cis.
Secondly hormone levels are not as cut and dry as gender essentialists will have you believe.
while amabs typically have more testosterone than afabs this isn't necessarily the case. I'd wager most people haven't even checked. Why would you unless a doctor advised you to? Gender essentialists just assume that:
Based on nothing but a child's understanding of biology.
this poor view of endocrinology has led to afab women being punished by the rules transphobes campaigned for to restrict transwomen, (this has been mentioned in other users' comments on the Caster Semenya case so I'm not going to retread it here).
Formatting is a bit weird so apologies for that, I tried to use bullet points to space shit out so it wasn't just some big fucking wall of text.
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They actually sometimes are, but only if the physical abnormality is TERF-bullshit-adjacent, like Caster Semenya
Oh, you edited to include her. Welp, now this comment is redundant.
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