I thought this was a parody of the International Olympic Committee’s contempt for women, and a very apt one. But no. No no. This was created, scripted and signed off on by the IOC as the very best way to kick off the 2024 Olympic Games: the Olympic torch arrived in Paris and was handed to a man—a very normal-looking man—and another man performing a hideous and insulting caricature of a woman. There is no woman in this symbolic image of what the IOC is crowing is the “most gender equal Olympic Games ever.” Not only did the IOC not include a woman (they could have just been honest about their determination to erase women and hired two average men to hold the torch), but they went the extra misogyny mile and pimped a man up as a grotesquely sexualized mockery of a woman. I struggle to think of a more insulting display.
This was not the misstep of a queer activist in the events department—this was thoroughly planned, scripted, and signed off at the highest levels. And while disgusting, it is an accurate depiction of the IOC’s hatred of women. Trans ideology and “inclusion” has given the fetishists and misogynists at that organization cover to flaunt their disdain for women in front of the whole world. The message is loud and clear—the IOC’s vision for women’s sports is men performing womanhood.
Still sputtering with rage, I came across this BBC interview with muckety muck at the IOC, Madeleine Pape, the handmaiden behind their insane* Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination policy.
*The obvious red flag that they have indeed careened off our gravity-ruled globe into an alternate tin hat world is that this Framework declares we should discard several hundred years of research and empirical data that show male advantage in sports, and adopt the attitude that men and women have no inherent differences in physical performance. You may be so tediously reasonable as to ask why, then, the IOC even supports male and female categories. Madeleine Pape answers this question farther down but, spoiler, it’s so trans women have somewhere to compete. You don’t expect that male drag queen, above, to be bursting from the blocks in the men’s 100 meters, do you?
I digress. Madeleine Pape. She represented Australia in the 800 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but since landing a lucrative job at the IOC, has affected one of the most shocking betrayals of women ever, and one of the most devastatingly impactful. I would like to embed this video clip posted originally on the Women’s Rights Network but my IT skills are not sufficient to the task. You can watch and we’ll discuss, lie by outrageous lie.
The BBC interviewer starts off by acknowledging that women are very angry about trans women competing in their category. Pape doesn’t even address women’s anger, and possessed by gender ideology, intones apropos of nothing, “Well, the IOC recognizes that trans women are women.” The interviewer shifts awkwardly in her seat and tries to act normal, as you would around a dangerous psychopath. The IOC may recognize that trans women are women but several hundred million years of human history do not. Since they were flummoxed in their attempt to prove a man could change his sex, the IOC found some people who identify as scientists who cleverly changed the definition of sex, so that sex is a combo if hormones, chromosomes, reproductive organs, external bits, none more important than the other. If you change one of those factors, like hormonal profile—Bob’s your uncle—you’ve changed your sex.
“We need to get away from an abstract debate that sees this as potentially calling into question the existence of a women’s category altogether,” Pape garbles. Tellingly, Pape addresses, without being asked, what everyone is thinking which is, if men can self-ID into the women’s category, why have a women’s category? We should get away from that debate, which is to say, just go along with it. Without missing a beat, Pape goes on to say we need to “focus on the human beings at the center of this debate,” that would be, the debate that doesn’t exist. Because we all agree, trans women are women. The human beings Pape is talking about are trans women (men). Having already dismissed women’s anger, throughout this two-and-a-half minute clip, she forgets that, in the world outside the IOC, women are human beings too. In the past, when she is reminded of that inconvenient fact, and that women do not consent to trans-identified males in their category, Pape has done everything she can to squash those voices. She signed an open letter to try to keep a survey of elite athletes about inclusion of men in women’s sports from being published.
“The trans women I know are not interested in manipulating their hormonal levels in ways that provide a performance advantage.” In a crowded field, this ranks near the top of the most asinine, vividly false, insultingly stupid lies that’s ever been inflicted on the public. Wtaf. Pape smugly assures folks that this sacred caste of men would never try to cheat, completely sailing over the fact that their interest in manipulation of hormones is irrelevant. THEY’RE MEN, and therefore have an exhaustively documented performance advantage, including hundreds of other factors not affected by hormonal manipulation.
Tripping merrily along from one gigantic f*%k y*u to women to another, Pape says the IOC recommends that international federations work with trans-identified male athletes to identify a hormonal level that’s “realistic” (and she makes a silly face here, because that is silly) and “doesn’t impose an undue burden on the athlete.” To be clear, this insane, unpleasant woman is saying out loud on TV that the IOC thinks we shouldn’t make it that hard for trans-identified men to compete in the female category, suggesting perhaps that maintaining a female level of testosterone to compete in the female category might be an undue burden. And by saying a trans woman is a woman, the IOC has rendered themselves ineligible for any claim on realism. Centering “an undue burden” for men who identify as women rather than fairness and dignity for an entire sex class, her own sex class, never enters Pape’s mind. Putting men’s desires above women’s is the definition of misogyny. Again, shockingly, for a woman whose athletic career depended on a women’s category with no men in it, Pape’s and the IOC’s thinking on this topic centers men. The 51% of the world’s population, and 99.9% of the women’s category that are women DO NOT MATTER to them.
When the interviewer suggests an open category for trans athletes, such as the one created by World Aquatics for the 2023 World Cup to which no one signed up, Pape, listening to “the athletes,” which are of course, the trans-identified male athletes, very much not the elite female athletes whose voices she tried to silence, said that is “not, apparently, on the agenda.” Here’s where the misogyny of trans ideology really bubbles up. Women who’ve swallowed the kool-aid, including trans-identified women like runner Nikki Hiltz and soccer star Quinn, must make sacrifices and not compete in alignment with their identity because, of course, they’d have no chance on the men’s team. But men who identify as women, like collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas, must be accommodated on the women’s team because they insist on it, they demand it, they feel entitled. So, really what Pape is saying is that the IOC maintains the women’s category as a place for trans-identified men to compete. To validate their identity. That’s the whole reason for it. Women are incidental, an afterthought, fillers for the lanes.
Between Madeleine Pape’s stunningly misogynistic interview and the IOC’s open mockery of women, the largest and most recognizable sports organization in the world kicks off the 2024 Olympics by using “inclusion” as cover for their contempt for women. What they have not accounted for is that most Olympic fans do not share that contempt. And they know the difference between a male drag queen and a female athlete.
I didn't think I could be any angrier with the IOC, it's truly next level disdain for female olympians. Thank you for managing to make me smile with this;
“Well, the IOC recognizes that trans women are women.” The interviewer shifts awkwardly in her seat and tries to act normal, as you would around a dangerous psychopath
I agree with your perspective, and understand your anger. Although I have written about this issue, as a psychologist, I am still baffled by the underlying motivations. I am not quite sure how and why some people disengage so completely from reality when there is so little benefit in doing so. As I have written (e.g., on my Substack), creating a third, "open" category in sports seems so simple a solution. Everyone could still compete but awards would be given within categories. I think that would be the reasonable solution. Thank you for your thought-provoking essay. Sincerely, Frederick