It’s wild how many people think women’s sports are irrelevant. I had a confrontation with a (female) friend who literally yelled BFD at me followed by “trans girls are girls.” She is an adult. With daughters. Went to Stanford. Wtf.
I am beyond baffled by this. Internalized misogyny? Makes them look progressive? Progressive women often give two things that are objectively harmful to women a pass—pornography and gender ideology. They know that to confront that they'd have to confront the very basis of patriarchy, prioritizing of men. And that's a difficult and dangerous place to be
I went to a women's college. I still consider myself an old school feminist (women are not property of men, and should be able to open a bank account or live unmarried, have their own spaces/colleges/sports/healthcare, no need for anyone's permission, and of course, that freedom includes living a more traditional way free of home violence). I started to notice something was happening to ideas around feminism when my own daughters were becoming teenagers. They got angry with any traditional idea of feminism yelling at me that it was outdated and that they supported "equalism" instead. When I asked what the difference was, they basically said they didn't want to exclude men. I thought, fine, whatever. That is actually what feminism is about. Equal access to opportunity, regardless of sex. Then, I noticed my girls were caught up in social media and their self esteem plummeted...self loathing increased. Anxiety. Depression. Eating disorders. And then, in 2020 (in my home) the genderbread BS errupted. Somehow, between 1990 and 2015, women's bodies and sexuality were hijacked or colonized or weaponized. Pick your metaphor. Now, women are bigots if they want to protect title 9 or preserve female only spaces from men? I wish someone would explain to me exactly how women keep getting sandbagged.
Eloquently put! I also have two grown daughters, age 37 and 41. We don't talk about my feminism but I know they consider it outdated. I think they see trans ideology as gay rights 2.0, and that born this way has morphed into borni n the wrong body. However I also have two granddaughters who are in elementary school in big cities, and it's only a matter of time before their entire class will be required to call Charley Charlotte, and that Charlotte will be using the girls' locker room. Not sure if that will change my daughters' minds about who is a woman.
It's really sad that our daughters, mine included, are being misled by the Big Trans bandwagon. My daughter is 34 and she seems to think transvestitism is some new invention the old fogeys don't understand, and we're out to harass them. She brought up a friend/acquaintance male?/female? who takes weekly injections and asked why I'm bothered by this person. I told her the only way I would even think about this person for one second is if he or she is going into schools and manipulating children, or if it's a male and his handmaidens trying to obliterate female sports. I don't give free rent space in my head to adults (male or female) who want to sew plastic balls in their chests or do other mutilating surgery and hormones on their own time and money. She just doesn't get it, but I'm hoping when she becomes a mother that will change.
I’ve found level of education is not necessarily directly proportional to fundamental intelligence. Then there’s the misogynistic females who will leave tread marks on women’s backs to show their support for deranged males. I want a future for the young and I will not stop fighting these lunatics.
I immediately punted that person from my social circle. What frightens me is how the media continues to masslight (gaslight en masse) everyone into believing that gender critical feminists are the enemy rather than old school feminists doing what we've always done...protect women and girls from predatory and unfair laws/abuse.
We've allowed the word feminist to get away from us and be abused by both men and women. By definition, a feminist is gender critical. Those women who claim to be feminists yet support destroying female sports and private spaces are not feminists. Then there are the men and women who throw everything in the kitchen sink: feminists despise men, homemakers, children, etc., etc., and are responsible for every evil that ever befell the world. I can remember the fear generated from the get-go in the 60's and 70's, with girls and women who would knee-jerk state that they weren't feminists if it came up in conversation. Misogynistic men and their handmaidens made it a dirty word. I claim it very loudly!
Bingo. The sad truth is that this would not have gotten to this ridiculous extreme - where women have literally lost their sex-based rights and single-sex spaces and sports - if not for the acquiescence of other women, ESPECIALLY women on the left. These "progressive women" are addicted to their compulsive virtue-signaling, and positioning themselves as "kind and inclusive".
In reality they lack the spine to stand up for themselves and other women (even their own daughters, ffs) . They're terrified of being labeled as a "bigot" or terf in their peer group, and nervous that angry leftist males steeped in their own barely-concealed misogyny won't approve of them.
On one hand I understand that most of us females were raised this way, programmed to be "nice and kind" no matter what, and never make anyone uncomfortable. It's challenging to see and overcome such early conditioning, and many don't even want to anyway. They see this as the way we "should" be. (Of course men are rarely, if ever, held to this standard).
On the other hand, it's still frustrating as hell and infuriating to see so many women ignore the well-being and rights of other women, in order to get their pat on the head from the manipulative, narcissistic males who want to invade our spaces and strip us of our rights. Even if many women don't see that this is what's happening.
I'm sure this will upset some, but this is the opinion I've come to after many years of observing what has happened to women's rights, and to the orgs that used to support women's issues - and now you can't even find the word WOMAN on their websites. And these are orgs with women at the helm.
What Holder is REALLY arguing for is 3 categories of entrants: (1) competitive males, (2) competitive females, (3) "participants". When signing up to enter an event, anyone who enters the "participant" category would not be asked about sex (or age, or anything else). BUT, if someone wants to enter the "competitive females" category, that person should be ... wait for it ... FEMALE.
An alternative, offered by many (including me many years ago), is to have a "women's" category and an "open" category. Again -- the "women's" category would be limited to females. To enter the "open" category, there would be no need to indicate one's sex, or age, or anything else.
Basically -- any time there is a reason for a separate "women's" category, then only females should be eligible to participate in that category. Anything else is simply more erasure of women.
Maybe. But I know many runners who don't consider themselves competitive but who are super stoked about winning their age group or even being fifth in their age group as opposed to sixth or 20th. Even someone who finishes 248th in the women's category would be pissed off if she knew someone ahead of her was male. I think Holder is over-estimating how little runners care about fairness, and confusing it with the fact that women are not aware they are victims of unfairness.
I went out for a run, heh, and thought about this some more. If Running USA really thinks 90% of people just want to participate, they should recommend that race directors just have a race—no categories. Not for sex, age, para ability, nothing. BUT Running USA would have to be honest and drop any virtue signalling about inclusion and being welcoming.. Maybe people would be satisfied with participation. Maybe they wouldn't care if the winner was always going to be a young male and that's the only person who was celebrated.. But Running USA is being dishonest right now. They're claiming a welcoming and inclusive environment when in fact self ID is neither welcoming nor inclusive nor fair for women
I agree -- with every point you make in this comment. Running USA should sponsor "fun runs" without ANY categories. BUT -- if there ARE male and female categories (whatever the level of competition -- from novice through elite), then the female category should be limited to females. And as for the policy that is being followed in some races of including a "non-binary" category -- that is beyond farcical. Just have "female" and "open" -- or fun runs without any categories at all.
I wish this was fully available for the world to read. It's a statement from the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science that basically says, bring back the cheek swab and define male (XY) and female (XX) with any DSDs considered individually. Seems like the fairest and simplest way to handle all this. How and why hormone levels ever became the basis for competition is silly. Doping is doping. There are natural ranges for each sex. Any male suppressing levels or any female increasing levels should be discouraged for competitive sports and considered doping. Have an open category for those living in gender la-la land.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona's ban on transgender girls participating in girls' sports is unconstitutional, rejecting claims that the ban is necessary for fair competition. The decision, which many expected from the liberal judges on the 9th Circuit, allows two transgender girls on hormone blockers to participate in girls' sports while the case proceeds. The court found that the ban applies indiscriminately, without considering individual circumstances, and that there is no evidence suggesting the boys have a physical advantage. The ruling highlights that the law discriminates based on transgender status and overrides previous policies that assessed cases individually. Arizona schools chief Tom Horne, who criticized the decision, argued that the 9th Circuit is notoriously left-leaning and vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Just saw this. Ugh. There is of course heaps of evidence, both from scientific studies and observations from the eons of teachers and parents and kids who have ever lived, that boys have physical advantages from birth. I wrote about it here, https://www.thefemalecategory.com/p/if-a-boy-chemically-prevents-puberty. To say nothing of the fact that a middle or high schooler on puberty blockers is an uncontrolled experiment
Someone needs to make the transhausen by proxy argument against the parents that do this to their children. The parents need to be outted and shamed. Not the kids. The kids are victims of their pathological parents.
You’re right in the case of the very young kids, who seem to be overwhelmingly male and proto gay. Also baffling are the affirming parents of teens who decide to be ‘trans’ for some imagined social gain, or even athletic gain as in the case of boys competing for girls’ state championships. Just know there is a silent sea of parents coming privately unglued by their rage and frustration at all the deranged actors in this godforsaken drama.These parents are called ‘bigots’ and ‘right wing extremists’ by the cowards in media, and that gives the other cowards, like Sarah’s correspondent here, permission to tune them (us) out. No one wants to hear.
This is often suggested. Two things: 1) women are sometimes punished for refusing to compete, and best case, men win and women lose; and 2) in most cases, like a mass participation road race, women don't know if there are men who entered as female
It’s wild how many people think women’s sports are irrelevant. I had a confrontation with a (female) friend who literally yelled BFD at me followed by “trans girls are girls.” She is an adult. With daughters. Went to Stanford. Wtf.
I am beyond baffled by this. Internalized misogyny? Makes them look progressive? Progressive women often give two things that are objectively harmful to women a pass—pornography and gender ideology. They know that to confront that they'd have to confront the very basis of patriarchy, prioritizing of men. And that's a difficult and dangerous place to be
I went to a women's college. I still consider myself an old school feminist (women are not property of men, and should be able to open a bank account or live unmarried, have their own spaces/colleges/sports/healthcare, no need for anyone's permission, and of course, that freedom includes living a more traditional way free of home violence). I started to notice something was happening to ideas around feminism when my own daughters were becoming teenagers. They got angry with any traditional idea of feminism yelling at me that it was outdated and that they supported "equalism" instead. When I asked what the difference was, they basically said they didn't want to exclude men. I thought, fine, whatever. That is actually what feminism is about. Equal access to opportunity, regardless of sex. Then, I noticed my girls were caught up in social media and their self esteem plummeted...self loathing increased. Anxiety. Depression. Eating disorders. And then, in 2020 (in my home) the genderbread BS errupted. Somehow, between 1990 and 2015, women's bodies and sexuality were hijacked or colonized or weaponized. Pick your metaphor. Now, women are bigots if they want to protect title 9 or preserve female only spaces from men? I wish someone would explain to me exactly how women keep getting sandbagged.
Eloquently put! I also have two grown daughters, age 37 and 41. We don't talk about my feminism but I know they consider it outdated. I think they see trans ideology as gay rights 2.0, and that born this way has morphed into borni n the wrong body. However I also have two granddaughters who are in elementary school in big cities, and it's only a matter of time before their entire class will be required to call Charley Charlotte, and that Charlotte will be using the girls' locker room. Not sure if that will change my daughters' minds about who is a woman.
It's really sad that our daughters, mine included, are being misled by the Big Trans bandwagon. My daughter is 34 and she seems to think transvestitism is some new invention the old fogeys don't understand, and we're out to harass them. She brought up a friend/acquaintance male?/female? who takes weekly injections and asked why I'm bothered by this person. I told her the only way I would even think about this person for one second is if he or she is going into schools and manipulating children, or if it's a male and his handmaidens trying to obliterate female sports. I don't give free rent space in my head to adults (male or female) who want to sew plastic balls in their chests or do other mutilating surgery and hormones on their own time and money. She just doesn't get it, but I'm hoping when she becomes a mother that will change.
I’ve found level of education is not necessarily directly proportional to fundamental intelligence. Then there’s the misogynistic females who will leave tread marks on women’s backs to show their support for deranged males. I want a future for the young and I will not stop fighting these lunatics.
I immediately punted that person from my social circle. What frightens me is how the media continues to masslight (gaslight en masse) everyone into believing that gender critical feminists are the enemy rather than old school feminists doing what we've always done...protect women and girls from predatory and unfair laws/abuse.
We've allowed the word feminist to get away from us and be abused by both men and women. By definition, a feminist is gender critical. Those women who claim to be feminists yet support destroying female sports and private spaces are not feminists. Then there are the men and women who throw everything in the kitchen sink: feminists despise men, homemakers, children, etc., etc., and are responsible for every evil that ever befell the world. I can remember the fear generated from the get-go in the 60's and 70's, with girls and women who would knee-jerk state that they weren't feminists if it came up in conversation. Misogynistic men and their handmaidens made it a dirty word. I claim it very loudly!
Bingo. The sad truth is that this would not have gotten to this ridiculous extreme - where women have literally lost their sex-based rights and single-sex spaces and sports - if not for the acquiescence of other women, ESPECIALLY women on the left. These "progressive women" are addicted to their compulsive virtue-signaling, and positioning themselves as "kind and inclusive".
In reality they lack the spine to stand up for themselves and other women (even their own daughters, ffs) . They're terrified of being labeled as a "bigot" or terf in their peer group, and nervous that angry leftist males steeped in their own barely-concealed misogyny won't approve of them.
On one hand I understand that most of us females were raised this way, programmed to be "nice and kind" no matter what, and never make anyone uncomfortable. It's challenging to see and overcome such early conditioning, and many don't even want to anyway. They see this as the way we "should" be. (Of course men are rarely, if ever, held to this standard).
On the other hand, it's still frustrating as hell and infuriating to see so many women ignore the well-being and rights of other women, in order to get their pat on the head from the manipulative, narcissistic males who want to invade our spaces and strip us of our rights. Even if many women don't see that this is what's happening.
I'm sure this will upset some, but this is the opinion I've come to after many years of observing what has happened to women's rights, and to the orgs that used to support women's issues - and now you can't even find the word WOMAN on their websites. And these are orgs with women at the helm.
Yes to everything you stated!
People just love lying to themselves, especially when it gives them social credit.
What Holder is REALLY arguing for is 3 categories of entrants: (1) competitive males, (2) competitive females, (3) "participants". When signing up to enter an event, anyone who enters the "participant" category would not be asked about sex (or age, or anything else). BUT, if someone wants to enter the "competitive females" category, that person should be ... wait for it ... FEMALE.
An alternative, offered by many (including me many years ago), is to have a "women's" category and an "open" category. Again -- the "women's" category would be limited to females. To enter the "open" category, there would be no need to indicate one's sex, or age, or anything else.
Basically -- any time there is a reason for a separate "women's" category, then only females should be eligible to participate in that category. Anything else is simply more erasure of women.
Some further thoughts on this issue:
https://carolinacurmudgeon.substack.com/p/good-and-bad-arguments-for-permitting
Maybe. But I know many runners who don't consider themselves competitive but who are super stoked about winning their age group or even being fifth in their age group as opposed to sixth or 20th. Even someone who finishes 248th in the women's category would be pissed off if she knew someone ahead of her was male. I think Holder is over-estimating how little runners care about fairness, and confusing it with the fact that women are not aware they are victims of unfairness.
I went out for a run, heh, and thought about this some more. If Running USA really thinks 90% of people just want to participate, they should recommend that race directors just have a race—no categories. Not for sex, age, para ability, nothing. BUT Running USA would have to be honest and drop any virtue signalling about inclusion and being welcoming.. Maybe people would be satisfied with participation. Maybe they wouldn't care if the winner was always going to be a young male and that's the only person who was celebrated.. But Running USA is being dishonest right now. They're claiming a welcoming and inclusive environment when in fact self ID is neither welcoming nor inclusive nor fair for women
I agree -- with every point you make in this comment. Running USA should sponsor "fun runs" without ANY categories. BUT -- if there ARE male and female categories (whatever the level of competition -- from novice through elite), then the female category should be limited to females. And as for the policy that is being followed in some races of including a "non-binary" category -- that is beyond farcical. Just have "female" and "open" -- or fun runs without any categories at all.
I wish this was fully available for the world to read. It's a statement from the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science that basically says, bring back the cheek swab and define male (XY) and female (XX) with any DSDs considered individually. Seems like the fairest and simplest way to handle all this. How and why hormone levels ever became the basis for competition is silly. Doping is doping. There are natural ranges for each sex. Any male suppressing levels or any female increasing levels should be discouraged for competitive sports and considered doping. Have an open category for those living in gender la-la land.
I did write about this, https://www.thefemalecategory.com/p/dear-thomas-bach-two-words-for-youcheek
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/sms.14715?msockid=14b7b94c02486c9e3f55ad9303176d1b
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona's ban on transgender girls participating in girls' sports is unconstitutional, rejecting claims that the ban is necessary for fair competition. The decision, which many expected from the liberal judges on the 9th Circuit, allows two transgender girls on hormone blockers to participate in girls' sports while the case proceeds. The court found that the ban applies indiscriminately, without considering individual circumstances, and that there is no evidence suggesting the boys have a physical advantage. The ruling highlights that the law discriminates based on transgender status and overrides previous policies that assessed cases individually. Arizona schools chief Tom Horne, who criticized the decision, argued that the 9th Circuit is notoriously left-leaning and vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
https://archive.ph/9Bz9y#selection-3643.0-3999.234
Just saw this. Ugh. There is of course heaps of evidence, both from scientific studies and observations from the eons of teachers and parents and kids who have ever lived, that boys have physical advantages from birth. I wrote about it here, https://www.thefemalecategory.com/p/if-a-boy-chemically-prevents-puberty. To say nothing of the fact that a middle or high schooler on puberty blockers is an uncontrolled experiment
Someone needs to make the transhausen by proxy argument against the parents that do this to their children. The parents need to be outted and shamed. Not the kids. The kids are victims of their pathological parents.
You’re right in the case of the very young kids, who seem to be overwhelmingly male and proto gay. Also baffling are the affirming parents of teens who decide to be ‘trans’ for some imagined social gain, or even athletic gain as in the case of boys competing for girls’ state championships. Just know there is a silent sea of parents coming privately unglued by their rage and frustration at all the deranged actors in this godforsaken drama.These parents are called ‘bigots’ and ‘right wing extremists’ by the cowards in media, and that gives the other cowards, like Sarah’s correspondent here, permission to tune them (us) out. No one wants to hear.
If this wasn't threatening my own kid, I would probably still have my head in the sand, too. I feel like we've all been punked.
Keep the pressure on them, they are cowards, they will crack.
When are the peaceful protests of this mad form of allyship going to begin?
You gotta start one in your hometown Ollie :)
Seems like the only effective weapon would for women to pull out of competitions that includes men. All the women would have to leave.
This is often suggested. Two things: 1) women are sometimes punished for refusing to compete, and best case, men win and women lose; and 2) in most cases, like a mass participation road race, women don't know if there are men who entered as female