Why is it so dang hard to keep males out of female sports?
Massachusetts shows how to twist Title IX
By now you’ve probably seen the horrific video, blessedly grainy here, of the female field hockey player who lost some teeth when a male player’s shot hit her in the face. This, in a week where trans-identified boys are running and winning in girls’ cross country races in Washington and Maine. And this is just at the high school level. The heck?! Why is it so dang hard to keep males out of female sports?
In this case, there is just so much blame, so many things went wrong before that boy ever launched the ball into her incisors. Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) can be blamed for twisting the tenets of Title IX, nondiscrimination on the basis of sex, to allow boys to play on a girls’ team if the school does not offer a boys’ team. In Massachusetts, field hockey is generally only a girls’ sport. Title IX was written to provide “educational opportunities” to the underrepresented sex, which has historically been women and girls. At least that was the intent. Title IX says nothing about sports at all. But since the authors did not specify nondiscrimination against women, Title IX has been twisted to allow the underrepresented sex, in this case males in field hockey, to participate in female sports. Is this legal? Yes, and trans-identified male students have used Title IX as a defense to argue for inclusion on female teams. Is it ethical? Is it in the spirit of Title IX? Probably not, as women’s sports still has not reached parity with men’s. And since Title IX still allows for sex-segregated sports. The boy who launched the field hockey shot is a 4-year varsity player. Long before he ever injured another player, he has been taking a spot on the varsity squad and taking playing time that should have gone to a girl.
Discrimination has gotten a bad name, but we discriminate all the time in sports, for fairness. We discriminate against adults in the junior classes, and against heavyweights in the flyweight division. World Athletics has managed to say, without using the damning word “discrimination,” that they are discriminating against males who have gone through male puberty from competing in the female category. Though there is plenty of scientific evidence to show that high school boys should not compete with girls for reasons of safety and fairness, state sports associations still have rules like MIAA’s on the books. Why?
Blame could be cast on the male player’s parents. The median household income in Swampscott, where the male player lived, is $114,086. I’m making a guess here, but when the progressive middle class white NPR-listening parents heard their son express interest in field hockey as a freshman, they said, Sure, go for it. Because progressive middle class white parents always say yes, never no. The thought is to show your kid he can do anything he wants to. Because as a white male, he actually can. It’s legal. Maybe even stunning and brave, breaking barriers, to play with the girls. To show that males and females are the same, that old sex difference thing being antiquated, calcified. It appears that this player’s parents didn’t steer him instead to the many other fall sports that have boys’ teams—football, soccer, lacrosse, cross country. Club sports like ultimate frisbee. When you count theater, robotics, math team, debate, students are so spoiled for choice in extracurricular activities, it seems willful to find one in which a boy would have to compete on a girls team. It seems like these parents enabled their son through four years of taking a spot on a girls’ team simply because they could. The rules say so. It’s just stunningly thoughtless of girls.
And finally, the student himself could be blamed. Other boys, looking for an activity, would likely discount field hockey because it’s a “girls’ sport.” That’s a boundary they’re not willing to transgress, like using the girls’ restroom. Boys, even in high school, are aware of their sports advantage. Even if they, in fact, are beaten by some of the more athletic girls, the stigma against competing against girls remains. It seems like cheating, especially in such a physical game as field hockey. Most boys are not willing to cross the sex boundary, but this boy was. Apparently he was the only boy on the girls’ varsity team for four years. He must have been acutely aware that he was taking a spot on the varsity team and taking playing time from girls. It’s certain other boys in the school made sure he never felt like one of the girls. And despite progressive brainwashing, there’s no way he felt like one of the girls either. Yet he’s been willing to ignore the stigma and transgress sex boundaries for no reason other than that he wanted to. Because no one told him he shouldn’t. Because he could.
And that’s why we can’t keep males out of female sports. At every level, we can’t say no to men and boys.
Agreed. The reason this transgression doesn’t explode is because 99% of males see zero status in competing with girls. But a trans identity opens that door. I accept no boy joins a female team because he wants to defeat girls. I accept it is because society has taught him he can be freer to express his softer sides than male stereotypes allow. We need to expand models for boys as boys, rather than a false identity as a girl as trans ideology offers.
And trans sports open an ugly door, where telling a boy he can only show a softer side “as a girl” leads to a statistical advantage of strength and speed that can’t be ignored, even if that advantage doesn’t lead to always winning. It is still cheating but the ideology can’t admit that.
Funnily in elementary school, field day I only have two blue ribbons. Both in jump roping. I purposely didn’t enter in 4th grade, despite being good at it in private, because I thought it was a girl’s sport. But 5th grade they separated the boys so I entered and won.
Then in 6th grade they combined sexes again, but the public taboo against boys was broken, so I competed at beat the known best female jumper in my own class to qualify for the final interclass round. She was second best, but got nothing, because the best boy jumper was me and I was in her class. I never felt guilty for winning. I also knew on another day she could have won as well.
Elementary school may or may not be fair for boys and girls to compete. In general youth coordination I might suggest advantage to girls. My only advantage was I practiced a long time in secret for my own challenges. Sports you don’t need any rivals are my kind of sports.
Anyway, co-ed sports can be great, where it is safe, and single sex sports can be great where one sex won’t show up because of sex stereotypes.
But we can’t be calling boys girls as the reason they can compete. That is insane to me top to bottom, child abuse level lies. We must stop making sex/gender based stereotypes the basis of identities.