Olympic Equity Inspired by Title IX

 

New Zealand has a powerlifter on their Olympic team named Laurel Hubbard (pictured at right). She used to be a male powerlifter, but transitioned to a woman, and is now a female powerlifter.  Apparently using drugs, but not surgery. Although I hope you’ll forgive me for making little effort to get the details. I’d rather not think about such things. Regardless, as you might imagine, female competitors who happen to be women are not amused. They know they can’t say much without sounding like they’re discriminating against a protected class, but they’re not happy. They get one chance in their life to win a medal, and they would prefer to attempt that by competing against 0ther women.

How to resolve this issue without offending anyone? That’s a toughie, although I have a suggestion.  Just follow the guidance of Title IX – a law that sought to establish gender equity in sports. It required that there be an equal number of athletic scholarships for men and women. Ok, makes sense. So let’s require that there be an equal number of male-to-female transgenders as there are female-to-male transgenders competing.

‘Laurel’ can join the female powerlifting team as soon as someone who used to be a woman qualifies for the male powerlifting team. As long they maintain balance – equity! – then no one can complain. Problem fixed. No conflict. Simple. Gosh, I’m smart.

This is bonkers.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    EJHill (View Comment):

    The IOC now allows 5 times the testosterone naturally found in a biological woman. East Germany hardest hit.

    Because 6 times more would have been too much.

    Obviously. I wonder how much more calcium the guys-posing-as-girls get to have in their bones, how much bulkier their connective tissue can be, etc. I’m sure there are standards for all of that, too.

    Seriously, this is dangerous. I had two sons and a daughter playing soccer and basketball through high school, and there’s simply no parity between the speed and power of the boys versus the girls. My boys bounced off each other in ways that would have broken my daughter’s bones. That advantage is the result of a myriad of modifications to bone and muscle and sinew that years with low testosterone won’t undo.

    Obviously — at least to anyone who is living in the real world.

    @ Henry Racette I find it interesting that people who believe in evolution seem to never believe that men and women are built differently by evolution. It makes sense for men to have bodies built for war and for women to have bodies built for pregnancy.

    Except “science” is not really their master; “science” is their servant.

    Truth should be our master.

    Truth is also their servant.  Which is why it’s whatever they want it to be.

    • #61
  2. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    If Trans is really so important and it’s here to stay, why not just add a third category of sports – Trans? You could even have the two logical divisions: Trans-women’s sports and trans-men’s sports.

    A trans-woman isn’t a woman, otherwise we would call him a “woman”, not a “trans-woman”. So he shouldn’t compete against plain women, as that would be a category error.

    Let this poor confused bastard compete against other trans-women – go nuts dude. That way he won’t be feeling lesser than the males he left behind, or worry about hurting the smaller women he so admires. He can be in his own special category, competeing against other transers who best match his strengths and weaknesses.

    If you make trans women compete only against other trans women, you’re saying that they’re not real women.  The left will never go along with that.

    • #62
  3. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):
    Truth should be our master. 

    How can anything be our master if it doesn’t have volition? 

    • #63
  4. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    The Soviets and East Germans never dreamed that this kind of thing could be done to grab women’s medals. Tell their male bench-warmers in each sport to don a wig, see the team doc, and pick a girl’s name.

    Maybe we should keep separate records for cis- athletes.

    You beat me to it.

    • #64
  5. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Because many of my current and ex gamecock women basketball players are on our Olympic team and because our coach, Dawn Staley, is the coach having taken over for Gino Aureima, I really want them to win gold. However, the WNBA pulled for Democrats in the infamous Georgia election, celebrated BLM, and knelt for the anthem, so another side of me wants them to face a transgender team so they can enjoy the fruits of their political labor. In the end, when team US plays, I will pull for my team and the girls I love and wait for the WNBA to suffer, instead.

    • #65
  6. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    EHerring (View Comment):
     

    Because many of my current and ex gamecock women basketball players are on our Olympic team and because our coach, Dawn Staley, is the coach having taken over for Gino Aureima, I really want them to win gold.

    Not if Shaquilla O’Neal has anything to say about it!

    • #66
  7. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    The Babylon Bee on the topic:

    WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND—100% totally female weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was forced to bid farewell to her Olympic dreams yesterday after a tragic accident left her with a severely lacerated testicle. Hubbard would have been the first transgender woman to compete in the Olympics. 
    [. . .]
    “Sure, there are some biological differences like bone density and muscle strength between the sexes,” Hubbard said. “But none of those gives me an unfair advantage in weightlifting, which is really more about finesse and technique!” 

    Hubbard said while she’s disappointed she won’t be able to live out her Olympic dreams this year, that’s just the way it goes. “Sometimes your testicles get in the way,” Hubbard said. “That’s just something we gals have to deal with.”

    • #67
  8. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    That can’t be true, since if it were true it would be difficult for men who have decided that they are women to share with other women the experience of giving birth to a child.

    But I think I’ve been assured that they can in fact have kids. Pretty sure I read that.

    Now that is just a Monty Python skit.  We agree that men have the *right* to have babies….

    • #68
  9. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    That can’t be true, since if it were true it would be difficult for men who have decided that they are women to share with other women the experience of giving birth to a child.

    But I think I’ve been assured that they can in fact have kids. Pretty sure I read that.

    Now that is just a Monty Python skit. We agree that men have the *right* to have babies….

    Right?

    When life imitates art, and that “art” happens to be a Monty Python sketch, then we can be pretty sure something is broken.

    Know what I mean, Loretta?

    • #69
  10. She Member
    She
    @She

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    Our current rule seems to be that you can’t discriminate on the basis of sex, unless it benefits women, in which case you must.

    Hm.  I suppose that makes sense, if you believe that “benefits” means “tilt the playing field so that women should only compete against other women  in order to make sure that the strongest/best woman wins, without the difficulties of competing against men who would almost always win the circumstance, due to their superior physical strength.”

    If, however, you believe, as I do, that allowing men to compete against women in “women only” sports would damage men by providing them with almost-always-winnable (and therefore illusory, WRT real life) circumstances in which they competed only against biological women, then I don’t really see why it’s discriminatory to set up men-only, and women-only sports events.

     

    • #70
  11. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    She (View Comment):
    If, however, you believe, as I do, that allowing men to compete against women in “women only” sports would damage men by providing them with almost-always-winnable (and therefore illusory, WRT real life)

    Weaken men, enrage women. Win-win for the Left. Feature, not bug. 

    • #71
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    She (View Comment):
    If, however, you believe, as I do, that allowing men to compete against women in “women only” sports would damage men by providing them with almost-always-winnable (and therefore illusory, WRT real life)

    Weaken men, enrage women. Win-win for the Left. Feature, not bug.

    Do men on the left not think women get enraged at them, too?

    • #72
  13. Ammo.com Member
    Ammo.com
    @ammodotcom

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    I think this issue of men competing as women is, more than anything else, why the so-called “trans” movement is a bridge too far, and why it will ultimately bring about the first significant reversal of major cultural progressive policy in my lifetime.

    Of course, I’m an optimist.

    Zoophiles and pedophiles are now actively petitioning to march in pride parades. It will be interesting if they make enough of a stir to warrant the LGBTQ movement’s vocal refusal to include them.

    • #73
  14. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Ammo.com (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    I think this issue of men competing as women is, more than anything else, why the so-called “trans” movement is a bridge too far, and why it will ultimately bring about the first significant reversal of major cultural progressive policy in my lifetime.

    Of course, I’m an optimist.

    Zoophiles and pedophiles are now actively petitioning to march in pride parades. It will be interesting if they make enough of a stir to warrant the LGBTQ movement’s vocal refusal to include them.

    There is a problem with basing your philosophy on French perverts who sideline as intellectuals.

    • #74
  15. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition.  The woman who held those records previously is not happy.  She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete.  Imagine that.

    • #75
  16. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition. The woman who held those records previously is not happy. She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete. Imagine that.

    Yeah, in effect the women are being told to suck it up and be quiet.  Of course, if a man would have said that, he’d be called a knuckle-dragging neanderthal.

    Double standards?  Naw!

    • #76
  17. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition. The woman who held those records previously is not happy. She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete. Imagine that.

    I was thinking this exact same thing. Women should refuse to compete against these guys. Let the trans people race and lift against themselves. They are disgusting and totally lacking in self-respect as far as I am concerned.

    • #77
  18. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    cdor (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition. The woman who held those records previously is not happy. She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete. Imagine that.

    I was thinking this exact same thing. Women should refuse to compete against these guys. Let the trans people race and lift against themselves. They are disgusting and totally lacking in self-respect as far as I am concerned.

    What kind of man gets satisfaction by beating women?

    • #78
  19. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    I’ll be praying that he suffers a hernia during competition. 

    • #79
  20. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition. The woman who held those records previously is not happy. She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete. Imagine that.

    I was thinking this exact same thing. Women should refuse to compete against these guys. Let the trans people race and lift against themselves. They are disgusting and totally lacking in self-respect as far as I am concerned.

    What kind of man gets satisfaction by beating women?

    The French sex perverts on which modern progressivism is intellectually descended. 

    • #80
  21. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition. The woman who held those records previously is not happy. She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete. Imagine that.

    I was thinking this exact same thing. Women should refuse to compete against these guys. Let the trans people race and lift against themselves. They are disgusting and totally lacking in self-respect as far as I am concerned.

    What kind of man gets satisfaction by beating women?

    THIS IS WHAT I DON’T GET. 

    Gaaah. I could totally understand a chick getting satisfaction from succeeding on a dudes’ team, but for heaven’s sake. Someone mentioned Kramer in the kids’ martial arts class — that’s exactly what this is.

    • #81
  22. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    cdor (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    FoxNews has a new story on this matter today.

    Apparently ‘Laurel’ broke all the women’s power lifting records in New Zealand in her first weekend of competition. The woman who held those records previously is not happy. She says that if transgenders are permitted to compete in women’s sports, girls and women won’t want to compete. Imagine that.

    I was thinking this exact same thing. Women should refuse to compete against these guys. Let the trans people race and lift against themselves. They are disgusting and totally lacking in self-respect as far as I am concerned.

    What kind of man gets satisfaction by beating women?

    Exactomundo…which is Spanish for ” I agree totally “

    • #82
  23. KevinKrisher Inactive
    KevinKrisher
    @KevinKrisher

    I am beginning to get a bit jaded with the term “equity.”

    Aside from its specialized meanings in law and commerce, “equity” simply means “fairness.” Virtually everybody will tell you that they are in favor of equity, and I think that virtually everybody is sincere about it.

    The problem is not that people are against fairness, but that it is difficult to agree on the standards or principles of fairness. When someone cites equity as the rationale for some decision, they aren’t really saying anything at all unless they describe the principles that they are using to define it.

    • #83
  24. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    KevinKrisher (View Comment):

    I am beginning to get a bit jaded with the term “equity.”

    Aside from its specialized meanings in law and commerce, “equity” simply means “fairness.” Virtually everybody will tell you that they are in favor of equity, and I think that virtually all of them are sincere.

    The problem is not that people are against fairness, but that it is difficult to agree on the standards or principles of fairness. When someone cites equity as the rationale for some decision, they aren’t really saying anything at all unless they describe the principles that define it.

     

    Strategic ambiguity is an important part of modern progressivism, and “equity” is an example of that. It sounds a lot like “equality,” which in our tradition has always been shorthand for “equality under the law,” the idea that we are all citizens with the same legal and civil rights as anyone else.

    The progressive left has adopted a different definition of “equality,” replacing the idea of equal rights with equality of outcome. Under that interpretation we are not “equal” unless we all enjoy the same opportunities, outcomes, quality of life, etc. This allows disparate impact to be seen as prima facia evidence of injustice: if groups are experiencing different outcomes, it must follow that the individuals making up those groups are not “equal” in the new, progressive sense.

    Enter “equity.” Equity is the mechanism by which we are to remedy the disparity of outcome, the assumed inequality that afflicts our culture. Equity is the apportionment of opportunity — money, admissions, jobs, etc. — based on the alleged injustice that must, it is assumed, be behind disparities of outcome. If board rooms are mostly white, equity involves mandating greater skin-color diversity in board rooms. If college admission tests show one demographic experiencing low marks, equity requires a redesign of the tests, or their simple abandonment, so as to prevent disparate outcomes that are, again, presumed to be evidence of injustice.

    I think it’s probably a mistake to believe that the people who bandy the term about don’t know what they mean by it. I think they mean the elimination of those disparate outcomes they find objectionable through whatever means are at their disposal.

    • #84
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