A big thank you to David and Hayden for inviting me to write about this, and for everyone who's responded. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts (in a refreshing change to when I usually write about this stuff)
I also don't think it's a coincidence that Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting come from smaller, less powerful nations. The big name TERFs don't want to focus on Katie Ledecky because they know it would be a PR disaster and give away the whole game. It's easier to make it Us vs Them when you can also classify Them as "foreign".
Rowling's transformation from beloved author to Chief Genital Inspector has been so shocking to see. She's become the Dolores Umbridge of gender.
The thing that just always stuns me is it's ALL they talk about. It's all JK Rowling's timeline is. Just this stuff. That's it! What happened to your other interests? Your life is just *this* now?!
There was a convicted child rapist on the Dutch volleyball team. Not a single tweet about him.
It makes me morbidly curious about what she's like in real life. Is it possible to have a conversation with her that doesn't inevitably circle back, in some way, to trans people?
If she's anything like our Q people here in the states, nope. That is literally their only contribution to any dialogue they have, online or in person. I imagine she's not getting invited to much these days outside of her local TERF fan club events.
How can someone who can have/do almost anything they want, and who wrote amazing stories about prejudice and fear-mongering be so hateful? It’s terribly sad.
Dolores herself was simply a tool for scared little fascists and an obvious opportunist without any personal value or power of her own, much like Rowling.
Don't forget Caster Semenya of South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya), from a few years prior. A lot of these feel like people who have been used to winning lost, and are looking for an excuse that they can pin on something other than the opponent being better.
None of this came up in 1988 with the eastern block countries, especially East Germany, whose representatives in things like shot put. They didn't have women's weightlifting then, but I remember seeing some participants who looked like they'd been pharmaceutically enhanced and didn't look like the others.
So much of this controversy stems from a test administered after Iman beat a Russian boxer. Russia being the cheaters they are utilized a bs gender test to say she wasn’t a biological female. This is nothing but Russian propaganda being spouted by the biggest transphobe in the game. If I was a petty bitch I would say JK Rowling is worried about aging and she needs constant approval from men so she has pivoted to putting down other women for not being feminine enough. Oh wait, I totally am that petty.
Every couple years we get to hear the crazy people arguing about genetic advantages and the sex of the athletes, but we never get to hear about how unfair Michael Phelps' gils are, or how that really tall basketball player has a total advantage over the average person.
Is the Olympics not just a eugenics battle??? What do they even want! (Obviously they don't actually care about the sports or anything, they just use this as an opportunity to be shitheads on gender issues)
What's wild to me about the sports industry in general is the fact that the athletic support (erm, you know - nutrition and doctors, not cups) has advanced so much in the last thirty years that being surprised that a woman is dominating in sports tells me that you know nothing about that sport or how athletes prepare these days.
And ultimately, it's just fucking sexism. I'm sorry that your feefees hurt by the idea that women literally don't need you to protect them anymore but get over yourself already. Trying to drag down the rest of us to your ridiculously low bar of understanding is not how I want to spend my time, losers.
ps. to my trans homies, I honestly don't know how you remain so patient through all of this. <3
pps. Black mold can cause mental health issues, just saying. Someone get that psychopath a dehumidifier already.
Upcoming rant. Alongside the appalling behaviour around the women boxers and swimmer, there’s also the millions of dickheads, including mainstream media, focusing on what male athletes have under their lycra. If that pole vaulter had knocked the pole with his knee there would have been no comment but suddenly the headlines are all focused on his ‘baguette’. It must be mortifying for him. British athlete Linford Christie spoke out way back about how distressing it has been when he was breaking track records but the UK tabloids were all focused on ‘Linford’s lunchbox’. If we commented on people’s bodies in that way in the office we’d get sacked for harassment so why should it be acceptable to do it to high performance athletes on a global scale?
The greatest threat to women’s sport isn’t trans women. Abusive (mostly male) coaches, doctors, organisers, sporting administrators etc etc have caused more damage to women in sport than a trans woman has ever thought to.
Great point from Ross about how for these people it's all about the journey rather than the destination - there's no desired future state with them, there's just a general stirring of outrage that they live off, and so of course if they do get what they want they will immediately switch the goalposts to ensure further clicks and attention. A weird kind of grift to become obsessed by when you're a billionaire, but I digress.
It didn't take a genius to see that transphobia, far from empowering and protecting so-called "real" women, would ultimately victimise all women. Why on earth would any young girl choose to play sport in Ohio or any of the various other US states that have passed bills to compel them to provide proof of female genitalia? Well-played, Rowling, your outrage is now fuelling genital checks for women. What a victory.
Oh I am heart-sickened to hear this! It’s child abuse to check genitalia for sports participation. As you say what is forged as the protection of women abuses girls and women.
I think of my grandchildren, our collective grandchildren and my heart hurts.
The nail was hit squarely on the head. It’s clearly not about anything other than finding an out group to pile on. No secure person does this. This is screaming from the highest rooftop “look at this person, not at me!” Just more generalized misogyny to remind us women can’t look, act, or live a certain way. A bunch of sad miserable people trying to drag us down there with them.
Just try to remember they need the most compassion, as hard as it is to actually give. Otherwise, we become both what they are afraid of, and we make them the out group, keeping this feud alive. We strike back, then they have to strike back.
You know, people that said these women weren’t women in boxing should check out Cris Cyborg in the UFC. She has masculine features, is a woman by birth and can beat a lot of guys if they chose to fight her. You can tell no of these people actually watch combat sports and they are only looking at their features. It’s appalling.
Same shit different day of being female on planet earth. I sincerely hope these two great fighters know how amazing they are and recognise that it is the very very small who come after them based on their appearance. Love them (and iconic Ilona Maher) 💪🏽! Great piece
A lot of us have known our whole lives that "women who transgress the rules of femininity" are loathed by all the bigots of the world, be it because of gender, race, sexuality or just Western beauty standards they consider us lesser. A hell of a lot of people need to stop and think about the times in school they made fun of a girl because she had hairy legs/arms/face/whatever, was too fat, tall, angular, her nose was too big, her frame too broad and recognise their complicity in this current cultural moment.
Thing is, if the Italian opponent Angela Carini who cried because Imane Khelif "hits too hard" in the international competition of being the best at hitting really hard had been in a match against a blonde white woman and won, then she would be the one being trans-vestigated by the hate mob. Because the hate mob MUST ALWAYS have a hierarchy. That's the whole point of their lives of hate, there must be this spectrum of superiority.
Thanks for a great article Ross! I grew up as a competitive cyclist, and because the women's cycling fields were so small at most races my teammates and I often raced against men's fields. I can't speak to any other sports, but at least in cycling where the races were often 50 miles or longer, the race outcome does not simply come down to physical ability. There are so many other factors, mental strength, skill, tactics, nutrition, equipment, etc that I'm always surprised when people get so hyperfocused on the physical factors (the "experts" seem to come out of the woodwork every four years during the Olympics...) . My fellow female athletes and I often beat the men, simply because we focused on all the factors that go into being a good cyclist, instead of just the physical component. It's really infuriating to see people diminish a woman's athletic accomplishments to coming down to just physical ability. It takes so much more than that to be a winning athlete!
I’ve just finished the fantastic 9-part podcast series about the 1936 Berlin Olympics and how it led to the Games we have now (of course it ranges MUCH wider than that) by Malcolm Gladwell and the Revisionist Histories team.
If you don’t think the Olympic movement was DAF before you will after listening to this.
A big thank you to David and Hayden for inviting me to write about this, and for everyone who's responded. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts (in a refreshing change to when I usually write about this stuff)
Very, very glad to have you here.
Ross, gorgeously written and all, I love the razor-sharp way you cut through the bullshit.
BUT your profile pic only features one dog and I am deeply disappointed. You bio promises TWO dogs!!
I also don't think it's a coincidence that Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting come from smaller, less powerful nations. The big name TERFs don't want to focus on Katie Ledecky because they know it would be a PR disaster and give away the whole game. It's easier to make it Us vs Them when you can also classify Them as "foreign".
Rowling's transformation from beloved author to Chief Genital Inspector has been so shocking to see. She's become the Dolores Umbridge of gender.
The thing that just always stuns me is it's ALL they talk about. It's all JK Rowling's timeline is. Just this stuff. That's it! What happened to your other interests? Your life is just *this* now?!
There was a convicted child rapist on the Dutch volleyball team. Not a single tweet about him.
It makes me morbidly curious about what she's like in real life. Is it possible to have a conversation with her that doesn't inevitably circle back, in some way, to trans people?
If she's anything like our Q people here in the states, nope. That is literally their only contribution to any dialogue they have, online or in person. I imagine she's not getting invited to much these days outside of her local TERF fan club events.
How can someone who can have/do almost anything they want, and who wrote amazing stories about prejudice and fear-mongering be so hateful? It’s terribly sad.
Dolores herself was simply a tool for scared little fascists and an obvious opportunist without any personal value or power of her own, much like Rowling.
Definitely autobiographical.
Don't forget Caster Semenya of South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya), from a few years prior. A lot of these feel like people who have been used to winning lost, and are looking for an excuse that they can pin on something other than the opponent being better.
None of this came up in 1988 with the eastern block countries, especially East Germany, whose representatives in things like shot put. They didn't have women's weightlifting then, but I remember seeing some participants who looked like they'd been pharmaceutically enhanced and didn't look like the others.
So much of this controversy stems from a test administered after Iman beat a Russian boxer. Russia being the cheaters they are utilized a bs gender test to say she wasn’t a biological female. This is nothing but Russian propaganda being spouted by the biggest transphobe in the game. If I was a petty bitch I would say JK Rowling is worried about aging and she needs constant approval from men so she has pivoted to putting down other women for not being feminine enough. Oh wait, I totally am that petty.
JKR - absolute proof that money after a certain point absolutely does not bring happiness.
Every couple years we get to hear the crazy people arguing about genetic advantages and the sex of the athletes, but we never get to hear about how unfair Michael Phelps' gils are, or how that really tall basketball player has a total advantage over the average person.
Is the Olympics not just a eugenics battle??? What do they even want! (Obviously they don't actually care about the sports or anything, they just use this as an opportunity to be shitheads on gender issues)
I think "they" just want publicity and attention. Look at me, look at me (said in my best Kath & Kim voice).
It's easier to get people onboard with making a marginalized group suffer if you can give them the fantasy that it's for a "good" reason.
What's wild to me about the sports industry in general is the fact that the athletic support (erm, you know - nutrition and doctors, not cups) has advanced so much in the last thirty years that being surprised that a woman is dominating in sports tells me that you know nothing about that sport or how athletes prepare these days.
And ultimately, it's just fucking sexism. I'm sorry that your feefees hurt by the idea that women literally don't need you to protect them anymore but get over yourself already. Trying to drag down the rest of us to your ridiculously low bar of understanding is not how I want to spend my time, losers.
ps. to my trans homies, I honestly don't know how you remain so patient through all of this. <3
pps. Black mold can cause mental health issues, just saying. Someone get that psychopath a dehumidifier already.
Thanks Ross, for a really good succinct piece of writing. Off to check out your intersection link.
He is one of the good ones, and very happy to have him here. And thanks to subscribers like you - I can even pay him! (thank you!)
Upcoming rant. Alongside the appalling behaviour around the women boxers and swimmer, there’s also the millions of dickheads, including mainstream media, focusing on what male athletes have under their lycra. If that pole vaulter had knocked the pole with his knee there would have been no comment but suddenly the headlines are all focused on his ‘baguette’. It must be mortifying for him. British athlete Linford Christie spoke out way back about how distressing it has been when he was breaking track records but the UK tabloids were all focused on ‘Linford’s lunchbox’. If we commented on people’s bodies in that way in the office we’d get sacked for harassment so why should it be acceptable to do it to high performance athletes on a global scale?
The greatest threat to women’s sport isn’t trans women. Abusive (mostly male) coaches, doctors, organisers, sporting administrators etc etc have caused more damage to women in sport than a trans woman has ever thought to.
Great point from Ross about how for these people it's all about the journey rather than the destination - there's no desired future state with them, there's just a general stirring of outrage that they live off, and so of course if they do get what they want they will immediately switch the goalposts to ensure further clicks and attention. A weird kind of grift to become obsessed by when you're a billionaire, but I digress.
It didn't take a genius to see that transphobia, far from empowering and protecting so-called "real" women, would ultimately victimise all women. Why on earth would any young girl choose to play sport in Ohio or any of the various other US states that have passed bills to compel them to provide proof of female genitalia? Well-played, Rowling, your outrage is now fuelling genital checks for women. What a victory.
Oh I am heart-sickened to hear this! It’s child abuse to check genitalia for sports participation. As you say what is forged as the protection of women abuses girls and women.
I think of my grandchildren, our collective grandchildren and my heart hurts.
The nail was hit squarely on the head. It’s clearly not about anything other than finding an out group to pile on. No secure person does this. This is screaming from the highest rooftop “look at this person, not at me!” Just more generalized misogyny to remind us women can’t look, act, or live a certain way. A bunch of sad miserable people trying to drag us down there with them.
Just try to remember they need the most compassion, as hard as it is to actually give. Otherwise, we become both what they are afraid of, and we make them the out group, keeping this feud alive. We strike back, then they have to strike back.
You know, people that said these women weren’t women in boxing should check out Cris Cyborg in the UFC. She has masculine features, is a woman by birth and can beat a lot of guys if they chose to fight her. You can tell no of these people actually watch combat sports and they are only looking at their features. It’s appalling.
Same shit different day of being female on planet earth. I sincerely hope these two great fighters know how amazing they are and recognise that it is the very very small who come after them based on their appearance. Love them (and iconic Ilona Maher) 💪🏽! Great piece
A lot of us have known our whole lives that "women who transgress the rules of femininity" are loathed by all the bigots of the world, be it because of gender, race, sexuality or just Western beauty standards they consider us lesser. A hell of a lot of people need to stop and think about the times in school they made fun of a girl because she had hairy legs/arms/face/whatever, was too fat, tall, angular, her nose was too big, her frame too broad and recognise their complicity in this current cultural moment.
Thing is, if the Italian opponent Angela Carini who cried because Imane Khelif "hits too hard" in the international competition of being the best at hitting really hard had been in a match against a blonde white woman and won, then she would be the one being trans-vestigated by the hate mob. Because the hate mob MUST ALWAYS have a hierarchy. That's the whole point of their lives of hate, there must be this spectrum of superiority.
Superiority is a helluva drug, that's for sure.
Thanks for a great article Ross! I grew up as a competitive cyclist, and because the women's cycling fields were so small at most races my teammates and I often raced against men's fields. I can't speak to any other sports, but at least in cycling where the races were often 50 miles or longer, the race outcome does not simply come down to physical ability. There are so many other factors, mental strength, skill, tactics, nutrition, equipment, etc that I'm always surprised when people get so hyperfocused on the physical factors (the "experts" seem to come out of the woodwork every four years during the Olympics...) . My fellow female athletes and I often beat the men, simply because we focused on all the factors that go into being a good cyclist, instead of just the physical component. It's really infuriating to see people diminish a woman's athletic accomplishments to coming down to just physical ability. It takes so much more than that to be a winning athlete!
I love this comment, Thank you 🌷
A terrific piece of writing. I’m so happy to contribute (financially) to this goodness 👏🏻
I’ve just finished the fantastic 9-part podcast series about the 1936 Berlin Olympics and how it led to the Games we have now (of course it ranges MUCH wider than that) by Malcolm Gladwell and the Revisionist Histories team.
If you don’t think the Olympic movement was DAF before you will after listening to this.