Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan clinched her first Olympic medal Sunday in front of a crowd that chanted her name at the Paris Games, one day after fellow boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria secured one as well following days of online abuse and intense scrutiny about their participation.
Lin defeated Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria in a women’s 57-kilogram quarterfinal, earning her second straight unanimous decision and advancing to the division’s semifinal round to ensure she will win at least a bronze medal.
Lin and Khelif have been at the center of a clash over gender identity and regulations in sports, as critics have brought up their disqualification from the world championships last year after the banned International Boxing Association claimed they failed unspecified eligibility tests for women’s competition.
This has been and still is one of the most disgusting, misinformation-fraught witch hunts I’ve witnessed in a long while. It’s a real mask off moment for a lot of people claiming to be feminists, who are now frothing at the mouth and misgendering cis women for not living up to their arbitrary standards of “feminine”.
Well said. In addition to these stories demonizing trans people (or in this case, masc-looking cis people) they also fragilize women. We normally celebrate women in combat sports as feminist symbols, but suddenly we can’t stomach these delicate little angels being beat up.
I don’t know a ton about boxing, but in MMA fighters made similar comments about fighting Ronda Rousey, Cyborg, Joanna Jedrzeczyk, and Amanda Nunes. “I’ve never been hit that hard.” “She completely overpowered me.”
We already have a way of separating athletes based on their ability. It’s called competition. Sometimes you’re just outmatched.
This is 100% the point of the outrage. They are demonstrating that just the “potential” of being trans will result in vicious attacks, which signals to actual trans people to hide, even when they don’t have to.
100% correct. One of the most frustrating things with talking women’s sports, imo, is the same as talking about abortion: me personally? I’m not a woman. Never have been. Due in no small part to that I don’t think I have any fuckin business deciding what’s best for women, assigned at birth or otherwise.
I don’t know a lot about boxing either. I’m pretty sure literally anyone competing in Women’s Olympic Boxing could lay me the fuck out. I don’t think what’s in their trunks or what diagnoses any of them may have contribute to that outcome so much as “they’re some of the best people in the world at punching other people”
I was thinking about something this morning… how many women are going to be turned off of sports by finding out that they have some sort of testing, be it genetic testing or genital examination vs. finding out that there’s a chance they might compete against someone who isn’t a “real” woman? Because I think the former. I think being forced to prove you’re a woman is a far bigger way of discouraging girls and women from competing than the chance they might compete against someone who has some unfair male advantage based on averages.
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So not what was done in the case of Yu-Ting Khelif. Or at least not what they admitted to doing.
And no, you’re not “either a real biological woman or you’re not.” It’s nowhere near that simple:
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Cool. Which category should the person whose “all that crap” is XX plus the SRY gene with a body that appears to be biologically male be in?
Since you know about chromosome mutations, perhaps you can tell me if they’re a man or a woman.
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This doesn’t sound so simple like you made it out to be. You said a chromosome test. Now you are saying that you need to test for the SRY gene as well. What else do you need to test for?
By the way, your continual discussion about how punching someone can kill them- no shit. People get killed in the boxing ring all the time. That’s a risk when it comes to boxing. It’s not like a woman can’t be just as easily killed by another woman in the ring.
You’re acting like these women are weak and fragile little flowers when any one of them likely could kick your ass and then have the energy to kick my ass and kick the ass of any other men posting in this thread, then run ten miles and not even feel winded.
By the way… do you think that maybe having to get medical testing to prove you’re really a woman might discourage girls and women from being in competitive sports? Or does that not matter?
Athletes should have their DNA made public information so you can gamble? This is really your position? That a person’s DNA should be public so you can profit off of it? Would you be cool with a boss doing this to you or your family?
And if phenotype is what’s important, your female - male pheno is already competing as a male FYI.