Sabine Hossenfelder did a video on trans women in sports, and despite her checkered history of non-physics related topics, she raised some good points. ( on YouTube )
Hossenfelder she points out, whether we’re looking at college sports, pro sports or the Olympics, we’re less seeking fair competitions as we are interesting ones. (As she notes, it’s not fair that Usain Bolt got long legs and she didn’t), as a result we sometimes separate contestants into classes. Boxing, for instance, is separated not just by sex, but by three weight classes, because otherwise, the 120kg mountain of pure muscle punches all the featherweights over the ropes.
What we’re looking for when matchmaking is the same that we are when we match-make for gaming competitions, which is to say near-peers where the outcome of a contest is closely undecided, where we are unable to guess with much accuracy who would win until after the outcome. And in today’s athletic classes we’re able to categorize trans women with other athletic women who are near-peers and get exciting contests where the outcome is unpredictable.
Hossenfelder suggests all this is going to change once it becomes routine to genetically engineer our offspring. But that will be another era.
I think there’s another one of these videos too. Don’t trust anything she says outside of physics. She’s a physicist, but she confidently speaks on issues she has no knowledge on. She’s a bad educational YouTube because she lies and pretends like she has knowledge she doesn’t have.
This YouTube also has a great video about Sabine’s pro-capitalism video where she is varifiably wrong about many things but just doesn’t care. She’s not reliable, except maybe within her field… possibly.
Even within the field of physics, I find her a little questionable. She stated once that she thinks falsifiability is overrated. That just flys in the face of testability and verification, which opens up room for any untestable theory or hypothesis to take root.
I get it, and I saw the trans-care vid and was repulsed by it as well. (Her take on capitalism sucks as well.) But she did make analyses of sports that I’ve not heard elsewhere, so even if she’s not a reliable authority she can sometimes offer sound logic.
And yes, no-one else breaks down how we sort sporting matches or raises the question of fairness, because it’s impossible to make sports fair since genetics can be a bigger advantage than sex (or, for that matter, weight) since it informs not just the capacity for training discipline, but responsiveness to training and peak levels.
It could be that some of us really don’t get sports. As a kid, I was criticized for being small (I gained my full height and strength when I was well out of High School and studying computer science) and yet I was harshly criticized for not being as burly as my classmates in sports. (And could get no sympathy when I was bullied by bigger kids as well.) So I don’t get why we celebrate athletics competitively, when we should be striving for a personal best.
And as Hossenfelder points out, those who like sports don’t want a fair match, but an interesting one. Hence if an ogre with a genetic throwback is able to one-punch every other heavyweight contender, that’s not exciting. What’s exciting is if two rivals who are nearly evenly matched, are punching it out for the crown.
And in that regard, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting are established contender their boxing league. Sometimes they win against other contenders, sometimes they lose, and so the ambiguous outcome of the next match is what is important. I’d think if a non-binary person with male sexual characteristics were fighting in the league and wasn’t showing clear advantages, they should be allowed in the league, and if someone completely outperforms everyone else in the league, then their gender doesn’t matter, they need a different league.
(This has become an issue in some high school wrestling leagues, since sometimes a girl wants to wrestle, and is a strong contender, but other high-schools get wary and misogynistic and no-one wants to wrestle her – possibly for fear of the stigma of getting beaten by a girl.)
That said, a lot of people are opining about this who really shouldn’t be given authority, so I’d suggest challenge every take critically, whether it’s coming from Hossenfelder or not. Especially mine.
Sabine Hossenfelder did a video on trans women in sports, and despite her checkered history of non-physics related topics, she raised some good points. ( on YouTube )
Hossenfelder she points out, whether we’re looking at college sports, pro sports or the Olympics, we’re less seeking fair competitions as we are interesting ones. (As she notes, it’s not fair that Usain Bolt got long legs and she didn’t), as a result we sometimes separate contestants into classes. Boxing, for instance, is separated not just by sex, but by three weight classes, because otherwise, the 120kg mountain of pure muscle punches all the featherweights over the ropes.
What we’re looking for when matchmaking is the same that we are when we match-make for gaming competitions, which is to say near-peers where the outcome of a contest is closely undecided, where we are unable to guess with much accuracy who would win until after the outcome. And in today’s athletic classes we’re able to categorize trans women with other athletic women who are near-peers and get exciting contests where the outcome is unpredictable.
Hossenfelder suggests all this is going to change once it becomes routine to genetically engineer our offspring. But that will be another era.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r6Kau7bO3Fw
I think there’s another one of these videos too. Don’t trust anything she says outside of physics. She’s a physicist, but she confidently speaks on issues she has no knowledge on. She’s a bad educational YouTube because she lies and pretends like she has knowledge she doesn’t have.
This YouTube also has a great video about Sabine’s pro-capitalism video where she is varifiably wrong about many things but just doesn’t care. She’s not reliable, except maybe within her field… possibly.
Even within the field of physics, I find her a little questionable. She stated once that she thinks falsifiability is overrated. That just flys in the face of testability and verification, which opens up room for any untestable theory or hypothesis to take root.
Sorry, but after her Trans care Video I don’t have a single ounce of respect left for her. Surely you can find better people to quote here?
100%. She should really stick to physics.
I get it, and I saw the trans-care vid and was repulsed by it as well. (Her take on capitalism sucks as well.) But she did make analyses of sports that I’ve not heard elsewhere, so even if she’s not a reliable authority she can sometimes offer sound logic.
And yes, no-one else breaks down how we sort sporting matches or raises the question of fairness, because it’s impossible to make sports fair since genetics can be a bigger advantage than sex (or, for that matter, weight) since it informs not just the capacity for training discipline, but responsiveness to training and peak levels.
It could be that some of us really don’t get sports. As a kid, I was criticized for being small (I gained my full height and strength when I was well out of High School and studying computer science) and yet I was harshly criticized for not being as burly as my classmates in sports. (And could get no sympathy when I was bullied by bigger kids as well.) So I don’t get why we celebrate athletics competitively, when we should be striving for a personal best.
And as Hossenfelder points out, those who like sports don’t want a fair match, but an interesting one. Hence if an ogre with a genetic throwback is able to one-punch every other heavyweight contender, that’s not exciting. What’s exciting is if two rivals who are nearly evenly matched, are punching it out for the crown.
And in that regard, Imane Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting are established contender their boxing league. Sometimes they win against other contenders, sometimes they lose, and so the ambiguous outcome of the next match is what is important. I’d think if a non-binary person with male sexual characteristics were fighting in the league and wasn’t showing clear advantages, they should be allowed in the league, and if someone completely outperforms everyone else in the league, then their gender doesn’t matter, they need a different league.
(This has become an issue in some high school wrestling leagues, since sometimes a girl wants to wrestle, and is a strong contender, but other high-schools get wary and misogynistic and no-one wants to wrestle her – possibly for fear of the stigma of getting beaten by a girl.)
That said, a lot of people are opining about this who really shouldn’t be given authority, so I’d suggest challenge every take critically, whether it’s coming from Hossenfelder or not. Especially mine.