Okay, this is the post about fencing and gender that I've been thinking about for a while. Because I think about fencing literally every day, haha
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I feel you on this. I'm a little less...in tune I guess with current thoughts on gender segregation/integration, but I never thought of trying to only have mixed gender sports. Does size/muscle matter in fencing? There are simply physiological reasons why male and female sports should exist. Now, I do think women should get to play on men's teams if there aren't equivalent teams for them to join (thinking of old school hockey stuff in Canada, where there were no women's teams over a certain age/skill level, for instance). And in some sports, or for fun, mixed gender is great! But you're dead on that being "gender-blind" would go about as well in sports as being "colour-blind" goes generally.
(I admit with some shame that I have a lot of issues with trans atheletes...generally for MTF who are still benefitting physically from male growth and muscle development. Because women really deserve space to do sports in and a fair playing field. But I know this is going to change and I'm interested in seeing what happens).
Yeah, in cases where there is no women's competition, I'm in favor of mixed teams! And obviously I have a lot of fun with mixed teams/practices/competition. But having a separate space for women's competition does a lot for that aspect of the sport and I'm not willing to give it up
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"Look, you idealistic young people who want to do away with the strictures of gender and their strangle-hold on how we interact with sport, you don't know what you're talking about.
omg, this phrase is literally my life right now. especially when dealing with overwhelmingly white, AFAB people who still think that being misgendered by their parents is the equivalent of systemic forces of oppression (and, you know, it is a manifestation of those forces, but we're already on the fifth murder of a black trans woman in this country in the past month, so...). i am reminded of the issues around gender facing women's colleges, as some trans men are demanding a space for themselves within those structures without taking a step back and analyzing the realities of why women's spaces are still so important (often while still actively campaigning against inclusion of trans women in those very same spaces, because... [insert bullshit about "safety"] [insert bullshit about "i'm comfortable exerting my new-found privilege in the worst way possible
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Yes yes yes to all of this. I hope I didn't make it sound at any point like 'women in sports' is somehow opposed to 'trans and intersex people in sports' because obviously the forces working against women getting into sports are also closely entangled in the truly massive amount of cissexist bullshit in sports. But long-haul repair is exactly what it needs, not quick utopian fixes. I can see how gender-neutral sports would have an immediate benefit to some people (including me atm), but I can see a lot more clearly how it would hurt a lot of other people (including young me). Completely gender neutral sports are maybe an ideal, maybe something to test out periodically to see if they're feasible, and probably not nuanced enough for what we have to deal with right now
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(I admit with some shame that I have a lot of issues with trans atheletes...generally for MTF who are still benefitting physically from male growth and muscle development. Because women really deserve space to do sports in and a fair playing field. But I know this is going to change and I'm interested in seeing what happens).
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well said.
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omg, this phrase is literally my life right now. especially when dealing with overwhelmingly white, AFAB people who still think that being misgendered by their parents is the equivalent of systemic forces of oppression (and, you know, it is a manifestation of those forces, but we're already on the fifth murder of a black trans woman in this country in the past month, so...). i am reminded of the issues around gender facing women's colleges, as some trans men are demanding a space for themselves within those structures without taking a step back and analyzing the realities of why women's spaces are still so important (often while still actively campaigning against inclusion of trans women in those very same spaces, because... [insert bullshit about "safety"] [insert bullshit about "i'm comfortable exerting my new-found privilege in the worst way possible ( ... )
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