Transgender man wins women's 100 yd and 400 yd freestyle races.

But there is something different. Nothing wrong, just different. People should be encouraged to embrace their differences, not hide it.

There's a view out there that maybe only the top elite level of sport needs to have this strict separation by sex. I was reading somewhere recently that women's professional football in Germany is organised by sex, whereas the amateur game allows males to play against women. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the kind of problem faced by the women's football league in England, where just one male player is causing mayhem (article below). I really think it has to be voluntary, with some leagues allowing it and players opting in on that basis. For what it's worth, my daughter used to play adult ladies gaelic football. She was never consulted about the LGFA transgender policy (and I don't believe anyone in her club was). I suspect the LGFA are playing the same 'wait and see' game as most sports here, hoping that nobody like the player in the English league, actually shows up some day hoping to play.

In the US a few weeks ago a trans girl won a Div 2 high school high-jump state championship (New Hampshire). This person has never lost a competition when competing as a girl. Activists might argue in this case that the female Div 1 champion jumped significantly higher than this person, thus "proving" that trans women aren't going to win everything. But, are the girls competing in Division 2 not entitled to a level playing field as well as the girls in division 1 (in this instance) or like the professional women's soccer players in Germany?

There's lots of fun events out there like parkruns, cycling sportives and the like, but competitive sport at any level is different and it doesn't seem too much to ask for women and girls who don't want to compete against males, to have that option.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12771963/supporters-transgender-woman-footballer-threatens-lawsuit-discrimination-opponents-terrified.html

Firstly, well done Kim O'Brien for not bowing down to the minority.

It's obvious that the break at the beginning of each frame is the single most important part of each frame. More powerful arms and shoulders means a more powerful and usually better spread of balls post break. Men have demonstrably stronger arms and shoulders in the majority of the population and as such, an unfair advantage over women.

Silly, "petulant" woman. How dare she! I'm sure she's distraught that a bunch of men on the Internet, who no doubt rarely leave their homes to go to a bar to play pool, let alone play professionally, have a problem with it.

Good for you 👍 much better to spend your time online complaining about women who want their own sports leagues free from males.

I know from my twins (boy & girl) that pool and snooker was picked up almost naturally by my son but not my daughter. I introduced them to pool at the exact same time of their lives. I motivated them both at the exact same time & way to the game. I can attest that it took greater effort for my daughter to adjust to pool.

It’s one of those games that come naturally to the male brain and not the female brain.

Hats off to Kim O Brien. That forfeit hopefully counts as a wake up call to the sports organisation that allowed a man to play in a female pool competition.

They should hang their heads in shame.

The idea that there is a male brain and a female brain does seem sort of sexist, I agree. But if the body and its genitals don’t define being male or female, and nor does the brain, then where exactly is this inherent male or female gender situated? In their soul?

Well the handful of times that my daughter has been able to play pool, she loved it and was able to beat me and her dad pretty handily after several games and we all had great fun. This was when we had access to our own table in a hotel suite though. When given the choice of playing in public, at a bowling alley or arcade for example, she doesn't want to. It's intimidating in a way that the male player mentioned above would never have had to contend with. Just another one of the reasons why girls sports that's actually just for girls is important

So what is a woman - at what point can a person say they are a woman and expect to be accepted as same?

I suspect the LGFA are playing the same 'wait and see' game as most sports here, hoping that nobody like the player in the English league, actually shows up some day hoping to play.

Bit late for that plodder?

https://extra.ie/2022/09/09/news/transgender-gaa-player-speaks-out

Just a thought I was recently having and forgive me if this seems insensitive however is society at a point where we could have fully able bodied men claiming to be handicapped in order to compete at special Olympics or such like. 

All he would have to do is “believe” he is handicapped and he could compete & win for the sake of winning.

We’re at that point long ago, it’s why the Special Olympics were set up - to give able-bodied people with what are considered to be intellectual disabilities the opportunity to show off what they could do. More important than accepting they are handicapped and the limitations that are placed upon them by Society, is indeed their belief that they can win -

What is the Difference Between the Paralympics, Special Olympics, and Olympics?

Special Olympics is for athletes who have intellectual disabilities. Our athletes come from a wide range of ability levels, but in order to participate they must have an intellectual disability. Special Olympics athletes may also have a physical disability. 

https://www.specialolympics.ca/british-columbia/news/special-olympics-paralympics-olympics-whats-difference

There is nothing sexist about a scientific fact.

That depends on what anyone is claiming is scientific fact - sometimes it is blatantly sexist, sometimes unintentionally so, as in your claim that precision games like snooker and pool were one (or two, I wasn’t sure which one you were referring to) of those games that come naturally to the male brain and not the female brain, based on your observations of your own children.

One thing I would never do, is argue with a parent about the capabilities of their own children, they know their own children better than I do for a start, but something I can do, is argue with another adult who makes specious claims that they claim are based on scientific fact, thereby assuming their claims infallible. There are a variety of reasons why their beliefs are mistaken, less important than the actual belief or beliefs themselves, but rather than get into that with them, I’d simply point out the distinction between science, and scientists - science is objective, humans are not -

In principle, science is considered to be an objective knowledge system that proposes theories that can be supported or refuted by data. In fact, the very definition of science, as formu- lated by Karl Popper, is that it must be refutable. In this formulation, articles of faith, like most religious doctrines, are not science because they can neither be proved nor disproved. Science allows itself to be constantly updated by new information and empirical evidence. Science is also supposed to be open and democratic and in some sense, casteless, though many social scientists will argue that the high priests of science have as much influence over their faithful as any religious leader.

https://kslab.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/7/0/57708927/kartikshanker_dte_15sep06_conbio.pdf

It’s for this reason that I knew the study plodder references would invariably be introduced into the discussion once it was going that way, and how I knew that it would be scrutinised by none other than Gina Rippon. I think the headline of the article sums up her position nicely for anyone who isn’t bothered to read the article -

Take it from a neuroscientist: searching for a ‘male’ and ‘female’ brain is a waste of time

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/22/male-female-brains-different-centuries

For Rippon, the effects of sex stereotyping (which is what you’re doing, unintentionally) kicked in early too -

For Rippon, a twin, the effects of stereotyping kicked in early. Her “under-achieving” brother was sent to a boys’ academic Catholic boarding school, aged 11. “It’s difficult to say this. I was clearly academically bright. I was top in the country for the 11+.” This gave her a scholarship to a grammar school. Her parents sent her to a girls’ non-academic Catholic convent instead. The school did not teach science. Pupils were brought up to be nuns or a diplomatic wife or mother. “Psychology,” she points out, “was the nearest I could get to studying the brain. I didn’t have the A levels to do medicine. I had wanted to be a doctor.”

https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/24/meet-the-neuroscientist-shattering-the-myth-of-the-gendered-brain-gina-rippon

Just catching up on the thread... Your response here reminded me of this, you might enjoy it.

Richard Feynman on magnets

Rippon comes across more like a sociologist (with a chip on her shoulder) than a scientist.

Rippon:

Stanford Medicine:

There you are, meaning and value right there.

As for her general argument though, that brain scan differences can be explained by the unique life experiences we go though in life, - that can only be taken as a opinion, because she has not shown that nurture is the sole reason for observed differences.

I don't want to live in this twisted woke society.

I suspect the LGFA are playing the same 'wait and see' game as most sports here, hoping that nobody like the player in the English league, actually shows up some day hoping to play.

We discussed that person before. So, I'm well aware of them. What I was referring to was someone who plays so hard that serious injury is caused resulting in other teams forfeiting games. I'd say we would have heard about it, if that was already happening in the LGFA. I don't know if the player you mentioned is still playing.

The nice thing about that kind of science is that because it can be repeated easily, it can easily be refuted or confirmed. Whether it is a waste of time or not, is another question. I can understand why people who want to highlight gender ahead of sex might say that, but the authors of the paper say the following:

A key motivation for this study is that sex plays a crucial role in human brain development, in aging, and in the manifestation of psychiatric and neurological disorders,” said Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Stanford Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Laboratory. “Identifying consistent and replicable sex differences in the healthy adult brain is a critical step toward a deeper understanding of sex-specific vulnerabilities in psychiatric and neurological disorders.”