Fairness in sports
Intro, Horn effect & fallacy by association
This is more of a free rant than anything. Sit tight! It goes into sports & fairness.
The amount of idiots who don’t have basic critical thinking skills and then go to social media to get the same idiots like them to gather is too high. Chances are, you’re one of them, or used to be. We all were as children (maybe without the social media part, but if not that then through other influences).
Why is it so hard for people to think for a moment and realise just because someone’s belief’s lie in one area, it doesn’t mean that it lies holistically across ALL or more than that area. What do I mean by this? It could be:
- 1) A republican, but they have a democratic view on X, or vice versa
- 2) “Person X said Y, and I think it’s bad. That means everything person X believes must be bad!”
Now, I did go more through fallacy by association in my tolerance article. I didn’t go through the horn effect (don’t ask me why they didn’t call it the reverse halo effect, it would suit it better than the actual one), which is something you will see a lot on Twitter and such. You probably know someone like that IRL. Let me grab a quick Wikipedia definition if you’re confused:
SrcThe horn effect, closely related to the halo effect, is a form of cognitive bias that causes one's perception of another to be unduly influenced by a single negative trait. An example of the horn effect may be that an observer is more likely to assume a physically unattractive person is morally inferior to an attractive person, despite the lack of relationship between morality and physical appearance.
Chances are, you’re doing this without realising.
So if you’re reading this at any point thinking “she says X and I disagree. That must mean she hates x! I feel personally attacked!” that’s a red flag for yourself and a sign you need to stop reading and that you probably need to deactivate your social media.
To link this in, I was reading about trans people who have partook in the Olympics, specifically the first - Laura Hubbard, a trans male to female and the oldest in the division. Another notable and controversial name is Lia Thomas. Laura, having gone through male puberty being a transwoman, had an unfair advantage in lifts compared to women. Lia is in the same boat too. Now, when it goes to social justice, this is where people get touchy and less inclined to judge based off facts as well as emotions. The intelligent person knows when to apply each. The lack of discussion leads to misinformation, baseless claims, and shit-slinging from both (or more) sides. It’s important to discuss these things and not pretend they don’t exist.
Some people believe the backlash for these two people participating is due to transphobia – they labelled any “attack” on a trans person as abhorrent, and so to them, if Laura and/or Lia are being criticised for participating unfairly, then to them that’s a personal “attack” to trans people. This of course is not the case in any way. The lack of information and studies led to the (now proven wrong) belief that as long as someone is under a certain amount of testosterone, they could participate as a transwoman. This was an invasive practice for them, and for respect for their privacy it’s better gone. Did you know women can have higher levels and men can also have lower than normal? Now you do. Anyway. Now we have evidence that people that have gone through male puberty have the properties of a male. This gives unfair and obvious advantages competing against women. Men are inherently stronger and taller than women; they also have denser muscles and bones. Not all men are taller than *some* women, no, but an overwhelming majority are to the point it’s ludicrous if you want to even try to argue against it (only an idiot would, people really try to convince others that men aren’t the stronger/taller sex?). This gives men a big advantage in the early game compared to women.
Why is it so important?
- It undermines women
- Huge unfair advantages against women
- Creates & promotes an uneven playground
- Due to advantage, pushes women out of positions they would have placed
- Endangers women in the sport due to physiology (note Fallon Fox, who is a transgender woman who encourages violence against women and uses boxing to to so and gloats)
It’s wrongly assumed by those who ignore these facts that if you advocate for fairer sports, that you’re dismissing trans people and saying they’re not a “real” X or Y. What these people are asking is for you to discard the evidence, to discard your feelings & opinions in favour of their own in a selfish desire with little to back their own thoughts with. When you hear people talk about this, it’s all about the person at question being seen as a woman. I see them as women, but as a transexual woman, which is why they undeniably are. Personally, I don’t care what you identify as. I support people who are NB/trans/fluid etc and always have been. That doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the glaring unfairness and inequality regarding women in sports. How is that fair, to ignore women because of their sex? Sports should be sex-based to keep it fair. Unless the unfair advantages can be eliminated, a better solution would be to have a transexual section to compete in, not under the sex their gender is. OR to make sure all sports have an [Open] and [Womens] category, as many do. The [Open] category is open to everyone, so ANYONE can compete. The womens is for women (sex) and was formed quite obviously due to men vastly outperforming the mass majority of women. It’s not perfect, but it’s a better option and it respects both trans people and women. Just because it might take “more effort” it doesn’t mean it’s the inferior option. Sometimes the longer road is.
Btw if you have no idea of the difference between sex and gender where have you been it’s 2022 jesusUpdates:
The above is improving! We are getting fair laws and guidelines in place, even if it is slowly. Now transgender women are banned from womens sport in: World Athletics Council, World Rugby, World Swimming and Rugby.
- An article here. I'm posting this one as it's all in one place, though would urge you to look up each individual organisation.
- I added an extra bullet point. I need to add all the sources at some point.
- Minor edits to terminology. Had some good feedback, so thought I'd clarify better.
Sources for the above
There's many more that you can find in related below, or by yourself.
[3] On Transgender athletes and performance advantages