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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

The International Cricket Council has become the latest sports body to ban transgender players from the elite women’s game if they have gone through male puberty.

The ICC said it had taken the decision, following an extensive scientific review and nine-month consultation, to “protect the integrity of the international women’s game and the safety of players”.

It joins rugby union, swimming, cycling, athletics and rugby league, who have all gone down a similar path in recent years after citing concerns over fairness or safety.

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[-] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fuck this. Sports are games, they shouldn't be taken this seriously. Like, for example, Micheal Phelps has webbed feet and freaky monster lungs but nobody's banned him from swimming events for that. Every human is different, people need to fucking accept that sports can never be totally fair and realize that's not what this is about.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 year ago

I think that gender specific leagues need to go the way of the dodo but while they're here they're essentially weight/strength classes and most transwomen are more fairly matched against AMAB men than AFAB women.

Ideally, we could just realize that having multiple league levels based on body type would be much more equitable.

[-] toomanypancakes@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

most transwomen are more fairly matched against AMAB men than AFAB women.

Source?

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[-] anlumo@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

The problem is that there’s too much money on the line. If certain performance enhancing drugs (like testosterone) are allowed, every athlete will be required to take them if they want to compete at the highest level. Athletes are known to favor short-term gains over long-term health consequences, and they’re pressured by their environment to do so as well.

[-] kttnpunk@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

Capitalism ruining good things, as always. In the case of trans men on testosterone, though, who cares? I feel like that just levels the playing field for them generally. And as a trans woman? Estrogen has fucked up my body's ability to build muscle if anything. These arguments all boil down to excuses.

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[-] Hegar@kbin.social 48 points 1 year ago

Sport is the most boring show on TV by far, and yet the actors are paid insane amounts. The fandom is the most toxic bullshit out there and the show runners encourage it.

Cancel sport already, it's really dumb.

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[-] Franzia 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In theory trans women are superwomen and then in reality they're weaker and derpier than the top female athletes and all of this is just a scare tactic because these theories havent played out in the real world at all.

On the sports angle, esports looked like it would finally be the place for me to be a fan because the athletes are relatable to me. But no, they got bought up by the Saudis, so all I get for relatable media is drag queens and furries or whatever.

[-] ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The ultimate reason it's wrong to ban transgender people from competing in athletics competitions is that the implication is that testosterone can be considered a performance enhancing drug -- even if the athlete in question is well within hormonal levels of any other cisgender athlete in the same sport.

If that's the case, then it opens the door to banning other athletes for exceeding the testosterone limit, and guess what? Cisgender women with African heritage naturally produce more testosterone than the average woman world-wide. So banning transgender athletes leads to potentially banning African women which is obviously racist and wrong to do.

Also, poly cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a condition that affects about 1 in 10 women and a very common side effect of PCOS is elevated testosterone levels. So 1 in 10 women would be banned for medical reasons outside of their control. And banning people for a medical condition is ableist and obviously wrong to do.

And, ultimately, sports aren't fair. We try to make them equitable by making the rules universal, but biological advantages are just part of sports. If we start banning athletes for hormones, why not ban athletes for being taller than average? Why not ban athletes for having better vision than average? Or better peripheral vision? Or faster reflexes? If only the absolute average, or below average people were allowed to compete then nearly half of all people would be unable to compete.

Plus, the vast majority of athletes say that they don't want transgender people to be banned from their respective sports.

And not to mention that it's just rude to exclude transgender athletes, and if it were truly such an advantage to be transgender then why aren't transgender people winning tournaments left and right? About 1% of people are transgender, so if transgender people are winning 1% of all tournaments then that would mean that they're exactly on exactly equal footing with their competitors. But I suspect that less than 1% of tournament winners are transgender which means that transgender people are actually at a disadvantage, which again, is fine because sports are inherently unfair as I outlined above.

At the end of the day, transgender athlete bans hurt everyone, and anti-transgender jerks are just making a big stink about it because it sounds reasonable on it's face to uninformed people and so it's a good wedge issue to bring up. Anti-transgender people don't care about the sports they're "trying to save", they just hate transgender people and want to see them suffer, and anyone who entertains their non-sense is complicit (probably unknowingly) in that suffering.

So please, those of you who are reasonable, shut down any discussion of transgender sports bans.

[-] sealhaslupus@lemmy.world 45 points 1 year ago

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that not many users on Lemmy follow Cricket or understand it fully. My comment isn’t going to cover if the decision by the ICC is correct (or otherwise) but to provide a little insight into the men and women’s games

Speed / pace is a noticeable difference between the sexes. I don’t believe there are any current female players that consistently bowl pace over 120km/h. In contrast, male pace bowlers generally try to meet a consistent speed of 135km/h for the same role. The upper bounds for men is roughly 160km/h and maybe only one or two pro players globally can do this.

There are enough men’s bowlers who can bowl at 150km/h. At this speed an average batter would find it difficult to see the ball. Arguably batters in baseball receive faster pitches but at 150km/h+ including the ball bouncing makes it incredibly difficult to face.

The batting is also different but it might be harder to explain to a non-cricketing audience why this is.

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[-] greenmarty@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

Just make it third category.

  • female sports won't get affected
  • fairness will increase
  • fans can watch their own "cup of coffee "
  • possible pretenders will no longer be motivated by easy winning
[-] PotatoKat@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

It's own category with like 5 people in each sport. Great idea.

[-] greenmarty@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

What is the alternative though that won't ruin female's sports that was built as part or followup of female's emancipation ?

[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago

The one where trans women play in the women's league and trans men in the men's. If it causes any sort on unfairness we would have seen it by now.

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[-] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

This is just a complete non solution to the problem and effectively just ends up with trans people being banned from sports altogether.

"Trans" sports teams/leagues (whatever that means) can't really exist at the amateur local level anywhere but the biggest citiess due to there being not a lot of trans people, and even less trans people who want to play sports.

The struggle to even get enough trans guys or trans girls to form a team for football or whatever would be a challenge in and of itself, and then this team would pretty much have to fly across the country (or possibly to a different country altogether) to even play a match.

This is not a reasonable solution for anyone but the people who want to ban trans people from sports.

The second issue is that this is just fear mongering and not an actual issue to be solved but that's being argued all over this thread already.

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[-] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Two categories:

  • Women
  • Open

Perfectly fair and simple.

[-] seliaste 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's already the case, most sports allow for women to play in men's leagues... But they don't. And trans women would suffer the same way cis women would in men dominated categories (or would they? Depends on the sport I guess, nobody would complain about trans women in F1 Academy I bet)

[-] gmtom@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

nobody would complain about trans women in F1 Academy I bet)

Fox news was complaining about a trans woman getting a participation medal in the London Marathon, which is a mixed event anyway. Never underestimate how much these people hate trans people.

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[-] beetsnuami@slrpnk.net 31 points 1 year ago

Hej, I‘ve seen quite a few comments using weird expressions to refer to trans women here, so to clarify, a trans woman is not:

  • a scientific male (trans women are scientifically women)
  • a biologically born male (Biologically born? Yes. Male? No.)
  • a biological male (as, usually, biological markers such as anatomy, hormone levels, chromosomes and behavior in trans women are ambiguous)

A trans woman is:

  • a woman (female) who was assigned male at birth
  • often, but not always, a person who has gone through testosterone puberty, but identifies as female

Just use the words trans woman and cis woman, it‘s concise, correct and respectful. I‘m not saying that there are no differences between trans women and cis women, but simply that trans women are women. If you disagree with that, go watch ContraPoints or PhilosophyTube.

Consequently, the international cricket council should call it the elite cis women‘s game from now on, that would just be consistent.

[-] wheels@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I am still confused. My understanding was that trans people change their gender. This is something I am able to wrap my head around because gender (man/woman) is a human construct anyway and people should have the freedom to choose where they are on that spectrum.

But isn't sex a genetic thing that can't be changed? If it's the case that a person can choose whether they are male or female then science is going to need new terminology to replace male/female for XY and XX because the words science used to use have been commandeered to mean something more like gender?

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[-] ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago

Safety of the players? How do trans women playing cricket endanger cis women?

[-] Nutteman@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Lotta bigoted users are really going mask off on this thread huh

[-] darq@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

That is the whole point of "trans women in sports" discussions. That's why conservatives selected this issue to push.

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[-] DessertStorms@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

fairness or safety

my ass..

(edit to clarify: the only concern in making these decisions are the fragile egos of cis people)

[-] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

I'm all in for all of us holding hands and walking into the sunshine. But if someone has a concern about a potential unfair advantage because their oponent used to be male/female, they are automatically labeled as having "fragile ego"? That sounds very condescending. What should they do, just walk it off because you don't like it?

They should make tests for all sports and decide if there is a potential advantage to be gained from being born male/female and decide on a case by case basis. If there is none, perfect, game on!

I think there was a scandal in the US with a swimmer some time ago? My wife used to play tennis as a child and she said it was brutal when they were training and playing against males. It was a completely different level.

Also not a big fan of being called "cis", to me it sounds offensive.

[-] toomanypancakes@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Cis is the term that just means you are the gender you were born, you aren't trans.

[-] FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

not a big fan of being called "cis"

If you aren't trans, then you are cis.

If you aren't gay, then you are straight.

Do you also dislike being called straight?

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[-] Nutteman@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Oh my god get over yourself cis is not offensive.

Fucking cislord scum.

Now that? That would be offensive.

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this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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