Requiring a balance, which we won’t attempt
Again with the shuffling and hemming and ending up in the same place:
New Zealand’s government and the country’s top sporting body have backed her inclusion for the upcoming Olympics.
“As well as being among the world’s best for her event, Laurel has met the IWF eligibility criteria, including those based on IOC Consensus Statement guidelines for transgender athletes,” New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive Kereyn Smith said.
But Hubbard is among the world’s best for the event only if he is counted as a woman. He’s not among the world’s best men for the event. Saying he’s the best in [the women’s] event to justify allowing him to compete in the women’s event is begging the question, to put it mildly.
“We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play,” he added.
We acknowledge it so that we can go ahead and ignore it by allowing Hubbard to steal a place from a woman.
“As the New Zealand team, we have a strong culture of ‘manaaki’ (respect) and inclusion and respect for all.”
I know I objected to that yesterday but I’m going to do it all over again today. Letting men cheat women out of places in sport is not respect or inclusion. It’s contempt for and exclusion of women. If you thought women counted at all you wouldn’t say it’s respect and inclusion to cheat them out of places on their own team.
Do they have amateur athletics in New Zealand? Does anyone there consider it respect and inclusion for a team to replace one of the players with a professional?
Do they have athletics for children and for teenagers? Does anyone there consider it respect and inclusion for a team to replace one of the players with an adult?
Including a man in a women’s competition isn’t inclusion it’s cheating. Cheating cheating cheating.
Hubbard competed as a professional for some time.
Isn’t using a Samoan(?) dialect word to refer to a white person some kind of cultural appropriation?
BKiS, if its manaaki you mean, it is a Maori word. Maori, along with English and Z Sign language are the three official languages of NZ, so rather than appropriation, it is culturally and linguistically correct. Even though I only lived in NZ for 11 years, I still use some Maori words, they are such a strong feature there.
Z Sign = NZ Sign Language!
Roj is correct that using Maori words is encouraged and appropriate*. A lot of Maori words translate rather poorly into a direct equivalent in English. Take Manaaki for instance. Above it has been translated as respect. A more nuanced translation would be “to support, take care of, give hospitality to, protect, look out for – show respect, generosity and care for others”. Depending on context and emphasis, a user might mean the word to be one or more of the above, and a listener may or may not take on that same intended mix. Whenua translates as land. The government agency tasked with research into native flora and fauna, ecosystems, land, environment and biosecurity is called Landcare Research in English, but Manaaki Whenua in Maori. The Maori name speaking to the spirit and intent of the organisation’s mission, rather than to the research aspect.
I consider the NZOC and Olympic team talk about respect and inclusion rings false. Firstly it is well known that some future, current and past Olympians are not at all happy in Hubbard’s inclusion. They do not consider it fair on principle. Only past Olympians are speaking out, because they no longer have to fear adverse consequences. The fact that dissent and debate is being stifled in the name of respect and fairness is itself corrosive to team unity in my view and lacks the mutuality implied by manaaki.
* There is of course a segment of the population who are livid and frothing at the mouth at the travesty of seeing Maori words in print and hearing it spoken. Recently the Broadcasting Standards Authority took the unusual step of stating they would no longer receive or consider complaints about Maori being spoken. They had been deluged over the previous two years. they made the point that Maori, as an official language, may be spoken by broadcasters, on programmes, and by interviewers/interviewees as much or as little as those people wish to do so. There’s a strong overlap between those people and a belief that Trump was a great President.