Over Memorial Day weekend, everyone who cares about the future of women’s sport saw their worst fears become a reality.
Transgender woman CeCe Telfer, who was born and raised as Craig Telfer and competed on the Franklin Pierce University men’s track and field team during her first three years of college, won the women’s 400-meter hurdles national title at the 2019 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Telfer dominated the competition, winning in 57.53 as second place was way back in 59.21.
Let’s all give CeCe a great big hand!
Prior to joining the women’s team this season, Telfer was a mediocre DII athlete who never came close to making it to nationals in the men’s category. In 2016 and 2017, Telfer ranked 200th and 390th, respectively, among DII men in the 400 hurdles (Telfer didn’t run outdoor track in 2018 as either a man or woman). Now she’s the national champion in the event simply because she switched her gender (Telfer’s coach told us that even though she competed on the men’s team her first three years, her gender fluidity was present from her freshman year).
Ah yes, of course it was. It sloshed around like a glass of beer on a sailboat. But what is “gender fluidity” exactly? Is it the propensity to become a woman when it’s time to run a race?
Ostensibly, the NCAA has a policy in place to protect cisgender women athletes and prevent male-to-female transgender athletes from dominating the women’s category. The NCAA transgender handbook states that an MTF transgender athlete must take “one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment” in order to compete in the women’s category, but the vagueness of that statement is remarkable. There is no mention of a minimum testosterone level that must be achieved or a minimum level of medication that must be taken, nor how those levels are to be monitored.
Never you mind. We must respect trans rights. Trans rights are human rights. Not respecting trans rights is transphobia. Is that clear?
The coach says Telfer won because he worked harder. Uh huh.
Comments
13 responses to “A mediocre DII athlete”
The same thing women always hear when a man is promoted over them, hired over them, whatever. I was given that story in my days as an intern, when they bent over backwards to hire a male intern full time when there were no jobs available; he didn’t work harder, by the way, he goofed off most of the time and goofed up the rest, but he had what they wanted. He got along with the other good ole’ boys in the network.
Then they gave me the old canard about him needing more money because he needed to support a family. He had no family. He was a young unmarried student living in student housing with no wife, no children, nothing to support but himself. I, on the other hand, was a single mother trying to raise a teenager on my own without even child support much of the time (when his dad felt like paying it, until the day I saved enough to hire a lawyer who sent a letter to him at work…oops. When you work for a bank, it isn’t a great idea not to pay your child support).
They always work harder, don’t they? The problem is, women who just do things without pointing out how hard it is (and some do, but most don’t – neither do most men, but men benefit from those who do in a way that women don’t) – we make it look easy. We make it look like nothing. And we’re doing it “backwards and in high heels” (I put that in quotes because I think it’s a great way of putting it, but I don’t wear high heels and I almost never dance because I’m a klutz and can hurt myself even without high heels).
It’s possible to check though, isn’t it? If Telfer’s time is consistent with the times recorded when running as a man, then the advantage of being male-bodied is there for all to see. (Equally, if there is a performance dropoff that now places her among the other women, QED). I had a quick look to see if I could find the numbers but the official website is impenetrable to me (since I’m not a fan of the sport). But if someone could dig up the information, it wouldn’t be hard to do a statistical analysis of Telfer’s record over time vs some of the top women in the field.
Claire, another interesting thing would be if she had a dropoff, but it still left her with a faster time than women. That would mean that perhaps there is a middle zone where you will find trans, and that trans should compete against trans, because they still have an advantage over women.
Either way (any of the three possible ways mentioned), it would be important data.
2016 Outdoor 400m Hurdles time was 57.34 (Northeast 10, the regional qualifier)
2017 Outdoor 400m Hurdles time was 1:02.00
So faster than second year as a male, slower than first year.
In other words, pretty consistent. Well, well…
Since, in the end, it all comes down to testosterone levels, then shouldn’t the trans be agitating for a league of their own, as women did? Women’s sport should be restricted to those who have never in their lives had a testosterone level higher than 100 nanograms per decilitre (ng/dL). Since women have levels between 15 and 70 ng/dL, and men’s levels are between 280 to 1,100 ng/dL, then that leaves a clear slot for the trans to occupy.
But we’ve been told repeatedly that there is no competitive advantage whatsoever to trans women simply because they were born male. Which means Telfer was an enormous slacker before transitioning, and then – in the space of a single year – did enough training to go from middle of the pack to champion of the division. And all those natal women a.k.a. women just… didn’t practice enough I guess. Lazy bitches.
What other interpretation is there?
I’d love to know which behaviours, personality traits, hobbies or whatever were suggestive of inner femaleness.
As usual, an question going completely unmentioned is: what about all those advantages that have nothing to do with current T levels?
I don’t think we should make it about testosterone at all. We should make it about timing. If a person transitioned before puberty, they can play on women’s teams; otherwise not. Of course, since I am against giving hormone blockers to children, that could sort of get back to the issue of “stopping trans people from playing sports”. No, I think, with you, that the trans could have a league of their own. Of course, that means that they will be back to competing with people who have the same bodily advantages they do, and then they will no longer win everything.
If trans gets to a large enough percentage of the sports, that may end up happening. A man’s league, and a woman’s league that is all trans because women can no longer compete. And then everyone can be happy (except women, and they don’t matter anyway, right?)
Oh, c’mon, Holms, you know that. The giggly silliness, the triviality of conversation, the high pitched voice, the obsession with clothes and make up, and the inability to park a car correctly. It’s obvious, right?
You forgot the trouble opening jars! The hallmark of femininity!
Oh. I forgot the jars. I guess because I can open jars. (I can also park a car, and I never giggle). Uh oh, am I not really a woman? Damn, I keep displaying behaviors, personality traits, and hobbies that are suggestive of inner maleness. What am I to do?
I’ve got the feeling that CCe already has two of those.
iknklast:
Or conversely, it means that transfolks will win everything. But I’d bet that if a trans- category was formed, if certain events were dominated by one-or-two athletes, those athletes would be accused by the losers of being ‘fake’ trans, pretending to be transwomen because they couldn’t cut it with the men. And I would laugh my socks off.
A flipside article (revealing that misogyny is very much a double-headed quarter) about a woman entering a male-dominated competitive space and having to deal with all the bullshit that goes along with being one of the few females present:
https://www.argotmagazine.com/first-person-and-perspectives/benevolent-sexism-chivalry?fbclid=IwAR0SSeiUStOZI7D9ZYlYJd9RspmSVl-uKK34LosI4Af0o5hOIqWVdL5XtGI
Sooner or later this mania has to pass, doesn’t it? I like to think civilization will look back on this some day as a pathological craze just the way we now look back on the insanity of lobotomies.