Any supposed costs
TIME has a long profile of Rapinoe. It gets to That Subject toward the end.
Rapinoe has shifted her focus to trans-rights advocacy. She’s particularly contemptuous of policies designed to keep transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams. “We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity,” she says. Proponents of such laws often claim they’re protecting women’s sports. “It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized,” she says. “Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bullsh-t. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening.”
Excuse me? We can show you Lia Thomas, Austin Killips, Rhys McKinnon, the guy who spiked the ball into Payton McNabb’s face giving her a concussion (and has apparently remained anonymous all this time, which is nice for him), just to start. It is happening.
To Rapinoe, the benefits of allowing trans kids to play outweigh any supposed costs. “The most amazing thing about sports is that you play and you’re playing with other people, and you’re having fun and you’re being physically active,” she says. “We’re putting this all through the lens of competition and winning. But we’re talking about people’s lives. That’s where we have to start.”
Nobody is not allowing trans kids to play. That’s not the issue. Trans kids who are male should play with other male kids, that’s all. (Except of course when the teams aren’t divided by sex in the first place.)
Would Rapinoe embrace a transgender woman on the U.S. women’s soccer team, even if that woman took the place of someone assigned female at birth? “Absolutely,” she says. “‘You’re taking a “real” woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women. What you’re saying automatically in the argument—you’re sort of telling on yourself already—is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way.”
We’re not “telling on ourselves.” We’re telling the truth. Trans women are by definition men, aka people with male bodies.
What’s especially galling about this is that as a talented, successful, and outspoken athlete, Rapinoe has been subject to a lot of misogyny over the years, including being referred to as a man. Yet she can’t see the misogyny in allowing men to take over women’s spaces.
Here’s a list.
http://shewon.org/
It’s only going to get longer. Every one of these girls has as much of a right to succeed in sports as Megan does.
Good for you. Now go ahead, date one. Are they still “real women” for you in this context? You’re happy to do girl dick? You’re expecting women and girls who know that TiMs are men to accept and submit to the presence of “girl dick” in their locker rooms: you should be willing to share in that acceptance too.
Yes, and? Here’s your daily reminder that they’re not women; never have been, never will be. You might be willing to lie, but don’t expect others to follow suit. Endless repetition will not make it so.
How about some other hypotheticals? Ones that don’t involve engagement of her crippled empathy module. Let’s make it a little more personal.
What if that trans identified male took her place on the team? What if TiMs had kept her from playing at all? Would she be so sanguine about that, or is it only other women and girls she’s willing to sacrifice, not herself? Okay, how about if she had to play against a team that fielded a TiM? How about an entire team of TiMs? Would that be fair? Would she “see” and “feel” the fairness of the logical conclusion of her stance? Would she still be on board with that, or is she ready to think twice (or at all) about her position?
If I recall correctly, the US Olympic Women’s Soccer team was beaten by a boy’s high school team at an exhibition match. What if American Olympic officials had decided to drop Rapinoe’s team in favour of the high school boys who had beaten them? What if the officials had told the boys they could all “identify” as girls and become the US Olympic Women’s Soccer Team? For the duration of the Olympics. Afterwards they could go back to being boys again, because gender fluidity is a thing, right? How would Rapinoe have taken that? Would she have shouted “Brava!” and stood on the sidelines along with the rest of her team in exactly the same way she’s condemning other girls and women to stand aside, bow out, and bow down to males claiming to be female?
Who knew that being a role model for girls and women was so much less fulfilling than being a Quisling?
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