Full of his usual fallacies
Oliver Brown at the Telegraph is not impressed by John Oliver’s sneers at women who don’t want men taking over their sports.
John Oliver, the British comedian whose viral rants have made him an unlikely standard-bearer for liberal America, broadcast his latest sophomoric skit on transgender athletes late on Sunday night. It was full of his usual fallacies: that biological males depriving women of sporting glory was somehow analogous to taller basketball players competing against shorter ones, or to Michael Phelps dominating swimming despite being “half-dolphin”. And yet the timing could not have been worse. For at the very moment this segment dropped, portraying sport’s trans scandal as somehow a niche issue, a women’s pool final in Wigan was being contested by two trans-identifying males.
Two males and zero women – the final was the 1 v 1 type, not the team type or pairs type or other elegant variation. Zero women in their own fucking sport. Insulting enough yet?
The contrast was grimly revealing. On one side of the Atlantic, a comic preaching to the converted in his New York studio was demeaning the integrity of female sport for clicks. On the other, each woman at that pool tournament was feeling the painful cost of her spineless administrators sacrificing her right to fair sport on the altar of gender ideology.
A male comic at that. The male takeover of women’s sports is never going to harm him personally, so he’s free to give zero shits about women and say so in public.
To anybody still demanding why we cannot all just be kind and inclusive, consider this: the adverse impact of this inclusion drive is endured, without exception, by women. You do not see women trying to make it in men’s cycling, or swimming, or fencing. You do not see women gatecrashing the final of the men’s pool. And that is because basic biology dictates the benefits in sport flow in only one direction, with mediocre males annexing victories and medals once they start masquerading as female.
And yet most of the left doesn’t give one tiny shit about that. There I was thinking the left had finally learned to stop ignoring women back in the ’70s or so. Silly me.
Soon sports will have two divisions:
1) Males with normal levels of testosterone.
2) Males with suppressed testosterone (or not with self ID).
Wouldn’t men be bad at women’s gymnastics? It’s my understanding that due to physical constraints the men’s and women’s performances are different. It’s a sport that selects for a specific frame type, one almost no men will possess.
Or am I full of shit?
Well sure, which is probably why there aren’t any “trans women” in women’s gymnastics.
No, BKiSA, you’re not “full of shit”, but you are very close to John Oliver levels of stupidly trying to minimise an important issue.
Yes, men’s and women’s gymnastics are quite different, one relying on greater strength, the other on flexibility*. There is no reason why a lightly framed male couldn’t excel in the women’s version. For comparison, look to ballet.
*Over simplification, I know, but sometimes simple thoughts can only be met with simple explanations. Female gymnasts also have incredible strength, it’s just deployed differently.
There are TiMs in women’s gymnastics, but not at any high level, for reasons already noted. I saw a video of a balance beam performance by one such athlete recently. What struck me wasn’t so much the routine (very elementary), but the fact that he performed with a short skirt (an outfit rarely if ever seen in women’s gymnastics) with a large smiley face drawn on his rear end (NEVER seen in women’s gymnastics!!!). The smiley face was frequently visible, as he was upside down (which made the smiley face right side up, and also made the skirt fall away) for much of the routine. I strongly suspect such an outfit would have meant disqualification for any woman or girl in an official competition.
That’s disgusting.
Sackbut, do you mean Paul Hunt?
Paul was an exceptional gymnast who used to “compete” as a comedy turn in competitions during the 80s. He performed a clownish version of the female routines (the only male capable of that skill & flexibility), but he wasn’t mocking the athletes – he was mocking the “girly stuff” that women were expected to perform despite being serious competitors with considerable skill. Plus the sheer effect of “clumsy” male trying to be graceful.
Everyone knew he was male, he would be given an alter ego name for the event, and he was never taking a place from a female athlete. To clown around successfully, you have to be really skilled at the technical performance – Hunt is the only male many of us have seen that can actually do the female gymnastics routines.
(Much like Le Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo requires the male dancers to be exceptional technical dancers in order to perform the comedy elements of their performances, but the primary skills are very high level – males are not usually trained to dance en pointe)
Not everyone was happy with Hunt “competing” (due to the potential mockery aspect), but it was clear that he was not taking someone’s place, just being a bit silly for entertainment. Hunt certainly didn’t insist he was really female, or have any interest in changing with the women – he was quite capable of putting a leotard on with the boys. One of the costumes might have had a smiley face on the backside – that sounds right for a comedy performance.
This really wasn’t regarded as a serious thing until the recent wave of cheating /entitled males barging into everything and throwing their weight around. More recent male interlopers have tried to compete, and they should be laughed out of the competition in the first 5 minutes – none of them have any actual skill, and they just embarrass themselves.
#5 Sackbut
In some competitions, having a visible bra strap meant being docked points.
#7 cluecat
These days, the disapproval of such an act would come mainly from thinking he was mocking trans women.
Yes, I have had points docked from my routines for exactly that. Later on, I had further points docked for refusing to remove shorts over my leotard – arguing that the boys got to compete in practical and comfortable uniforms, and that the girls were stuck in totally unsuitable kit because “it had always been like that”. In a couple of competitions, I wore the boy’s uniform shorts or matched leggings (for probably obvious reasons), and was at one point disqualified specifically because of this.
At the time, the argument that this was blatant sex discrimination didn’t get very far…
I looked up Paul Hunt balance beam videos, and yes, what I saw was a relabeled video of one of his performances. Thanks for the information.
Second that – interesting stuff.