By William J. Furney
When a man becomes a woman, does she lose her undeniable physical prowess? Will she suddenly not be so tall or broad or have so much muscle mass compared to the female of the species? Will this newly minted woman instantly lose her physical “superiority” over women and become something of a shadow of her former, bulky self?
These are the questions we ask when some men become women and go on to compete in women’s sporting competitions. Many people clap their hands in glee at what they’ve managed to achieve post their tormented — physically and mentally — transition; others, however are not so keen on males-turned-female seemingly having the upper sporting hand.
Martina Navratilova is one of them. At least she was until the rabid PC brigade got hold of her, accusing the eighties’ tennis champion and LGBT trailblazer of being “transphobic” for daring to say that transwomen were “cheating” at women’s games. Navratilova — who scandalised the tennis and wider, TV-watching world by openly declaring herself a lesbian, at a time when it was neither cool nor all that publicly acceptable but who went on to survive, thrive and become a global icon of her sport and identity — wrote today that she was wrong to say that transgender women had an “unfair” advantage compared to natural-born women they were competing against in sports.
It’s a shame the 62-year-old Czech-born American backed down on her reality-based observation, but then she’s likely concerned about tainting her hard-hitting brand — evidenced in being dropped (“jettisoned”, using her own word) as ambassador for Athlete Ally, a US-based LGBTQ athletic advocacy group, following her transgender sporting comments.
In her mea culpa, Navratilova said all she had wanted to do was to have a conversation about transwomen in female sports, and to try and protect those who compete in women’s events.
“What I really wanted to do was try to open up the debate about equality and fairness in relation to transgender participation in women’s sport,” she said. “There were too many voices that were silenced and shamed into submission and that is not right. My aim was to encourage a more scientific, rather than emotional, conversation and to search for a solution that would work better than current arrangements.”
And she added that she had been “motivated by concern about the future of women’s sport and my worry that by trying to be fair and inclusive for one group, others can be adversely affected, that eliminating one kind of discrimination can inadvertently give rise to another.”
The hard Left wants everyone included in absolutely everything, whether it’s fair or not and whether they have the ability or even an advantage over others. It’s madness and what is leading to the death of ultra-feminism, as growing numbers of both genders are turned off by their ridiculous demands and assertions that are not based on reality.
“After all, if everyone were included,” said Navratilova, “women’s sports as we know them would cease to exist. Therefore, any sensible policy must have some exclusions. But which ones? Where do you start and where do you end?”
Germaine Greer has said transwomen are not really women at all, as they don’t opt to have a womb as part of their transition. And many opt to keep their male bits (Caitlyn Jenner) in case, supposedly, they one day decide they want to go back to the other side. It’s not a case of all or nothing, but all and something, just in case.
Navratilova’s pitiful backtrack came just after UK swimmer Sharron Davies said transwomen shouldn’t be allowed to take part in female sports, because of their physical advantage, and she said that many sporting folk she knows feel the same way.
“It is not a transphobic thing. I really want to say we have no issue with people who are transgender,” she said.
“Every single woman athlete I’ve spoken to, and I have spoken to many, all of my friends in international sports, understand and feel the same way as me.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people who are in the races [now] are in a very difficult predicament when they can’t speak out. It maybe falls to the people who were competing [in the past] who would understand the predicament that is being faced at the moment to try to create a debate, and try to explain how we feel there needs to be a fair and level playing field.”
But once the threat of the politically correct front — which is almost never right about anything — and money and sponsorship take hold, there’s no chance of winning at all if you don’t agree. You just don’t have a sporting chance at all.
And the biggest folly is that feminist-zealots are so entirely blinkered that they can’t see any difference between men and women at all. It’s a wonder we manage to carry on the species.
It’s really not so ace.
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