Random Politics & Religion #06

For me, gender matters less than the context and relative size of the people involved. Men are generally larger and stronger than women, so the psychological component is pretty similar to seeing a large person hit a smaller person.

Asura.Kingnobody said: »
I guess the appropriate question now is this:

Do you wonder why you automatically feel a certain way when faced with a situation or do you not even notice it?

Watching a male punch a female, even in cases that they deserve it, always got a flash of anger from me. I noticed it, I questioned it, I sought answers, and I discovered my inner psych. I also know that not many people do that, which is a shame in my opinion.

How about you? Have you questioned it, or do you not even notice it?

Haines senior Nattaphon Wangyot–who self-identifies as a girl–advanced to the state finals in the 100-meter and 200-meter events. He won fifth place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200-meter. In both events, he competed against girls as young as ninth grade.

One of the girls Wangyot beat out for a slot at the state meet, Hutchison runner Emma Daniels, took issue with allowing a male athlete to compete in girls events.

“I’m glad that this person is comfortable with who they are and they’re able to be happy in who they are, but I don’t think it’s competitively completely 100-percent fair,” she told a local CBS station.

Another runner, Peyton Young (who competed in a different event) took a similar position. “I don’t know what’s politically correct to say, but in my opinion your gender is what you’re born with,” she told the Alaska Dispatch News.

“It’s the DNA. Genetically a guy has more muscle mass than a girl, and if he’s racing against a girl, he may have an advantage.”

Alaska allows each school to decide whether to let boys compete in individual girls’ events. According to the Alaska Dispatch News, Wangyot’s district doesn’t even require boys to undergo hormone therapy before competing in girls’ events.

“For the purposes of gender identification for interscholastic activities, the district will consider the gender identity based on the student’s consistent declaration of gender identity, their actions, attitude, dress and mannerisms,” the policy states.

Wangyot — who immigrated from Thailand in 2014, according to the Alaska Dispatch News — also played on the girls’ volleyball and basketball teams.

Alaska Family Action president Jim Minnery, organized a protest against forcing teenage girls to compete against male athletes.

“We are here today as a voice from the community to ensure that female athletes are not denied the playing opportunities and scholarships otherwise available to them and to make the playing field even again,” he said.

Minnery argued that “Allowing students to play on teams of the opposite sex disproportionately impacts female students, who will lose spots on a track, soccer and volleyball teams to male students who identify as female.”

I think the number of assaults committed by women against men go largely undocumented. Men are often ashamed or unwilling to report for the same reason women are more likely to be considered the victim in an altercation. It's a societal preconception based on historic gender roles. That doesn't make it right by any stretch of the imagination, but women and men are different physiologically, so there will always be some inequality in their roles, at least in a biological sense.

it's pretty clear women dis-proportionally suffer from it's effects

liberal war on women?

Careful there, you just made the case the inequality isn't inherently "bad".

Pffft, what a bunch of transphobic bigots. Damn right he "may", keep that privilege in check.

Seriously though, in all this PC transgender BS, it's pretty clear women dis-proportionally suffer from it's effects. What's up with this liberal war on women?

The only people suffering when transgendered people are treated respectably are the bigots. Hormone therapy would essentially neutralize the inherent sex-based differences in musculature.

I've said in a past thread, but (professional)sport is the only area where I think drawing the line for trans is difficult. Because gender divisions exist solely based on the different physical structures of men and women(although many exceptions that break the gender "tendencies" exist). I'd say if someone is on hormonal therapy it should be fine; even though for some activities the different skeletal builds could have an impact, but then again there are vastly different bodied people even in the same natural gender.
So yeah, to me if someone is on hormones already then it can be switched over.

I don't see how it's any more unfair than having an cis-woman with an unusual biological disposition towards height/stength taking part in a sport.

I think a rule based on a minimum hormone treatment interval is a good compromise between recognizing a potential issue, basing the solution around science, and not excluding a minority group. Mr. Beefcakes can't maintain any potential advantage he had before hormone treatment because the body can't maintain it without proper testosterone levels. The biology just doesn't work that way.

I think a rule based on a minimum hormone treatment interval is a good compromise between recognizing a potential issue, basing the solution around science, and not excluding a minority group. Mr. Beefcakes can't maintain any potential advantage he had before hormone treatment because the body can't maintain it without proper testosterone levels. The biology just doesn't work that way.

There's no way to truly equalize fairness because variation is going to exist both between and within sexes that is inherently going to make some individuals better than others. As it stands now, the transgendered aren't dominating any woman's sports, which is what one would expect if a cis male was competing. That's not definitive proof by any means but it does support the biology in an applied context.

Careful there, you just made the case the inequality isn't inherently "bad".

Eh, at least you recognize that there is no way to equalize fairness here. But there is still merit in the argument that someone trying to maintain muscle after taking female hormones is going to have an advantage over someone who has to try to build from the ground up without ever having the same amount of testosterone.

But yeah, we're at least close to being on the same page here (for once). I certainly don't have the credentials to determine the specifics of how much hormone therapy would be needed, but the answer should definitely be greater than zero to prevent incidents like in the story above.

Sparth, I'm sure you agree that seeing a male getting punched/shot is emotionally different than seeing a female getting punched/shot, at least at a social standpoint.

Men have always been protective towards women since the Stone Age. To see abuse towards women, we instinctively anger towards the abuser. Even in a good vs. evil situation where we know that woman deserves it, some piece of our mind gets pissed off (even for just a second) when the woman gets it.

That's just human nature.

Yes, we were once monkeys, that's why we have the incessant need to fling proverbial ***.

Major news sources said that Hillary has all the deligates she needs.

This before polls opened today for primaries in 8 states....

Hillary Clinton clinches Democratic presidential nomination
CNN

Why the AP called it for Clinton
Politico