While the International Swimming Federation has banned the use of certain swimming caps in competition, biological males are allowed to compete against females. They are just not allowed to wear swimming caps which are prohibited.
the so-called Soul Caps are swimming caps for natural black hair. They were not allowed at the Tokyo Olympics. It was the same Olympics where Laurel Hubbard competed against women in weightlifting.
Born in 1978 to the future mayor of Oakland, Hubbard competed in men’s weightlifting until 2001. At the age of 34, Hubbard began surgery to appear phenotypically female. Hubbard was then recognized and registered as a woman by the New Zealand authorities at her own request. On 2 August 2021, Hubbard represented New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s over 87 kilogram weightlifting category.
the Soul Cap was refused because the swimming cap was allegedly missing “natural head shape” would fit. Swim caps are designed to fit and protect dreadlocks, afro, thick and curly hair. Swimmer Alice Dearing wanted to wear this swimming cap. She is the first black swimmer to qualify to represent Great Britain at the Olympics. However, the International Swimming Federation refused to use this swimming cap on the grounds that “to our knowledge, athletes competing in international competitions have never used and do not need to use caps of this size and configuration”.
The committee also described the swimming caps as inappropriate and stated that due to the nature of the caps their use could be used as an advantage. So a swimming cap is an unacceptable advantage. However, do you know what is not an advantage? When a biological male competes in a women’s swimming event.
Ranked 462nd as a male, ranked 1st as a female swimmer
At the swimming championship National Collegiate Athletic Association in Atlanta in 2022, transgender athlete Lia Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle. Thomas grew up in Austin, Texas and started swimming when he was a five-year-old boy. Thomas finished sixth at the state swimming championships in high school and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019, Thomas finished second in the men’s 500, 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle. In May 2019, Tomas began hormone and physical appearance therapy and will swim on the women’s team from 2021. During the 2021–2022 season, Thomas recorded University of Pennsylvania best times in the women’s 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyles.
In December 2021, USA Swimming official Cynthia Millen resigned after thirty years in protest of Thomas’ unfair biological advantage over her cisgender competitors. Sixteen anonymous members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sent a letter to university officials noting that Thomas was ranked 462nd as a male swimmer but is now ranked first as a female swimmer.
If a swimming cap is an advantage, then so is the experience of male puberty. Lia Thomas grew up a man. Her muscles, bones and whole body grew like a man. Lia Thomas’ wife is a biological male. If in the distant future scientists find her skeleton and determine her biological sex, it will be male.
There are simply differences in biology, and biology is at least as effective as swimming caps. In 2017, for example, the then world champions in women’s soccer from the United States of America played the United States U-15 academy team in preparation for the upcoming games FC Dallas. The women lost 5-2.
Therefore, it is quite understandable that certain sports disciplines are separated according to biological sex, because otherwise women do not have the opportunity to be at the top at all. However, this does not apply to all disciplines.
Men and women competed against each other in shooting
From 1972 to 1980, for example, men and women competed in archery at the Olympics. During this time, Margaret Murdock won a silver medal for the United States at the 1976 Montreal Games. From 1968 to 1992, men and women competed against each other in clay target shooting. Only then was the discipline separated by gender.
In 1992, China’s Zhang Shan beat all men to win gold at the Barcelona Olympics. So she was higher on the podium than the men Juan Jorge Giha from Peru and Bruno Rossetti from Italy. Women hitting men was probably too much for some men. The discipline was then separated by gender.
In 1999, tennis player Serena Williams announced that she wanted to compete against men. They didn’t let her. Association of Tennis Professionals ATP banned the winner of the US Open from starting in the men’s class at the ATP tournament.
In 2012, American international goalkeeper Hope Solo was killed FIFA banned from joining the men’s football club in St. Louis. Hope Solo then commented: “I think I could have done it. It’s a shame that Fifa didn’t allow it. There aren’t that many ways to become the best in the world.”
It’s understandable why Serena Williams and Hope Solo compete with men. It’s just a sporting ambition. As long as women are not allowed to compete with the best of the best, which is currently men in almost every sport, they cannot become as good as the best of the best. As long as women can’t fight men, they don’t advance in the same way as men.
Some call such behavior toxic masculinity
Serena Williams and Hope Solo challenged the men. Similar sporting ambitions can be expected from Lija Tomas. She should compete with people who have the same biological sex as her.
When men define who a woman is, when they even take women’s places simply by claiming that they too are women, that is the end of feminism. If women who criticize this male autonomy in defining femininity are then also slandered as hateful witches, then women are being sacrificed at the stake of an awakened gender war.
In the book “anti-feminists” from 1902, Hedwig Dohm describes the type of person she calls “gentleman’s rights” tagged:
“On New Year’s Eve I was a witness when the Herrenrechtler (still preparing the punch) told his wife, who at twelve o’clock cried out “Happy New Year!”, to be silent with the words: “You must decide when midnight will be.”
Lia Thomas is such a gentleman’s rights activist. She claims to imperatively deny what is a biological fact in order to deprive women of their achievements. There are people who call this behavior toxic masculinity.
This post first appeared on Brave in the Nowhere