Gender again. Sorry!

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Claude never actually said there was.

Like her, i think they're really quite a useful flagging device.

Are they?
 

Unkraut

Master of the Inane Comment
Location
Germany
"In general, excluding trans folks, refusing to accept their preferred gender, or promoting anti trans information is considered bigotry and will not be tolerated on the forum."

- this is an ideological stance. It is not shared by the vast majority of people and moderators shouldn't use their position to suppress discussion

Isn't the word bigotry trotted out a bit too often for these contentious issues? And the suffix phobic. It's not bigotry to make factual claims or give reasoned argumentation for a position you hold on this. In turn you allow others to mount an argument against your own position.
 
That quote is from a moderator on another cycling forum. They are clearly using their own stance in the issue to shut down legitimate debate. Presumably there can be no discussion of trans cyclists Emily Bridges eligibility because that means 'refusing to accept their preferred gender'.

The whole point of using language like 'bigotry' and 'transphobic' is to shut down discussion. Noone wants to be thought to be unkind so they don't speak out even when they know what is being said is nonsense. It's how we have ended up where we are.
 
That quote is from a moderator on another cycling forum. They are clearly using their own stance in the issue to shut down legitimate debate. Presumably there can be no discussion of trans cyclists Emily Bridges eligibility because that means 'refusing to accept their preferred gender'.

The whole point of using language like 'bigotry' and 'transphobic' is to shut down discussion. Noone wants to be thought to be unkind so they don't speak out even when they know what is being said is nonsense. It's how we have ended up where we are.

It's possible to refer to Emily Bridges as 'she' and then discuss the unfairness in her competing in female categories.
 

winjim

Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
It's possible to refer to Emily Bridges as 'she' and then discuss the unfairness in her competing in female categories.

It's possible to refer to Emily Bridges as 'she' and then discuss the appropriateness of her competing in any particular racing category.
 

icowden

Legendary Member
The whole point of using language like 'bigotry' and 'transphobic' is to shut down discussion. Noone wants to be thought to be unkind so they don't speak out even when they know what is being said is nonsense. It's how we have ended up where we are.
And this is the problem. Silencing one side of a discussion is never good or healthy. The zeal for "no platforming" at Universities is really quite abhorrent. They are supposed to be places to learn. You cannot learn if you only have one side of an argument.
 
It's possible to refer to Emily Bridges as 'she' and then discuss the unfairness in her competing in female categories.

It's possible, and people can refer to Emily Bridges as such if they wish, but compelling people to do so is demanding that they take part in an ideology to which they do not subscribe.

The moderator doesn't mention pronouns though. They talk about 'accepting their preferred gender', ie sex. It's possible to refer to any trans identifying male as 'she' out of politeness and still know they are male. The moderator is actually demanding that you accept that trans identifying men are women. That's an unscientific ideology-based stance intended only to make discussion of the issue all but impossible.

It's possible to refer to Emily Bridges as 'she' and then discuss the appropriateness of her competing in any particular racing category.

And the appropriateness, or otherwise, is based on whether it is fair to women cyclists because fairness is the bedrock of competitive sport.

There are no credible, high quality studies that support the inclusion of men in the women's category in (most) sports on the grounds of fairness. There are more than a dozen that show unfairness, ie. a retained male advantage even after lowering testosterone.
 

winjim

Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
You can't discuss it properly if you've already decided it's unfair. That was my point. It may or may not be, I'm not expressing a view on that, but to phrase it as 'discussing the unfairness' is begging the question and is itself not a fair way to go about things.
 
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Competitive sport hinges on fairness. The categories within sport, whether it's weight, sex, or age, are there to provide opportunities for fair competition within those categories. Otherwise athletic 25 year old males would win everything. 'Fairness' has been the default paramount criteria for 100 years. (Safety being assumed obviously).

By suggesting that we should talk about 'appropriateness' rather than 'fairness' I think you yourself are making a judgement that other stuff, like inclusivity perhaps, should be considered.

If you want something other than fairness to be the main criteria for competitive sport you need to make that argument. For the vast majority of people, including men in the female category will quite rightly always be a discussion about unfairness to women.
 

winjim

Welcome yourself into the new modern crisis
Competitive sport hinges on fairness. The categories within sport, whether it's weight, sex, or age, are there to provide opportunities for fair competition within those categories. Otherwise athletic 25 year old males would win everything. 'Fairness' has been the default paramount criteria for 100 years. (Safety being assumed obviously).

By suggesting that we should talk about 'appropriateness' rather than 'fairness' I think you yourself are making a judgement that other stuff, like inclusivity perhaps, should be considered.

If you want something other than fairness to be the main criteria for competitive sport you need to make that argument. For the vast majority of people, including men in the female category will quite rightly always be a discussion about unfairness to women.

Fine, so you make the case that appropriateness includes fairness. That can be discussed and debated. But you don't take 'discussion of unfairness' as a starting point. By doing that you're already introducing bias.

You know I'm simply trying to suggest that we use language which is fair to everyone, right? I'm not giving an opinion on the actual sporting and competitive side of things.
 
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