"Lia Thomas and the long tradition of 'gender policing' female [sic!] athletes"
“If a woman is good at sports,” she said, people feel a need “to question why that is.”
Thomas is male. That's not a value judgment (nothing wrong with being male) or a statement about how Thomas identifies (clearly nothing to do with sex). It's just a fact, one we've considered intensely relevant to athletic performance until about 10 minutes ago. Being male is why Thomas is shredding women’s swimming records, after an unremarkable career competing against fellow males.
If you want to make an argument for why some males should be allowed to compete in female sports (e.g., under the banner of ‘trans inclusion’), you're quite free to do so. That’s not what’s happening here. This framing is just wild and a brazen attempt to pillage the language we'd need to discuss the conflict over trans inclusion and fairness in women’s sports like grown-ups.
Abusing language like this is the rhetorical equivalent of salting the fields so nothing can ever grow there again.
The goal is not to use language to make the case for 'inclusion' over fairness but to abuse language to make the conflict unspeakable and unthinkable.
If I were pressed to find a way to improve on your (as usual) trenchant commentary, it would have to be that you are too kind.
Here's a quote from the article you reference:
"While much has changed for female athletes since Stephens’ day, suspicion surrounding their gender and sexuality — from offensive remarks to sex verification tests — remains. Several historians argue that the heated debate surrounding transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas, whose record-breaking season has thrust her unwillingly into the national spotlight, is a continuation of that century-old legacy."
Facts are meant to be meaningless, when one sings from the hymnal of the Holy Church of Gender. Stephens was a female, competing as a female, making no pretense of being other than a female. Her offense was to defy sex-based stereotypes. The criticisms of her were shallow and mean, intended to deny a talented woman the recognition she deserved.
The entire point of the NYT article is to do exactly the same - to the talented women being cheated by the fraudulent charade perpetrated by Lia Thomas and his wealthy, powerful supporters. It is worse than merely an affront to the many women relegated to at-best second-place finishes. It tells them that they should shut up and worship this new male version of womanhood, like the rest of the righteous.
As you say, Thomas is male. As you also say, with characteristic elegance, the goal of this article is to "make the conflict unspeakable and unthinkable."
Very true. I would add that its intentional ignoring of clear facts, in order to pervert the ideals of fairness in sports and trash any hopes of girls and women to ever win first place, is not merely dishonest but maliciously misogynistic. And the lie is conveyed in a sneering tone that feigns virtue.
Agreed. They conflated everything--trans, DSDs, sexual orientation. Furthermore, they used Martina Navritilova as an example of a woman whose sexuality and even sex were questioned; meanwhile, Martina has spoken out against males, including Lia, competing in the female category, as had Renee Richards. Both signed the petition that just came out in the last day or so.