Platonic Forms: We have mental categories that define the essence of something.
Sometimes the reality on the ground doesn't easily fit our mental boxes.
We all know at a glance the difference between a cat and a small dog. A three-year-old child can do it. Apparently it is a hard problem for a computer.
When we are faced with a Captcha challenge and asked to click examples of crosswalks, we are doing a task that separates humans from computerized spam robots. We humans know the difference between crosswalks and the stripes on a running track.
The recent Senate hearings to confirm Judge Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court coincided with the controversy over swimmer Lia Thomas. Republicans say crazy ideology-burdened Democrats want to claim Lia Thomas is a woman when she isn't, not really. "Can you define a woman," was a "got-cha" question posed by Senator Blackburn.
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| Lia Thomas, left. Riley Gaines, right. |
Lia Thomas and University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines tied in a recent swimming contest. Gaines protested that the playing field was unequal. "This is not OK and it's not fair," she said on Fox's Tucker Carlson show. The outrage! The elites!
The issue is a perfect wedge issue for Republicans. It pits Democratic support for women's empowerment, signaled through respect for women's athletics, against Democratic support for Americans with non-traditional gender and sexual orientation. The issue splits the Democratic coalition. Better yet for the GOP-Fox-Christian nationalist side in the culture wars, there are a lot more women than trans-gendered people. Moreover, the trans issue splits the LGBTQ community.
Lia Thomas may be uniquely un-sympathetic as a transgender athlete. We have not seen her lifetime of struggles, only her triumphs now competing as a woman. The first-glance male/female assessment of Thomas does not mark her as obviously binary and female. Democrats who defend her right to compete as a woman have the problem of definitions and mental boxes. Sometimes they conform easily with what we see. Sometimes not.
I have family members who compete in high school athletics, specifically women's cross country and track at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, not far from Nike headquarters. The runners are superb. They are well coached. There is enormous esprit de corps among the athletes. High school athletics offers opportunity for healthy competition, team bonding, self-discipline, goal setting.
But I noticed something when I looked at a scheduled race. In a world of political spin, "alternative facts," and massaged data I observe this bit of simple, unadorned data. Here is the seeding for a recent contest in the 1500 meters.
Among these elite athletes, the 15th fastest male is 15 seconds faster than the fastest female.
Public policy is in transition. There are hard cases, and those become politicized and famous. Gender transition is being worked out in athletics, in bathrooms, and in law. Democrats need to be careful not to take a simple knee-jerk position of opposition to the Ted Cruz-Fox-GOP talking points--easy to do because Republicans are, after all, being so nasty about this. One wants to take the opposite side. If Democrats fall for that temptation they let the cultural right frame the debate. A better, harder strategy is let policymaking be guided by realities and data. Democrats will fail if they try to sell a definition of gender--a Platonic form--that defies a reality on the ground.
Stripes on a running track might confuse a computer into thinking it sees a crosswalk, but it doesn't fool a human. We know a crosswalk when we see it. Or think we do.
[Updated. It was Sen. Marsha Blackburn, not Ted Cruz, who asked Judge Brown to define "woman."]
15 comments:
Seems ironic that the Definition of a Woman question was asked by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who is a woman, and this blog states that it was Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
T is for Texas & T is for Tennessee and both are from the wacko wing of the GQP, but still.
You know why this is an issue?
Gambling.
For me it's simply this: If we separate "winning" and "losing" from "competing". This whole argument becomes moot. When you really think about it, what difference does it make who crosses the line first?
Forget the trophies, endorsements, hero worship and all the other detritus around sports and let it primarily be what's really important; personal achievement.
If we consider the possibility of a different paradigm maybe it's even a better world.
Biological boys & men do not belong in girl's & women's sports. This is obvious to anyone, of any political persuasion, who doesn't suffer from brain fog and mental confusion.
Transgender people are less than 1% of the population. We don't need to redefine sex, gender, our language, social norms, etc., for less than 1% of the population. It is insanity.
Transgender people should have their own sports leagues and competitions with other sympathetic biological men and women. Have fun.
Here is another aspect to consider. Girls and women may have to compete while they are having their period, which happens every month. Menstruation often causes bloating, cramps, fatigue, sometimes vomiting and heavy bleeding (which can cause anemia), etc. Biological boys and men don't have to compete under these circumstances. How nice for them. Plus other biological female health issues, such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, pregnancy, and more.
The answer is to let boys and men be "feminine" and girls and women be "masculine" (Tomboys) without mutilating themselves and injecting sex hormones every day.
By the way, there is something called "detransitioning" for people with transgender regret. Walt Heyer detransitioned and has written extensively about it, including in USA Today.
Reference: "Hormones, Surgery, Regret: I was a Transgender Woman for 8 Years...," by Walt Heyer, USA Today, Feb. 11, 2019
The competitive nature runs deep in the United States. Who's on top is a feature in our country. Sports competition hit a high during the Cold War with communist countries competing in the Olympics with the other nations of the world for the honor of standing above the rest of the competitors for national pride. War played in the arena with braun and skill rather than bullets and bombs. The stakes were and still are high for countries to show the world they are number one. We were not alone in our desire to be the winner.
Certainly hormone treatments and other performance enhancing tactics were employed by the some athletes. Lance Armstrong found ways to avoid detection. The Russian Federation is sanctioned for doping practices. Generally doping was not the rule until it was called out and major athletic competitions required testing for all participants.
Questions about whether a competitor was male or female also materialized with DNA tests attempting to answer the question. With gender defined by chromosomes the woman competitor with a pronounced Adams apple and copious body hair raised questions and answered "She is!". You end up in a binary sexual world by simply relying on Xs and Ys, the one most of us recognize.
The question of medical transitioning and living life as another gender is real. So is the question of whether the gender identity trumps all other considerations. Transitioning from male to female appears to lend a tremendous advantage but all one needs to do is look closely at the body of Chelsea Manning, born Bradley Edward Manning, to see with our own eyes there isn't always a physical competitive advantage.
"What is a woman?" is a nice bumpersticker not an answer.
Asserting that there are differences between biological women and trans women can get you canceled on Twitter. A number of the statements in these comments might have been censored by the woke ideologues who run the social media platforms.
Ketanji Jackson Brown’s evasive refusal to answer a question about the definition of “a woman“ is clear proof that she understands the problem this question poses for Democrats and that she is firmly on their side of that ideological divide.
Republicans' obsession with waging culture wars rather than addressing such existential issues as climate change seems more plutonic than platonic.
We could easily deal with trans students in athletics the same way the Olympics deal with performance enhancing drugs. Those who have over a specified level of testosterone shouldn't be allowed to perform as a woman.
It’s not so easy to deal with trans women in athletics. Testosterone levels are only part of the picture.
If you transition after puberty, you have a body that has been sculpted by testosterone. It stays that way even after you lower your testosterone levels. Just look at Lia Thomas and see if that body looks like a female body to you.
You don’t have to be a biologist you know the difference. You could even, theoretically, be a Supreme Court justice and be able to tell.
Good grief, it's not just about testosterone, as explained in previous comments. It's also about body structure, which means average height, muscle development, bone size and structure. For example, women have more body fat and less muscle. On average, men are taller, bigger and stronger. Women have wider hips for carrying and delivering a child. This is common knowledge.
Anyone who is not aware of the multitude of biological differences between men and women, in addition to sex hormones, should retake Biology 101.
In the previous comment, I neglected to include that biological boys and men should not be robbing opportunities to compete from girls and women. Biological boys and men can compete in boy's and men's sports.
I don't think Mike would approve of white students robbing black students of opportunities. Without going into a long explanation, it is the same idea.
My main issue with this whole debate is that it's making an absolutely giant mountain out of a literal molehill. One of the main fear tactics used against Trans people in general is that one day a boy will wake up, claims he "feels like a girl" and then start doing nefarious things such as hanging out in the girls restroom and dominating women's sports. The truth is that that scenario and ones like it are virtually a complete fantasy with zero basis in the reality of what it means to be Trans and the journey of those who are.
The governor of Utah vetoed a bill banning trans athletes from competing in high school, and while his letter about why he did so is worth reading in full, this is a particularly good excerpt:
"I must admit, I am not an expert on transgenderism. I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting. When in doubt however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion. I also try to get proximate and I am learning so much from our transgender community. They are great kids who face enormous struggles. Here are the numbers that have most impacted my decision: 75,000, 4, 1, 86 and 56.
● 75,000 high school kids participating in high school sports in Utah.
● 4 transgender kids playing high school sports in Utah.
● 1 transgender student playing girls sports.
● 86% of trans youth reporting suicidality.
● 56% of trans youth having attempted suicide1
Four kids and only one of them playing girls sports. That’s what all of this is about. Four kids who aren’t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day. Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live. And all the research shows that even a little acceptance and connection can reduce suicidality significantly. For that reason, as much as any other, I have taken this action in the hope that we can continue to work together and find a better way. If a veto override occurs, I hope we can work to find ways to show these four kids that we love them and they have a place in our state."
While it's true that the situation with Lia Thomas is weird and feels wrong to many, using that one situation as an excuse to target a tiny minority of people who are already facing severe challenges is extraordinarily cruel.
Let's choose kindness.
Kindness is fine, but you can’t just ignore the Lia Thomas situation.
No, it was a grandstanding question.
Judges interpret laws; they don't define them. Legislators do that.
In fact, if you look at legislation it very often includes definition.
The republican party doesn't care about Americans or facts. Just hate and manipulation.
Isn't is great when some men lecture women about issues that don't directly affect them?
It's like white people telling black people that racism is not a problem. Life is much easier when it is someone else's problem.
Let me remind some readers that biological females are a protected class against discrimination for a very good reason: sexism, misogyny and patriarchy. Biological females have enough problems in a male-dominated world without having psuedo-females (biological boys and men) further attempting to intrude upon and dominate actual females who are at a distinct disadvantage around the world.
And now, according to some gender radicals, girls and women are again supposed to take a back seat because some boys and men have identity issues.
Guess what? That is not our problem. Girls and women have more than enough problems to deal with on a daily basis because we were born female - proud of it, by the way. The ignorance and disregard for biological girls and women is painful and shameful, but very typical.
Unfortunately, there is no shortage of condescending, patronizing and blatantly sexist attitudes and opinions. The real struggle continues.
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