Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Of course only in the Anglo world:

While this is obviously an important issue for cis-female athletes, it's not really relevant to a discussion about Republican attempts to legislate trans people out of existence, is it?
 

luka

Well-known member
While this is obviously an important issue for cis-female athletes, it's not really relevant to a discussion about Republican attempts to legislate trans people out of existence, is it?
it is and it isn't. it's the sort of story that makes people go lol this is mental we have to put a stop to this. which is what makes the republican attempts to legislate them out of existence viable.
 

wild greens

Well-known member
It was Fallon Fox beating the absolute shit out of Tammy Brent that made the Republicans & Rogan realise they could make a big song and dance about all this in the first place, rightly so in that regard tbh the fight is disgusting

Then that swimmer with the massive shoulders, Lia Thomas

It is a very strange precedent
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It was Fallon Fox beating the absolute shit out of Tammy Brent that made the Republicans & Rogan realise they could make a big song and dance about all this in the first place, rightly so in that regard tbh the fight is disgusting

Then that swimmer with the massive shoulders, Lia Thomas

It is a very strange precedent
Yeah, it's very weird because it's an issue on which people can be right for the wrong reasons - so that notably right-wing men can point out the absurdity and wrongness of a professional fighter with a man's physique earning prize money by beating the shit out of a woman, but they're probably not doing it because they care deeply about women's sports, or about women in general.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
it is and it isn't. it's the sort of story that makes people go lol this is mental we have to put a stop to this. which is what makes the republican attempts to legislate them out of existence viable.
Yes, elite adult and college athletes are the one area in the current assault on trans people where, unlike access to gender-affirming care or drag shows or etc, there are valid, good faith arguments to be made against participation by people who've gone thru male puberty, especially for contact/combat sports and sports reliant on strength. Ofc, as T + wg noted, the huge majority of those arguments are not being made in good faith. It is undeniably an area of vulnerability, which has been leveraged by transphobes as part of this massive assault, including laws about sports for prepubescent children (see: Kansas et al), where there is no competitive advantage based on biological sex.
 

chava

Well-known member
Yeah, it's very weird because it's an issue on which people can be right for the wrong reasons - so that notably right-wing men can point out the absurdity and wrongness of a professional fighter with a man's physique earning prize money by beating the shit out of a woman, but they're probably not doing it because they care deeply about women's sports, or about women in general.
Tbh I hate women's sports, and I think women's cycling should be banned
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Tbh I hate women's sports, and I think women's cycling should be banned
The fact that it's impossible to tell whether this comment is ironic or serious pretty much sums up the cynicism of right-wing use of women's sports to attack trans people
 

luka

Well-known member
women's football is pretty bad to watch tbf. and i dont like watching women fight. if i was into tennis i would probably happily watch them play tennis though, or volleyball for that matter. i can't imagine there's anything wrong with women's volleyball. you have to take it on a case by case basis. like craner i used to love watching merlene ottey sprint. the cocaine hauteur of her face.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I love women's athletics.

I'm a big fan of Sharapova's fragility and pout.

I'm trying to explain what happened in the tennis...


...because it took Venus Williams less than half an hour to demolish Maria Sharapova, and that was inexplicable. This year Sharapova's whole game has come apart. Remember, after all, that this tense and determined girl, born within the radius of Chernobyl fallout and bred in Florida's fetid tennis camps, took Serena Williams apart during a Wimbeldon final at the age of 16. ...





Sharapova's post-match press conference was a helpless, angry, pathetic affair - her eyes slim, expressionless; her lips pursed, thin, and sour; her bravado empty and resentful. Next, rather wrecked by events, she pulled out of the Fed Cup, incensing Russia's chief tennis coach Vladimir Kamelzon, who said, "her closest advisors are Americans and they would never allow her to play for Russia" and "I'm telling you, just forget about all these promises." But really, so what. There are athletes divorced from patriotic aspiration; there are of course many and lots, probably all, in it for personal glory. In Sharapova's case it goes further. Not exactly Russian, or quite American, without discernable or admitted interests outside tennis, and no mental trace or clue beyond relentless forward drive and singular focus. Bred, then, not raised, a physical production, drilled on tennis courts since early girlhood....

And, this being the case, the collapse of her game must be creating catastrophic psychological chaos of a deeper, colder kind than, say, the explosions of warm, tortured Amelie Mauresmo. Though it's hard to care about.

Now, the resurgance of Venus Williams was itself spectacular and unexpected. Her strangely brittle limbs had been all broken up with tears and strains for months, and in their last match Sharapova had demolished her. So this year Venus Williams came from nowhere. Down-seeded, exiled to outer courts, no one was paying much attention until, suddenly, they noticed that Williams had got through the first four rounds with seering, ruthless dispatch. She looked amazing. No "innovative" tennis skirts, just white vest and shorts; her hair unfussy and functional, blunt fringe held back by curt visor. Slim arms and calfs and thighs, with all that explosive power packed within, but always vulnerable, liable to snap or quall (hence strange, and brittle seemed, maybe for the first time, perfectly primed to cope with what they could inflict. And fra

Oops, another thing I didn't finish. It's becoming a habit.

Did you have to pause for a mop-up?

I use a sock.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
It's true, I like women's tennis too. I'm not sure what this contributes to the transgender debate, though.
 

luka

Well-known member
womens cricket is probably poor. i doubt you'd want to watch that. women's badminton on the other hand is probably perfectly watchable.
 
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