There's not a lot else I can do to learn more but discuss it.
or rather, maybe read and consider the words people are writing before writing a defensive reply. some of the replies from trans users you're getting are from people who have played 50 hours of sports in the last month much less their whole life.
And yet, I have gained a deeper understanding by discussing it in this thread than I would have if I just watched from the sideline. People wouldn't have even been replying in the first place to talk about these issues if I hadn't have said anything in the first place.
If anyone wants to speak to their experience of being a trans player in sports, I wish they would, but for the large population of trans people on the site, I rarely see anyone speaking from personal anecdote when it comes to sports. Much less so sports at a high level. I've had people speak of their experience at school, and growing up, and so on, but not of any actual sports experience.
No. It doesn't have to be elite like that. The disparity between men and women's inclusion, coaching and opportunities has a massive disparity from very young ages, and the further you get away from countries with money the worse that disparity gets. I don't think people understand how difficult women's sports teams find it to get sponsors and funding.
Make your examples a bit less ridiculous - someone's who's played American football at a high collegiate level and then transitioned would have years of game experience at a far higher game standard. Schools put a stupid amount of money and scholarships into their American football squads. It's not just game experience either, it's a game being played at a much faster speed, against bigger players, with longer kicks and passes. Then you move to the women's game. You don't retain your physical advantages, but you do retain all of that.
I watch women's rugby sometimes and it is simply so much slower. The fundamentals of passing are somehow just not there. Tackling - of course they're not going to make monster hits but you see so many times where you wonder if they actually want to make that tackle? If their mentality is truly there to make that hit? It's not because women can't - many of the players do - it's because in many cases the men have 7+ years of experience (men start playing contact at age 8, women started at age 16 until recently) and there's so many ex pros out there by now that you might have even come into contact with one as a coach. I've had lots of coaches that have played at international level and then retired to continue doing what they love. Some coach the womens game, but since it's not as well paid most of them just stick to men's clubs. Women on the other hand don't even have a fully professionalised game yet, so you're never going to get a coach that's actually experienced the game at a very high level. I have literally hung out with the ex captain of England's national women's team, I used to be friends with women who have gone on to represent their country in the modern era of sport. I have talked to these people and they have iterated time and time again how frustrating it is that women's sport is such an uphill battle.
Like, no offense but you're imagining these big name players because you don't know the ins and outs of the sports industry.
What? Sure, you follow sports but I just feel like it's clear you haven't actually talked to people involved in women's sport very much, and especially not ones higher up concerned with funding and development. I really don't see how this is all unrelated. If men have better coaching and funding, and you get to experience that, and then go to a place where there is worse coaching and funding, you could have an advantage over your competitors. This is an advantage that can be mitigated through training and funding. I have never called for trans segregation, and I don't have any ickiness. I have actively called for their inclusion in the sport both online and in real life. All I have said is that I empathise with women's sports players feeling slighted. It's not even that trans players are coming in and dominating the game, it's that people who weren't making places in the men's game are able to make places relatively higher up on the ladder in the women's game due to the lower player pool and lower skill levels. So a player has to deal with a better player in their league. No biggie, but I understand why they could feel it as unfair that another player has had more funding and better training than them.
I've since deleted the rest of my comments because they weren't appreciated. I didn't mean to frustrate or hurt people. Feel free to reply to this one - I will read it, but I am going to stop replying from here on out.
I mean, I'm not here to say I didn't have bad takes, but I will say I talked about like 5 different sports and of them all American Football is the one I know comparatively least about. I only picked it out because it's a majority American site.
And yet, I have gained a deeper understanding by discussing it in this thread than I would have if I just watched from the sideline.
bro half your comments have been removed by the mods or yourself for transphobia. jesus christ.
if the only way you can learn about the plight of the marginalized is to rile a bunch of us up, maybe just don't. and maybe consider that a lot of us don't talk about sports in non-queer spaces because it tends to bring a bunch of replies like yours here, and that's unpleasant. hell in my fucking queer rec leagues I've had to wade through it.