Men competing as women couldn’t be more unfair
How does Australia celebrate the greatest day in our nation’s female sporting history? Instead of pushing for better pay, we have national guidelines asking for males to be allowed to compete as females, writes Lucy Carne.
Rendezview
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rendezview. Followed categories will be added to My News.
We should call it “sisterhood Sunday” — the greatest day in Australia’s female sporting history.
Last Sunday, Sally Fitzgibbons cruised to the world number one ranking in surfing. A few hours later, Ashleigh Barty — fresh from her French Open win — became Australia’s first tennis world number one in 16 years and the first Australian woman since 1976.
If that wasn’t enough, golfer Hannah Green (ranked a mere 114 in the world) won the Women’s PGA Championship. And to top the day off, the Australian women’s eight won gold at the World Rowing Cup in Poland.
It was a remarkable — and let’s face it, rare — achievement.
MORE FROM LUCY CARNE: Why are the cultural elite honouring this paedophile?
It was also an inspiring watershed for sportswomen in Australia who have long fought for equal recognition to men.
And so how do we celebrate this milestone? How do we bolster the numbers of girls in sport to ensure that Australian women as world champions are not a rare occurrence but a frequent reality?
Do we have a commitment to greater investment in women’s sport funding? Do we have a push for better pay for professional sportswomen?
No. We have national guidelines asking all sporting clubs to allow males to compete as females.
The mind boggles.
MORE FROM LUCY CARNE: My baby’s skull was fractured. But we were forced to wait
On Monday, it was reported sports clubs have been issued gender guidelines that allow transgender people to compete as the sex they identify as.
The guidelines — set out by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Sports Australia and the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports — encourage all clubs to allow participants to decide which team or sport to join, based on their gender identity and not their biological sex from birth.
The guidelines, which aren’t mandatory, also include the suggestion clubs allow a biological boy to compete against girls, so long as they are 12 years old and under.
It also advised sporting clubs should stock skirts in sizes that fit gender-diverse players and provide sanitary bins in male and female toilets.
If adopted, the guidelines would impact nine million athletes across 16,000 clubs in sports including tennis, netball, soccer, rugby and cricket.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said the guidelines would address “unlawful discrimination” against transgender people in sport.
MORE FROM LUCY CARNE: Why I refuse to celebrate International Women’s Day
There is no denying transgender people need more inclusion and support across society.
They endure appalling sociological disadvantage and harrowingly high levels of suicide and depression.
It’s easy to see how competing in sport as their gender is a representation and acceptance of their identity that has long been denied.
But it is also unjust to expect female athletes to move over and make way for men who identify as women.
There are distinct — and at times immense — physical differences between men and women.
The fact the guidelines request skirts to fit transgender bodies is a clear acknowledgment of these differences.
From puberty, which can now be as young as nine in boys, testosterone increases male bone size and density and muscle size and strength.
This creates a 10-12 per cent performance gap between males and females, according to Duke University data.
The International Olympic Committee currently rules transgender athletes can compete without corrective surgery but must keep their levels of testosterone below 10 nanomoles per litre for 12 months (99 per cent of women have testosterone levels less than three nanomoles per litre).
Yet even when testosterone levels drop, residual effects remain of being born male, including height, weight and spatial awareness.
MORE FROM LUCY CARNE: Why Bluey’s dad is exactly what we need
The effects of testosterone cannot be ignored.
The Australian and USA women’s football teams have both been thrashed by sides composed of 15-year-old boys.
Male-born transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon, who transitioned at 29, won gold at last year’s UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships.
In 2017, Olympic, World, and U.S. champion sprinter Tori Bowie’s 100 metre lifetime record of 10.78 seconds was beaten 15,000 times by men and boys.
Tamikka Brents, a female mixed martial artist, said after being severely injured in a match by a transwoman: “I’ve never felt so overpowered in my life.”
Canadian scientist Joanna Harper, who is a transgender woman and runner, wrote in the journal of Law and Contemporary Problems: “If women’s sports are valued as creating an arena for women to compete with individuals substantially physically similar to them, then individuals who are athletically male should not be allowed to participate in it.”
Nobody should deny a transgender person’s right to play sport.
Yet surely we shouldn’t make it even harder for women to succeed for the sake of inclusivity and diversity box ticking?
These guidelines only serve to push girls and women further out of sport.
Quite frankly, that couldn’t be more unfair.
Lucy Carne is editor of RendezView.com.au
We’re replacing the kangaroo with this? What a waste of $10m
What happens when you get a self-serving mining billionaire whose fortune depends on the Chinese Communist Party to help rebrand Australia? A national symbol that looks like a COVID-19 cell, writes Miranda Devine.
Sorry for the scare campaign, the planet is fine
When a climate activist apologised for how environmentalists had misled the public over climate change threats, the fearmongers were not happy, especially when Greta is upping her fight, writes Miranda Devine.