Great piece! Yes, we have female souls in female bodies and we have eyes. Shocking how many people are refusing to believe their eyes and trust their instincts.
You mean we should believe our eyes when we see this fighter naked and she’s a cis woman? Like that? Or do you mean that we should blood test everyone to make sure they fit your idea of what being a woman is?
I mean we should trust our female instincts when we recognize a person with male bone structure and muscle mass and stature. I am not concerned with genitals that may be under developed or may not be in line with their sex, they do not have a bearing on their fighting capability. And yes, the IOC should absolutely be testing for sex in women's sports (funny how this isn't an issue in male sports huh?), like they used to. The current policy allows for essentially self ID, which leaves the door open for not just people with DSDs like Khelif but for trans identified males to cheat their way in as well.
Thank you, Emily. Some commentators have falsely conflated DSDs with the trans lobby, which is ridiculous. A DSD is a medical condition, not a confused and delusional mental health state. A DSD is also proof of the binary nature of mammalian sex because it is a "programming" fault from the template of female or male, not proof of some sort of "spectrum" of sex.
Men who cheat their way to victory by claiming a womanface identity also cheat actual women out of even being able to compete in the first place, so even if they lose, they still win.
Identities don't play sports; bodies do and here's another example of a binary: you can be "inclusive" (pretend that men are women) or you can be fair (giving women a shot at winning), but you can't do both.
You are absolutely on the mark as usual. I have seen SO much conversation about Khelif being trans and I have a hard time understanding how people cannot see the difference. Trans ideology is the grounds on which this situation sits, yes, but Khelif is not trans. Trans ideology and the demands it has for society opens the doors for all sorts of injustices for women and this is one of them unfortunately. The confusion around language like “assigned female at birth” and just simple sex vs. gender is very real and very evident as I read the discourse on this whole thing.
I'm trying to have compassion for Khelif, for what must have been a difficult and confusing childhood -- potentially growing up believing you're a girl, to then go through male puberty -- and for potential health issues as a result of his condition, and for the public scrutiny.
But what I can't get past is this -- he knows he's male. He is 25. Puberty is behind him. He knows. And yet pursued a career in female sports anyway, knowingly taking women's opportunities, knowingly endangering his opponents. My compassion ends there.
This is where my head is at as well. My empathy has limits and I cannot have empathy for a situation in which this individual understands the unfairness they are benefiting from and the potential risk to the other fighters’ health and wellness they are creating and my empathy stops there.
Fantastic essay. You take me back to the night I was sat in my car in a Tesco car park at 10pm, with a newly purchased bottle of whiskey and my 28-packet of heart pills. It was during the trial of my DV abuser. Luckily I didn't do it and had the self-worth to ring friends who had helped me go to the police.They talked me down and invited me over to their house. The trauma never leaves us. This was 20 years ago, I was never offered any escape route or counselling afterwards. Yes, he was found guilty, btw.
I am so grateful for your honesty and vulnerability in sharing this, and for your choice you made to continue. I am glad for their finding of his guilt but am sorry for the fact that you received no meaningful guidance at the time.
Thank you. I had to make my own escape route, it took two years. Like most abusers, he moved me many miles from family & friends and cut their contacts. Monitored my phone and internet use. Financial control - you've heard this a million times before, because their playbook is always the same.
Beautifully put together. One look at that human being and I know that's not a woman. I feel sad, that he has maybe lived a very confusing and difficult life. Potentially never knew he ISN'T what he was raised to think until a genetic test in his 20's, maybe...but xy's don'tbelong in a ring with us. I've also been hurt by one, it's no good.
I also agree. We can have compassion and understanding for people born with these conditions and the choices their parents have to make (in this case probably were forced to make to a certain degree due to the social and religious environment of the fighter’s country of origin).
I also think that in this case, Khelif knows the truth about their physiology and is cheating and taking advantage of a situation that literally allows this cheating. I think Khelif knows the advantage they have and is putting women at risk knowingly and I do not have compassion for that. It’s shameful, and the IOC is even more shameful for allowing it to happen.
The Olympics are voluntary. Spousal abuse is not. Plus, this cis woman has lost multiple times to other cis women. The two things are NOT the same. You don’t get to decide how strong is too strong for a woman.
I’m unsure of what you mean here to be honest. In my own experience of the world, in addition to my healthcare career, I have never seen any meaningful evidence of there being more than two sexes. As I explain here, one can be either sex and have some differences of sexual development where secondary sex characteristics don’t develop properly in alignment with their sex-but that doesn’t change their sex or the fact that there are only two sexes.
I personally don’t put a lot of weight on “gender”. I am more interested in corporeal reality. Anything beyond that is completely subjective and can be manipulated any which way by any which ideology.
I work in birth. So the material reality I work with is the terrain of female reality. I have never seen a male be pregnant nor give birth nor nurse a baby.
Occasionally one of the babies I have had the honor of caring for has had evidence of one of the DSDs I refer to here and I have compassion for the road those parents and babies have to walk.
Yet I still understand that the clinical picture in those situations is one where there has been some sort of glitch in the program-those babies still have a sex, it may not have been expressed properly though.
Chromosomes are the foundation of material reality, they write the code.
Again, my work only has solidly validated what my instincts already know to be true.
Gender is a concept I believe is informed by physiology, therefore sex and gonads and gametes and bone structure and chromosomes and muscle mass and brain differences. I think the way our physiology interacts with the world around us is the basis for gender. “Gender is a social construct” is in itself a social construct in my opinion.
Considering it’s very rare for XYs with DSDs to have a uterus in the first place and they never make female gametes, not sure how this would occur. I suppose via egg donation and IVF and a whole lot of pharmaceuticals it is possible but I’m not holding my breath. Also I am opposed to all egg donation and surrogacy because they are completely unethical. One (very likely financially desperate) woman pumping her body full of pharmaceuticals in order to have her eggs harvested and sold on the market to someone who is genetically male to then also pump their body full of pharmaceuticals so it can sustain the lab-made life in their body that is not meant for this task is just one big mess of unethical, forced evidence of a person not being able to grapple with the body they were born with.
Also it sounds like you have a lot of potential quibbles with the realities of womanhood considering you think people with any combination of chromosomes and sex characteristics can be one. Comparing women with certain issues with their reproductive system to someone like Khelif isn’t the argument you seem to think it is-do you think women with PCOS and the like want to be compared to someone who is male? It’s actually crazy to compare a woman going through a uniquely female experience to someone with XY chromosomes and no ability to produce female gametes. In trying to defend your opinion, you actually are dehumanizing so many women. It’s like when black women are compared to trans identified males, if you have ever seen that argument, it’s very much an affront to the female experience.
It’s really simple, anyone you has a Y chromosome is a male. Anyone lacking a Y chromosome is female. XY- male, XXY- male, XX female, XXX female. The categories are absolutely real and every single person on the planet falls into one or another which is why we can take DNA from the bones of someone that’s been dead for centuries and determine their sex.
Great piece! Yes, we have female souls in female bodies and we have eyes. Shocking how many people are refusing to believe their eyes and trust their instincts.
It is both shocking and not, as in my observations of the world around us, I do feel instincts are steadily being injured and ignored unfortunately.
You mean we should believe our eyes when we see this fighter naked and she’s a cis woman? Like that? Or do you mean that we should blood test everyone to make sure they fit your idea of what being a woman is?
I mean we should trust our female instincts when we recognize a person with male bone structure and muscle mass and stature. I am not concerned with genitals that may be under developed or may not be in line with their sex, they do not have a bearing on their fighting capability. And yes, the IOC should absolutely be testing for sex in women's sports (funny how this isn't an issue in male sports huh?), like they used to. The current policy allows for essentially self ID, which leaves the door open for not just people with DSDs like Khelif but for trans identified males to cheat their way in as well.
Thank you, Emily. Some commentators have falsely conflated DSDs with the trans lobby, which is ridiculous. A DSD is a medical condition, not a confused and delusional mental health state. A DSD is also proof of the binary nature of mammalian sex because it is a "programming" fault from the template of female or male, not proof of some sort of "spectrum" of sex.
Men who cheat their way to victory by claiming a womanface identity also cheat actual women out of even being able to compete in the first place, so even if they lose, they still win.
Identities don't play sports; bodies do and here's another example of a binary: you can be "inclusive" (pretend that men are women) or you can be fair (giving women a shot at winning), but you can't do both.
You are absolutely on the mark as usual. I have seen SO much conversation about Khelif being trans and I have a hard time understanding how people cannot see the difference. Trans ideology is the grounds on which this situation sits, yes, but Khelif is not trans. Trans ideology and the demands it has for society opens the doors for all sorts of injustices for women and this is one of them unfortunately. The confusion around language like “assigned female at birth” and just simple sex vs. gender is very real and very evident as I read the discourse on this whole thing.
I'm trying to have compassion for Khelif, for what must have been a difficult and confusing childhood -- potentially growing up believing you're a girl, to then go through male puberty -- and for potential health issues as a result of his condition, and for the public scrutiny.
But what I can't get past is this -- he knows he's male. He is 25. Puberty is behind him. He knows. And yet pursued a career in female sports anyway, knowingly taking women's opportunities, knowingly endangering his opponents. My compassion ends there.
This is where my head is at as well. My empathy has limits and I cannot have empathy for a situation in which this individual understands the unfairness they are benefiting from and the potential risk to the other fighters’ health and wellness they are creating and my empathy stops there.
Fantastic essay. You take me back to the night I was sat in my car in a Tesco car park at 10pm, with a newly purchased bottle of whiskey and my 28-packet of heart pills. It was during the trial of my DV abuser. Luckily I didn't do it and had the self-worth to ring friends who had helped me go to the police.They talked me down and invited me over to their house. The trauma never leaves us. This was 20 years ago, I was never offered any escape route or counselling afterwards. Yes, he was found guilty, btw.
I am so grateful for your honesty and vulnerability in sharing this, and for your choice you made to continue. I am glad for their finding of his guilt but am sorry for the fact that you received no meaningful guidance at the time.
Thank you. I had to make my own escape route, it took two years. Like most abusers, he moved me many miles from family & friends and cut their contacts. Monitored my phone and internet use. Financial control - you've heard this a million times before, because their playbook is always the same.
Yes, I unfortunately have. So glad you are here ♥️
Beautifully put together. One look at that human being and I know that's not a woman. I feel sad, that he has maybe lived a very confusing and difficult life. Potentially never knew he ISN'T what he was raised to think until a genetic test in his 20's, maybe...but xy's don'tbelong in a ring with us. I've also been hurt by one, it's no good.
I’m sorry you have been hurt too.
I also agree. We can have compassion and understanding for people born with these conditions and the choices their parents have to make (in this case probably were forced to make to a certain degree due to the social and religious environment of the fighter’s country of origin).
I also think that in this case, Khelif knows the truth about their physiology and is cheating and taking advantage of a situation that literally allows this cheating. I think Khelif knows the advantage they have and is putting women at risk knowingly and I do not have compassion for that. It’s shameful, and the IOC is even more shameful for allowing it to happen.
A triumph of a piece!
Thank you so much Freda!
It’s so awful to watch - brings up traumas and continues to deliver dissonance so that we question our intuitive assessments…
Absolutely. The deliverance of dissonance is such a good way to put it, it is being served right up to us.
The Olympics are voluntary. Spousal abuse is not. Plus, this cis woman has lost multiple times to other cis women. The two things are NOT the same. You don’t get to decide how strong is too strong for a woman.
You’re right, but being female is a prerequisite to being a woman.
Sex is rooted in biology, despite your irrational desire to wish it were not.
Fantastic piece Emily. I so relate to you and your words. Thank you for creating these small pearls of beauty in these dark, dark days. <3
Thank you for these kind words and for reading and being here! ♥️
This is one of the strangest threads of conversation. To what end? Good grief.
This was obviously meant for the Vilja thread
I figured 😂
I’m unsure of what you mean here to be honest. In my own experience of the world, in addition to my healthcare career, I have never seen any meaningful evidence of there being more than two sexes. As I explain here, one can be either sex and have some differences of sexual development where secondary sex characteristics don’t develop properly in alignment with their sex-but that doesn’t change their sex or the fact that there are only two sexes.
I personally don’t put a lot of weight on “gender”. I am more interested in corporeal reality. Anything beyond that is completely subjective and can be manipulated any which way by any which ideology.
I work in birth. So the material reality I work with is the terrain of female reality. I have never seen a male be pregnant nor give birth nor nurse a baby.
Occasionally one of the babies I have had the honor of caring for has had evidence of one of the DSDs I refer to here and I have compassion for the road those parents and babies have to walk.
Yet I still understand that the clinical picture in those situations is one where there has been some sort of glitch in the program-those babies still have a sex, it may not have been expressed properly though.
Chromosomes are the foundation of material reality, they write the code.
Again, my work only has solidly validated what my instincts already know to be true.
Gender is a concept I believe is informed by physiology, therefore sex and gonads and gametes and bone structure and chromosomes and muscle mass and brain differences. I think the way our physiology interacts with the world around us is the basis for gender. “Gender is a social construct” is in itself a social construct in my opinion.
Considering it’s very rare for XYs with DSDs to have a uterus in the first place and they never make female gametes, not sure how this would occur. I suppose via egg donation and IVF and a whole lot of pharmaceuticals it is possible but I’m not holding my breath. Also I am opposed to all egg donation and surrogacy because they are completely unethical. One (very likely financially desperate) woman pumping her body full of pharmaceuticals in order to have her eggs harvested and sold on the market to someone who is genetically male to then also pump their body full of pharmaceuticals so it can sustain the lab-made life in their body that is not meant for this task is just one big mess of unethical, forced evidence of a person not being able to grapple with the body they were born with.
Also it sounds like you have a lot of potential quibbles with the realities of womanhood considering you think people with any combination of chromosomes and sex characteristics can be one. Comparing women with certain issues with their reproductive system to someone like Khelif isn’t the argument you seem to think it is-do you think women with PCOS and the like want to be compared to someone who is male? It’s actually crazy to compare a woman going through a uniquely female experience to someone with XY chromosomes and no ability to produce female gametes. In trying to defend your opinion, you actually are dehumanizing so many women. It’s like when black women are compared to trans identified males, if you have ever seen that argument, it’s very much an affront to the female experience.
It’s really simple, anyone you has a Y chromosome is a male. Anyone lacking a Y chromosome is female. XY- male, XXY- male, XX female, XXX female. The categories are absolutely real and every single person on the planet falls into one or another which is why we can take DNA from the bones of someone that’s been dead for centuries and determine their sex.
Thank you Tara. It’s really just so simple.