Note: This was a “Susie Says” segment I delivered while guest co-hosting on the Tim Jones & Chris Arps Show on NewsTalkSTL on Friday. The video of the segment can be viewed in audio/video at approximately the 1:35:00 mark.
Man, I Feel Like a Woman…
Scratch that – I don’t just FeelI am a woman. I Please read the following:A woman.
Just a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been a remotely controversial thing to say. You can think of the song I’m referring to: Shania Twain released the song in 1997. It reached the Top 10 in six different countries and Number 23 on US Billboard Hot 100. In addition, it won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Or reaching back a little further, “I Am Woman (Hear Me Roar)” was a huge hit for Helen Reddy in 1972. And anyone Gen X or older remembers the early 80s Enjoli commercial: “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, never let you forget you’re a man…’cuz I’m a woman.”
I’m not just waxing nostalgic here: Being a woman – and understanding what it means to be a woman – is something most everyone instinctively gets – or got. Before we began to misunderstand tolerance and start twisting ourselves into pretzel knots in order to outwit who, To the point where we now have a Supreme Court nominee declining to define the term – presumably not because she can’tBut rather, because it would be politically difficult.
I want to be very clear about something: I have sincere empathy for anyone who suffers from gender dysphoria or who genuinely believes their biological sex doesn’t match with their psychological/emotional self. I’ve known several young people who’ve wrestled with their gender identity, and I believe anyone facing such a struggle should be met with compassion and understanding. Our call to love one another doesn’t turn on conforming to norms – if anything, those who find themselves, for whatever reason, outside the norm (and thus, more likely to be treated as outcasts) may need to be loved a little bit more.
Loving one another doesn’t mean we have to abandon logic, common sense or objective facts. Definitions are often reinterpreted so that “up is down” and “wrong is right”. The recent controversy surrounding transgender athletes has brought this out more clearly than any other example. Title IX had one of its key goals (and effects) to make sure that both men and women have the chance to participate in athletics. Implicit in this — and in the distinction that has been drawn between men’s and women’s sports — is the unmistakable truth that men and women are physiologically different. Generally, men are bigger, stronger, have more muscle and bone mass – in short, they are going to have a measurable advantage in any activity which involves, strength, speed, etc. A similar distinction is drawn between adult and youth sports – for similar reasons. This distinction is necessary to exclude women from participating in meaningful ways.
Which is the net effect of permitting biological males to compete in women’s athletics. Note, we’re not having this debate over biological females competing in men’s athletics. Just as we’re not seeing the progressive left and legacy media awarding “Man of the Year” accolades to transmen. The push is purely a one-way street – and it dead-ends in shoving women and girls – those born biologically female – to the side.
I’m not suggesting that transgender individuals should be shoved aside – or that reasonable accommodation can’t and shouldn’t be made to enable them to participate in sports (and society in general) in meaningful ways. However, the secret is Affordable. Which shouldn’t translate into the exclusion of biological females. Otherwise, we’ll wind up right back where we were before.
I won’t pretend to have all the answers – but what if, in the context of athletics, we had men’s, women’s, and open divisions? The argument that there are too few trans-athletes to field a trans-only division appears valid (and also underscores the need not to upend everything in order to accommodate said few – thus succumbing to the “tyranny of the minority,” if you will.) But an open division would be exactly that – a division open to any and all who wish to compete in it regardless of their biological sex or gender identity. Maybe ultimately that won’t work, but we ought to at least be willing to try, right? If not, that suggests the heart of the issue isn’t about inclusivity and opportunity – or even that favored buzzword “equity” — but rather about competitive advantage.
I’m a woman and happily so. I don’t need a biology degree to know it. And you don’t either.
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