It’s time to fight back against a trend that will sound the death knell for women’s sports. Photo Credit: iStock.
In recent years, we have all been subjected to the spectacle of biological males competing with biological females in various sports competitions – right up to the Olympics – with the predictable outcome that the biological males are the ones that end up on the podium. Anyone with a modicum of fairness in their being knows this is wrong, but as is the case with so many “woke” causes, anyone who opposes this is called names such as transphobic. A public relations campaign that just launched this past week is fighting back against this trend which, if allowed to continue, will sound the death knell for women’s sports.
The campaign is being promoted by a group called XX-XY Athletics, which claims it is the only athletics brand that stands up for women’s sport. They are certainly making a splash with the video they released this week https://x.com/i/status/1844067216997990601. With the hashtag #SaveWomensSports, the video is targeting Nike, encouraging that giant sports corporation to stand up for girls and women in sports with a number of females of various ages asking Nike to stand up for them and to “just do it.” It’s a very effective video, and will be interesting to see how Nike responds.
The entry of “transwomen” into women’s sports has seen not only the unfairness of biological males who were mediocre at best competing against their biological equals prior to becoming transwomen suddenly taking gold medals in women’s sports, but also serious injuries as biological women are compelled to compete against others who are head and shoulders taller than them, outweigh them significantly and have much greater and stronger male muscle mass. Does someone have to get killed to get people to rectify this situation?
Female athletes have also complained about being told they had to share accommodation with a transwoman on road trips with their teams, and that these biological males could use their changerooms, washrooms, etc. In some cases, grown transwomen shared changerooms with very young girls. For female athletes to train for much of their lives and then be defeated so unfairly is just wrong, and has the potential to destroy women’s sports.
It seems there could be a viable solution to this problem by merely having a separate category in athletic competitions for trans athletes to compete against each other. Makes perfect sense. That is not what the trans community is fighting for, however, as a fair competition seems to be something they want to avoid. As the trans community constantly insists that “transwomen are real women,” capitulating to having a separate trans category probably looks like conceding that point. Also, it’s disappointing that these transwomen athletes have no shame in capturing medals under very unfair circumstances. These victories would not be so pervasive if trans athletes had to compete against other trans athletes, instead of being slam-dunks to win when there are only a handful of trans competitors competing against a field of biological women.
Sports organizations are dealing with this problem in different ways. In the U.S., the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has virtually banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The other major US college body, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), has not implemented such a ban and is being sued by a number of current and former college athletes claiming the NCAA violated their rights by allowing transgender women to compete. Some other organizations are trying to have it both ways by using odd rules such as if the individual’s gender transition had taken place prior to puberty then they would be allowed to compete against biological women. This still doesn’t solve the problem as biological males’ bodies are still very different than females long before puberty takes place. The International Olympic Committee famously permitted transwomen athletes to compete in the women’s category, with predictable results.
George Orwell of dystopian novel fame was very prescient on many fronts, but he sure didn’t see this one coming. XX-XY is right to put Nike on the hotseat, as their response will undoubtedly lead to further discussion and hopefully a more robust and reasonable solution to this issue which won’t go away no matter how many sports bodies would like it to. Let’s hope Nike steps up to the plate, goes the distance and hits it out of the park. When it comes to the right thing for girls and women in sports, they really should “just do it.”
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
