stickygirl
All the witches
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2012
- Posts
- 22,942
Just watched a BBC1 documentary with Martina Navratilova, exploring a range of angles on trans women in sport. Trans men in sport were notably absent. With a tv crew, she did the rounds of commentators and athletes, plucking facts and showing misleading graphs in an attempt to make amends for her anti-trans 'cheating' tweet and claiming she just wanted fairness and had been misunderstood.
There were some early interviews in the documentary that made me question the program makers impartiality: a sports expert who listed all the usual falsehoods of bone density, lever-length and even lung capacity and haemoglobin - it was clear where his opinions lay, or maybe it was intentionally edited that way?
Finally we got to Loughborough University ( an important sports centre ), where some proper scientific research has been initiated. Over a number of years they will be gathering physiological data from trans people before, during and after whatever physical transitions they undertake. It was refreshing to hear from objective researchers who, when asked about differences in trans women in sport, replied honestly that "we don't know". Their conclusions exposed the previous examples as being conjecture and bullshit.
It was difficult to feel much empathy for MN - she's not a people person. All the same, I was grateful to the producers for giving air-time to a topic that has become a flash-point for so much transphobia. We need the science and the facts to guide sports governing bodies, but it will be a few years before conclusions can be drawn from the on-going research. In the mean time we'll have to muddle through.
If you missed the program and can receive BBC iPlayer you'll be able to catch up on today's show - BBC1 26th June
ETA link to article
There were some early interviews in the documentary that made me question the program makers impartiality: a sports expert who listed all the usual falsehoods of bone density, lever-length and even lung capacity and haemoglobin - it was clear where his opinions lay, or maybe it was intentionally edited that way?
Finally we got to Loughborough University ( an important sports centre ), where some proper scientific research has been initiated. Over a number of years they will be gathering physiological data from trans people before, during and after whatever physical transitions they undertake. It was refreshing to hear from objective researchers who, when asked about differences in trans women in sport, replied honestly that "we don't know". Their conclusions exposed the previous examples as being conjecture and bullshit.
It was difficult to feel much empathy for MN - she's not a people person. All the same, I was grateful to the producers for giving air-time to a topic that has become a flash-point for so much transphobia. We need the science and the facts to guide sports governing bodies, but it will be a few years before conclusions can be drawn from the on-going research. In the mean time we'll have to muddle through.
If you missed the program and can receive BBC iPlayer you'll be able to catch up on today's show - BBC1 26th June
ETA link to article
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