That’s hormone dependent, though, and as I’ve said elsewhere I think that trans women should be able to compete as long as they’ve undergone a reasonable amount of hormone therapy/testosterone suppression. “DNA” has very little to do with it.

I agree, and I think it’s telling that several trans people in the comment section of this article have said that these arguments are harmful. I don’t mean to presume, but I highly doubt many trans women would be happy if the presence of trans athletes ends up seriously undermining the integrity of women’s sports.

Right? To argue for inclusion you don’t say “everyone is the same,” you acknowledge that people are different and then expand your mind just a little in order to figure how to include all of these differences. These writers have trouble with the latter, so they have to rely on the former. It’s a weak ass argument that…

It continues to frustrate me that the writers of Jezebel seem to believe there is no nuance whatsoever regarding this issue. It seems Jez’s readers recognize that athletics is an entirely different matter from any other issue of trans inclusion, yet the writers just cannot see it. 

This is what drives me fucking insane as a trans woman. Because on the one side, you have a ton of cis people saying things that are just blatantly incorrect because they don’t understand just how much HRT changes your body, especially if you start young. To give you an idea, I started at 19 and the movement of my…

I agree. The “like it or lump it” argument fails, and hands ammo to those who want to push trans folks out of public life at the same time. There are plenty of orgs that have common-sense rules regarding hormone therapy requirements for trans women and girls who want to compete, and I think that that is the winning…

Agreed. HS sports are relatively low-stakes, and I don’t know that we need like blood testing or anything like that, but at the very least a doctor’s note ought to be required before a trans girl can compete with the cis girls. The idea that that shouldn’t be necessary is not going to help trans folks out, and…

I say this as someone who is a trans reader and longtime commenter here: this article does not really help to advocate for trans issues. The idea of “variation exists, therefore it’s fine” does not adequately address this issue. A better set of arguments is:

What makes this such an insane take on a site that claims to be about women’s issues. Instead of doing a legitimate examination of the situation, no matter what side it lands on, the article instead goes full-on ‘Women be whiners’ attitude about a very legitimate complaint.

How come you never hear about Boys complaining about trans athletes beating them. Maybe it is because they don’t since they are disadvantaged by being biologically female for their entire life until their gender change and thus don’t get the phical development of biological males.

Your whole stance of “trans women are bigger, stronger and faster, so just deal” seems very dismissive.

It’s hard to get onboard with this take, having been a competitive athlete. It would be kind of the same feeling as lining up against someone who’s been doping—it doesn’t feel fair in a different way than them having more money, better coaching, better genetics, etc etc. might feel unfair. It’s just not comparable. I…

That is the thing about a health screening. Everyone it catches does not necessarily have the disease in question. But it’s one of those civil society things. Society depends on the innate decency of humans to tell the truth, then those honest humans suffer personal inconvenience for the greater good. Without that?…

As someone who is immunocompromised, may I just say: I hope she gets an infected ingrown taint hair that doesn’t heal right for at least a month. 

All those unfortunate richies... it’s like Prospero’s masque all over again. They couldn’t even hide from the plague in their fancy French restaurant.

I may be screaming into the void here but I need to let this out.

I can’t with this woman.

The wild thing is that Paltrow is really having it both ways right now: here she is hosting an infomercial for her top-dollar snake oil (she knows it’s all a grift; she’s even joked about some of the ludicrous junk she sells); meanwhile, she just played a character that spoofs the vapid bourgeois types who are Goop’s c…

Watching it, even just to laugh at it, signals to Netflix that they should do more. They don’t care, and neither does Gwenyth Paltrow, that you’re only watching as a joke, eyeballs = $$$.

Snake oil has been sold for a loooooooong time and smart people know that a sucker is born every minute as well as a fool is easily parted from their money. Paltrow is a wonderful grifter in a land where grift has unexpectedly become president king dictator.