phoenixonwheels:rose-in-a-fisted-glove: runcibility:erikkillmongerdontpullout:thatpettyblackgirl:Thi
phoenixonwheels:rose-in-a-fisted-glove: runcibility: erikkillmongerdontpullout: thatpettyblackgirl: This is so unfair This connects back to what a lot of Black cis and trans women have been saying about constructions of gender resting in whiteness. The things people say that routinely exclude trans women have been used to deny womenhood to Black cis women as well. So, to put it another way… Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who has more Olympic medals than anyone else, is a physiological freak of nature. But he wasn’t banned for his double-jointed ankles (that allow him to make more powerful kicks). They didn’t force him to wear special sleeves around his double-jointed elbows (that help him pull through the water faster). They didn’t ask him to remove bone from his extra-long arms. They didn’t ask him to swim in a separate pool full of thicker liquid. They didn’t ask him to take a tranquilizer before he swam to somehow make it more fair to the other competitors. There was no concerted effort to blunt the “unfair advantage” his natural physiology gave him. No. We know exactly why this is happening to Caster Semenya, why so many people think it’s okay. It’s racism, sexism, and transphobic bullshit. Fuck this gender-panic fuckery. This is all true and very important. Semenya is also part of another group not mentioned that has been hard side-eyeing these policies though. She’s intersex. So it’s not just racism, sexism, and transphobic, it is also discriminatory against intersex people. Who are often targeted and even tortured by policies and medically unnecessary surgeries/treatments to “mitigate” the lack of fitting the gender binary. Can we also just take a moment to think about the fact they want her to compete against men when they won’t let trans men do that. They just fucking change the rules to target whoever they want to discriminate against today. Also iirc Caster Semenya didn’t even know she was intersex until they targeted her at the last Olympics and then outed her publicly. -- source link