Over the last few months, I’ve seen people sharing memes and links about trans women athletes competing on primarily cis women teams. They’re worded in a way to get people worked up over having a “biological male” or “genetic male” competing with “biological/genetic females”, with the assumption that being assigned male at birth gives athletes some sort of advantage.
This just isn’t true.
Competition requirements mandate low levels of testosterone. The IOC, for example, requires athletes competing on women’s teams to have testosterone levels of 10 nmol/L or lower. To get that low, trans women will have to take blockers, reducing how much testosterone their bodies produce. As testosterone production wanes, muscle mass, bone density, and other typical dimorphic advantages wane.
Let’s look at four examples that I’ve seen shared.
First, Fallon Fox. She’s a MMA fighter. She was in the news a few years ago when she fought Tamikka Brents, who ended up with a concussion, cracked orbital bone, and 7 staples. Here’s the thing though. Brents is pound-for-pound stronger than Fox. Look at them side by side. Fox is 4 inches taller, but Brents is way more muscular. In fact, Brents’ BMI is 27.3, while Fox’s is only 22.5. Fox didn’t win because of muscle mass. Maybe she won because she was taller, but she’s only 5’7″. She’s not a massive person.
Let’s also not forget that Brents’ MMA record is horrible. She hasn’t won a single match since she lost to Fox. She’s on a 4-game losing streak, and she’s lost twice as many games than she’s won. And guess what? Fox lost her bout against Ashlee Evans–Smith, who—surprise, surprise—is taller than Fox.
Second, Hannah Mouncey. She’s a handball player, playing on the Australian national women’s team. People are upset because she’s 6’3″ and 230 lbs, which they think gives her an advantage. Except it didn’t seem to help a lot having her on the team, since they placed only 5th (out of 10) in the 2018 Asian Women’s Handball Championship and lost half of the games they played. Plus, she got only 23 of the total 99 goals her team scored in the games, and her team finished the games with a 6 goal deficit. Her teammate Sally Potocki, a cis woman, scored 32 goals in those games, and led the scoring on 3 of the 4 games the team played.
Third, Andraya Yearwood. She’s a high school track athlete out of Connecticut. She made headlines when she won second place in a 100 metre track meet earlier this year. What people sharing news articles about her fail to mention is that she placed only 7th in the 200 metre meet at the same event, and 7th in the 400 metre meet at an event the month before and 14th in the 4×100 relay that same month. If she has a biological advantage, why isn’t she winning every meet she competes in?
Finally, Rachel McKinnon. She’s the first trans woman to win a world championship, having won the master 35–39 200-metre women’s sprint at the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships this past October. She also set a world record during the quarterfinals of that event. That is of course something that transphobic commentators focus on. Except, her record was broken that same day by a cis woman. Plus, she came in fourth in the 500-metre event, losing to 3 cis women. And the person who broke her 200-metre record, led in the qualifying heats, and beat McKinnon in the 500-metre event didn’t even compete in the final 200-metre event. Had she, McKinnon might not even have won her gold medal.
And speaking of being the first trans woman to win a world championship, if trans women have an athletic advantage over cis women, why has it taken 14 years for a trans woman to win a world championship? The IOC has allowed trans women to compete since 2004.
And these are just the four athletes who seem to make the rounds the most. There are similar stories for other trans athletes. They perform well at an event, then everyone criticizes them for their performance, citing unfair advantage, despite their records showing otherwise.
This is just plain old transphobia.
Resources
- Prevalence of low bone mass in relation to estrogen treatment and body composition in male-to-female transsexual persons
- Transsexuals and competitive sports
- This scientist is racing to discover how gender transitions alter athletic performance—including her own
