They think trans women have an unfair advantage in… fishing?
Three members of an English women’s fishing team in England are refusing to compete at the world championships due to the fact that one of their own teammates is trans.
The Shore Angling World Championships will take place in Italy in November, and the board of the sport’s governing body, the Angling Trust, has said it will not prevent trans angler Becky Lee Birtwhistle Hodges from applying to compete.
I heard a similar story about a transwoman in esports…
You know that thing that is already not gender segregated to begin with
Magic Moonshot?
I don’t know any specific names, I don’t really follow that scene it was something my brother told me about, because I’m trans people and he wanted my opinion as a trans woman.
I told him that, yeah it was just as stupid as he thought, and that technically the Karens complaining were right…
In that, a transgender individual likely had an upbringing that is the opposite of the way they present now. Meaning that any transgender woman was likely a young boy who played Star Fox for Pokemon or whatever, at one point. So a transgender woman on average probably has an advantage over a cisgender woman when it comes to playing video games, but this Advantage is not biological in any way, and merely boils down to the average transgender woman being more likely to have prior experience than the average cisgender woman.
Which has the slight possibility of being a minor factor in a woman’s only Esports League.
But only a minor one, and not one worth disqualifying anyone over, because there it isn’t like there was this period of time where it was illegal for young girls to play video games just not very common. But there were also plenty of boys who didn’t grow up playing video games, as the hobby has been a niche for most of its existence.
And even then the point is moot because Esports leagues are not segregated by gender in the first place, meaning any social gender-based advantage wouldn’t even be a factor in how the game is judged or viewed.
Tl;dr
Transphobes do not give a shit about transgender women having some kind of magical advantage that comes with growing breasts later in life than the transgender woman in question would have wanted to. What transphobes are mad about is the fact that one of “them” is somewhere where the public the can see her, instead of at the back of the bus.
When we are talking about esports we are not talking about “the average” person. I know a lot of women who played video games religiously and two people in the hobby of video-games have no real advantage over the other based on experience.
What stops a lot of the participation of women who play in esports and things like competition trading card games is the culture that places them under a microscope because of their sex or that constantly treats their participation as a novelty. Growing up with a male socialization doesn’t help on that front because the application of misogyny is often not something that trans women were raised in to find the various forms of resistance or coping as normal. Trans women facing misogyny often are paralysed at first by just not knowing what to do. A lot of them lean on trans masculine people a bit to trade the tricks and tips normally passed woman to woman to deal with a whole different set of social expectations and form strategies to deal with threatening men knowing your muscle mass is below par enough to never be trusted to keep you generally safe ever again. If a space is hostile towards women trans women are usually equally vulnerable or worse because they’re still figuring everything out without the benefit of a period being a young girl where the support system recognizes their vulnerability and lack of experience and is prepped to correct, advise, help and hone survival instincts. Trans women also can’t naturally assume the cis women in the room will watch their backs the same way they would a cis woman.
What a lot of transphobes seem to latch onto is this idea that the dangers and roadblocks they are used to encountering can’t also apply to trans women. Cis women must be the most in danger and the most worthy of protection and their spaces cloistered because to accept that trans women need the same social support is to have sympathy for someone they see as privileged… However trans women often actively surrender their male privileges good and bad without gaining the security net of solidarity with other people lacking that privilege. Banning them from women centric communities and spaces denies them those secure bonds and makes them overall more vulnerable.
I agree with everything you just said
I’m not on twitter, so I don’t know all the details of the Magic Moonshot incident, but a friend explained the highlights to me the other day.
Halo Infinite has a deal set up with a independent community channel of casters called LVT. Halo/Microsoft/343 (however you choose it) doesn’t care enough to cover the full spectrum of matches and play at their tournaments, so LVT is given access to cover that live feed and cast from the events. The only woman that was part of their team of casters goes by the name Magic Moonshot. Recently she set up a women’s tournament (non-sanctioned and no prize pool) and went to the mats to exclude a transgender woman from the event. She would not budge and it comes out that instead of any skill gap or game knowledge issue, she just won’t allow it for religious reasons. I had heard she spelled it out like a true frothing transphobic zealot, and it sparked a whole message from everyone in the community that #haloisforeveryone. She has refused to apologize or walk any of it back and as far as I know is now exiled from the channel and community.
So the only woman actually casting play by play halo matches during tournaments is now gone due to her own prejudice. Not everyone liked her commentary or personality but it was so important that she was there just to keep pushing toward greater inclusivity in the FPS game casting world. A real cutting off your nose to spite your own face moment.
The main stage desk host for Halo (Lottie) is a woman though. So while thankfully there’s still some representation, it’s not really the same thing. Hopefully Halo reads the room and gives a transgender person the opportunity to fill one of these roles in the near future. While the game is largely a toxic cesspool, it’s important that everyone feels represented in the community and that people can see things through a unique perspective. I have little hope for that at the moment though with the abhorrent rise in anti-trans rhetoric and corporations trying to stay neutral enough to avoid criticism of having an opinion on it.
Fucking stupid country.