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Addy Guida's avatar

I was a D1 soccer player on a full scholarship & played soccer all throughout high school as well—I was MVP on the varsity team as a freshman & received All-American honors. I was one of those players like JVL was talking about who had been receiving personal training from a former British Men’s National Team coach since I was 7 y/o. Started traveling & training on the Olympic circuit when I was 10–to summarize, I am the case of being supported & completely conditioned since I was three against the evils of the binary patriarchy. If I was competing on a men’s team, there’s no way I would even make the JV squad, & that’s NOT bc I’m not a good soccer player that was considered worthy of a $120K scholarship for my talents. Also as a (in 4 months!!!) physician, I can say without any uncertainty that there are simply biological truths that are not & cannot be explained by ā€œsocial constructsā€ or unequal support. There isn’t any uncertainty in the data—this is proven to be true as a genetic principle just as robust as is true that a chimpanzee cannot independently buy a home & sign up to go to college.

I really venture to ask these people where this line of reasoning (or illogical meandering) ends? If you took this argument to its logical conclusion, you would have to assume that women are able to bear children only bc they haven’t been supported through sociocultural norms to just not have ovaries (which is patently false since these distinctions are literally made on the genetic level guiding differential hormone exposure in early fetal development before a child is ever born). Conversely, men would only be socially constructed into not having a uterus. It’s all just fucking absurd—worse so, it’s like they’re writing a Fox News spot & giving a gift to not only bad actors on the right, but also an excuse for normal moderate people to side with the psycho MAGA bc ā€œthose people on the left are even crazier than the GOP! They want girls to play in the NFL & make us all use pronouns starting with a Z!!!ā€ā€”(I do NOT agree with this, but we’ve seen this born out in practice, JVL has highlighted it & it’s an unfortunate reality we have to deal with to protect our country against right-wing nationalist authoritarianism). These types of people are not in any way equivalent in their awfulness to the MAGAs, there IS a double standard ab what crazy gets amplified & vilified b/w the right & left, but goddamn they might be just as toxic to the cultural soup, counterproductive, & equally as incorrect.

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Sherry Bural's avatar

It is beyond frustrating when a progressive makes points that are so utterly ridiculous you feel like there is no difference between progressive thinkers or conservative thinkers....they both are out of touch with reality. There are biological differences which simply can not be ignored and no amount of support to women athletes is going to make them even.

I grew up at a time when women sports had little support. ( meaning, yes, i am old) I was quite a good athlete in my younger days and loved playing some sports with my younger nephews who loved that they had an aunt who could compete. But one day, those young nephews became teens, their bodies changed and suddenly a soccer ball kicked into the net was no longer something i could block , and it wasn't even close. Found the same experience with baseball, softball, and even tag football. No amount of assistance or support for my athletic endeavors could change that.

Be better, progressives in your arguments on this. At least get into reality.

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