Wednesday, August 07, 2024

Time to take some data

I saw the coverage of the women's boxing fight between Imane Khelif and Janjaem Suwannapheng, and most of the coverage on the starboard side was more or less "why are they allowing this man to beat this woman?"  I took a look at some of the pictures, and while Suwannapheng is a little bit more feminine-looking than Khelif is, and I understand that "secondary feminine characteristics" can be somewhat more subtle in southeast asian women than among others, I still have to say.....I'm not quite sure what a swab DNA test would find.

More or less, it's already extremely unlikely that those with 5-alpha reductase 2 deficiency would, absent performance advantages due to male genetics, score the three top spots in the 2016 800 meter race, or two of 72 women's spots in the boxing competition in 2024.  If it's three or more of those 72 spots in boxing, the odds go from minute to infinitessimal, and we have to wonder what happens to women's sport if we don't fence it off with the cheek swab test they used until 2000.

It's less significant than allowing trans athletes in--that simultaneously allows perverts in to the locker rooms, and exposes women to the effects of full male strength--but if the difference between those with this intersex condition and elite women is even 2% in speed and somewhat more in brute strength, we are talking about lost medals for XX women in all events, and needless injuries or worse in contact and combat sports.

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