by Michael Tennant November 1, 2024 ( November 1, 2024 )
The United Nations — believe it or not — recently issued a report decrying males’ participation in female-only sports, noting that it presents physical and psychological dangers to women and deprives them of opportunities to succeed.
“Women and girls already have many odds stacked against them that impede their equal and effective participation in sports,” UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said in an October press release. “In addition, their ability to play sport in conditions of safety, dignity and fairness has been further eroded by the intrusion of males who identify as female in female-only sports and related spaces.”
Sex and Violence
Alsalem’s report asserts that “knowingly” increasing the danger to female athletes by “deliberately” allowing males to compete against them leads to injuries that “can be characterized as ‘violence.’”
“Female athletes,” she points out, “are … more vulnerable to sustaining serious physical injuries when female-only sports spaces are opened to males.” She cites examples from a variety of sports in which “injuries have included knocked-out teeth, concussions resulting in neural impairment, broken legs and skull fractures.”
This occurs, of course, because males are, on average, bigger and stronger than females. Alsalem references a Sports Medicine study finding that, “even in non-elite sport, ‘the least powerful man produced more power than the most powerful woman.’”
Males’ attempts to “transition” to female via drugs or hormones do little to mitigate their physical advantage. Moreover, such methods “may … harm the health of the athlete concerned,” observes Alsalem. Also, while biological women are tested regularly to verify they aren’t using performance-enhancing drugs, transgender women are not necessarily forced to prove they are sticking to their testosterone-suppression regimens.
Thus, when men — even supposedly transitioned ones — compete against women, they are virtually certain to dominate. According to Alsalem:
The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males. According to information received, by 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.
“To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity,” she declares, “males must not compete in the female categories of sport.”
Locker-room Language
Injuries and lost opportunities aren’t the only negative repercussions of letting men compete against women. Allowing males in females’ locker rooms also creates opportunities for violence of a sexual nature, which is particularly worrisome given that “sex offenders tend to be male and that persistent sex offenders go to great lengths to gain access to those they wish to abuse,” writes Alsalem. She received reports of female athletes’ experiencing “forced dissemination of non-consensual sexual images offline and online and exhibitionism, including as a result of a failure to maintain single-sex changing rooms.” These concerns, combined with the fear of losing to or being injured by a male competitor, cause many female athletes to experience “extreme psychological distress.”
And woe to the woman who complains about the situation! Reports Alsalem:
Female athletes and coaches who object to the inclusion of men in their spaces due to concerns about safety, privacy and fairness are silenced or forced to self-censor; otherwise, they risk losing sporting opportunities, scholarships and sponsorships. Many are also accused of bigotry, suspended from sports teams and subjected to restraining orders, expulsion, defamation and unfair disciplinary proceedings…. Other females have quit sport owing to pressure, threats (including death threats) and verbal abuse…. Women face aggression when they assemble with respect to these issues.
She further notes that female athletes “are rarely consulted by sports associations on guidelines regarding whether sport should remain sex-separated” and “have faced negative repercussions when reclaiming their right to single-sex sport.”
Alsalem recommends two major changes to rectify the situation. First, “ensure that female categories in organized sport are exclusively accessible to persons whose biological sex is female” — and test athletes regularly for both drugs and testosterone. Second, give transgender athletes the opportunity to compete in an open category — or convert the men’s category to open.
Woke but Welcome
This being a UN report, it is, naturally, not all as sensible as its recommendations regarding transgender athletes. For instance, Alsalem includes plenty of complaints about “toxic masculinity,” international sports institutions’ “colonial and extractive structures in which sex and race discrimination are embedded,” and the lack of opportunities for “Indigenous women” owing to “historical, multigenerational trauma, coupled with economic and social marginalization.”
She also gripes about situations for which there are quite rational explanations. “Women are paid significantly less than men in sport, which perpetuates harmful stereotypes,” she pens, yet goes on to note that “female athletes are also perceived as generating less revenue through advertising and ticket sales.” Of course, they aren’t merely perceived as generating less revenue. They actually do generate less revenue and therefore receive lower salaries. Similarly, Alsalem’s complaint that “pregnancy and maternity among athletes have been found to increase professional uncertainty” is a simple recognition of reality that further explains why women tend to earn less than men: Employers want employees they can count on to show up day after day and year after year, not to interrupt their careers unexpectedly.
Despite these woke asides, Alsalem’s report is a welcome addition to the growing list of calls for keeping men out of women’s sports. If even the UN endorses that sentiment, how can the Left oppose it?