UFC women's bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, didn't mince words about her views on Fallon Fox' eligibility to compete against women during a recent interview. Read more
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David, I just wanted to respond to you after reading your post on the Yahoo contributor network MMA blog, starting with the sentence "The reality is, gender reassignment surgery is still a relatively new procedure, and there hasn't been enough research done on its effects".
ReplyDeleteThe castrating part of GRS for MTF people probably goes back to the very beginnings of civilization and religion, and produced quite a few very well known and deliberately intended de-masculinizing effects, physiological and behavioral. And due to that removal of the primary source of testosterone production trans women face the symptoms of menopause unless we take estrogen, which is not a performance enhancing drug.
Furthermore in western civilization GRS has been documented at least back to the 1930s and should not be considered a "new procedure". It could be argued that procedures like reconstructing joints, implanting titanium to strengthen bones, and even surgically correcting eyesight are not only much newer surgical procedures but also clearly potentially performance enhancing, especially as they are improved in the future. Wait until someone gets "reconstructive surgery" on their elbow and then is suddenly immune to getting it hyper-extended or dislocated in a pain/disabling/submission hold.
Look, I think people have every right to ask questions (respectfully) when something like this comes up. But there are scientific answers available that should guide the discussion. The International Olympic Committee has already looked at this sort of thing a great deal and set guidelines to follow, but if MMA wants to review the evidence then they should. Psychologist and surgical records can certify her status. An endocrinology test can answer questions about Fox's hormone levels. Measuring her arm and leg length and hand size and bone density and muscle mass and whatever else and comparing them to the measurements of every other fighter in her weight class to see if anything is far outside the range of normal variation can be done, but only as a blind statistical analysis, not as an inquisition determined to find any one thing wrong. Far too many people just instinctively say "she is different because I think she is" but their argument boils down to feelings and things they think they learned in first grade science class about "bone structure", like thinking men have either more ribs or fewer based on the Bible.
You make valid points, but that isn't enough to definitively state that Fox wouldn't have an unfair advantage over a biologically born female. Many folks are just as unhappy with the Olympic commission, even though the most contact-intense sport at the games would be boxing with 10-ounce gloves and protective headgear. Female MMA fighters don't have the same luxuries.
DeleteDon't take the resistance towards Fox as an attack on transgender folks. That really isn't the case for me and many other hardcore fans. It's really a matter of her opponents safety.