Sports New Zealand is kicking women into touch again. It's getting to be a habit.
Every single sportsperson in the world, past and present, was born from a woman. All our sporting heroines and heroes were born from women. The women and men on sporting bodies and boards were born from women. It wouldn’t be too silly to think that might be worthy of a bit of respect.
Yet, for all their crucial contribution to providing the sporting world with the people to populate it, women get the bum’s rush from Sports New Zealand when it comes to the consideration of fairness and safety in their own sports.
Women didn’t ask for the bodies we’ve got, which are on average, smaller, weaker, and more complex than men’s bodies. But like them or not, these bodies are what we have, and as long as there are established boundaries which keep us safe from the harm that may be caused by men’s greater strength and bigger build, we can fully participate and thrive in the world. In fact, being safe from harm is the first essential ingredient for anyone to be able to fully participate and thrive in the world.
However, women still had to fight tooth and nail to have, and participate in, sports and competitions. None of the opportunities in sports today for women and girls were gifted to us with charm and goodwill upon first asking for them; it was long, hard fight. Enabling women’s participation in sports is why women-only sports categories were created. But we’ve barely had these for five minutes in the grand scheme of things, and feck me, along comes a certain type of man who wants to get into them, too - the type of man who says he’s a woman.
Let’s be quite clear - men who say they’re women are not women, they’re just men who say they’re women. What goes on their heads to make them say this is not something that the whole world needs to kowtow to. Having said that, I acknowledge that the marketing and promotion around making us believe we should, has been world class. It has permeated everywhere, and into people’s psyches who should be a damn sight more discerning than buying into it, like Sports NZ.
After releasing their guidelines for community sport¹ in December last year, in which the word ‘guidelines’ fooled no one as to the compulsory nature of allowing any man who says he’s a woman to participate in women’s sports at community level, Sports NZ are now back to disrespecting women again with their Integrity Sport and Recreation Bill. Save Women’s Sports Australasia have published their draft submission here, which gives a succinct outline of the issue, and a link to make your own submission at the bottom. The deadline for submissions is 3 May 2023.
Whilst various sporting bodies around the world are realising that women and men remain fundamentally different even after a man reduces his testosterone level, and are altering their rules to acknowledge this, Sports NZ, like some others, remains obtuse to it. Perhaps they, like NZ Rugby, also have a trans Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Manager², who no one dares to challenge in his drive to create what is controversially labelled ‘inclusion’. It appears to have by-passed these sporting bodies that exclusion, in the form of creating categories, may actually create more inclusion and participation than lumping disparate and vastly mis-matched people together. Exclusion is not always bad; and inclusion is not always good.
It is incontrovertible that even after testosterone suppression, men retain a natural physical advantage over women. Nothing can turn a man into a woman. We all know this, even those who dispute it. It is why there is such a drive amongst adherents to trans ideology to make ‘gender identity’ trump sex as a category in sports, as well as in regulations elsewhere. ‘Gender identity’ is a term that has been invented to override the normal mental barriers we naturally create to accommodate our female and male biological sex differences, when there are good reasons to. The term comes with an expertly put together compelling narrative, which has been hugely successful in manipulating compliance to it.
It’s not a big ask to not want men in women’s sports, so why is Sports NZ making it so? Who exactly benefits from the ‘inclusion’ policies which allow men who say they’re women to compete in women’s sports? It sure ain’t women, and I’d put money on it that Sports NZ knows this. One day we may find out exactly whose tune they dancing to right now, because the truth always comes out.
Question: Can you spot what’s missing from this article below?
Governing body denies male powerlifter entry into women’s competition | Stuff.co.nz
Answer: Nowhere does it refer to this man, who opposes men who say they’re women being in women’s sports, as “anti-trans”. Normally, Stuff can’t use this expression fast enough, especially for women.
¹A tiny number of men in women’s sports is not equal to only having a tiny impact (substack.com)
²Trans Performer Judy O’Brien At NZ Rugby - Woman+ (womanmagazine.co.nz)
Who'd have thought that in 2023 the biggest threat to the integrity of Sport in New Zealand is the organisation that is set up to look after sport.
Sport New Zealand are the real problem.
The whole "just lower the testosterone level" is a specious argument. The male sports advantage starts before birth when the basic bits of us are being formed. All puberty does is accelerate, accentuate and cement in these differences between men and women. Less testosterone does not alter the shape of the pelvis, how the hip joints operate (which is why generally speaking, men are faster runners). It doesn't have an impact on lung capacity, muscle twitch time or anything else that make the physical differences between male and female athletes.
You are either happy to invest in fairness or you are not. Sport NZ is clearly not interested in fairness or in safeguarding the bodies of women. Just recently, there was yet another public moan about "why do girls quit playing sports?" Well going forward one reason will be that they know that despite any amount of training, they are never going to win against male bodied competitors who cheat their way to victory.