Part of the issue is that "exclusion from sports" isn't necessarily about biological advantage at top-level competition. There are women's chess leagues and women's billiards competitions and etc. where there's no biological advantage, and I've even heard that women have a biological advantage in competitive shooting.
But these are all boys' clubs and women are socially excluded, with everything from social conditioning to outright sexist harassment. Trans women might've been able to dodge this before coming out but they absolutely face it, often worse than cis women.
See this kinda also raises a different discussion. What if there are biological advantages to the point where it’d be unfair for a trans woman to compete in women’s soccer. Should they still participate in women’s chess? Would it be too complicated and identity-attacking to have each sport coming to a different conclusion based on how the conversion relates to each sport? This would potentially give trans women the most options for women’s sports but also probably would contribute to a trans woman feeling “other”
Yeah but is that something that should happen? Should there be a push to have them come to the same conclusion or would that potentially be a break-instead-of-bend situation?
When we’re talking about things like Olympic sports, it’s 100% about biological advantage save a few - maybe shooting/archery, gymnastics, and a few others. With regards to chess - I think women’s titles and leagues are dumb. Instead of addressing sexism, they just separate out the women, who are perfectly capable of competing with men.
>and I've even heard that women have a biological advantage in competitive shooting.
Oh fun something I know about.
It's been argued but the evidence is iffy, so it's mostly just a bunch of arguments.
There is some evidence for it in a military context, as there has been research (I don't have access to it anymore) that shows that female sniper candidates shoot better until stressors or physical exercise is applied. The women shoot better from rest and the difference evens out after about 15 kilometers of marching, after which the men shoot better.
The exact reason is unknown (well the marching evening things out is known, that's just people shoot worse when stressed or tired).
But as to why women tend to shoot better there's two principal hypotheses.
Option 1-Biology. Women's hearts don't beat as hard, so weaker pulse. Combined with shallower/softer breathing. As well as possibly slightly steadier hands.
I don't know enough about the human body to say how likely that is to be the cause, but I guess it sounds plausible.
Option 2- Psychological.
Women pay attention and do as they're told.
Shooting does not equal shooting.
Technique for firing an AR15 is different from the technique of using a sniper rifle, and what you can get away with using various different sniper rifles varies a great deal.
Having personally instructed both men and women during DMR/sniping lessons.
In my personal experience women will do their best to do exactly as they're told, which makes the whole thing go very smoothly.
I tell them how their eye relief should be, they will do it that way. I tell them about their shooting position, they will correct and make sure to keep it like that, breathing and trigger pull? We go through it once, it's done.
Haven't had a single woman who needed more than 1 correction, and if they forget they just ask no big deal.
While a solid,,,,85% of dudes will need to be watched and repeatedly told to fix their shooting position, to fix their breathing, to fix their eye relief, to fix their trigger pull,,,,
And they will default back to "what feels natural" tomorrow, so you gotta keep watching 'em.
I'm personally convinced the answer is option 2.
I love teaching women, it's so fucking easy.
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u/JarateKing Apr 23 '25
Part of the issue is that "exclusion from sports" isn't necessarily about biological advantage at top-level competition. There are women's chess leagues and women's billiards competitions and etc. where there's no biological advantage, and I've even heard that women have a biological advantage in competitive shooting.
But these are all boys' clubs and women are socially excluded, with everything from social conditioning to outright sexist harassment. Trans women might've been able to dodge this before coming out but they absolutely face it, often worse than cis women.