Ilhan Omar: Keith Ellison Should Investigate Powerlifting USA's Decision to Not Permit Men to Compete in Women's Powerlifting Events

Tim Pool talked about transactivist outrage that men were not being permitted to compete in strength events with women, repeatedly noting a graph which shows that a man with average strength is strongest than the strongest woman. *

That means that an untrained man can often beat a woman engaging in strength training.

That means that if you allow men -- "transwomen" -- to compete in powerlifting, you are essentially just eliminating the women's category completely. You will have two categories, Men Who Call Themselves Men and Men Who Call Themselves Women.

Actual women will be permitted to applaud and maybe serve gatorade.

For some reason, Ilhan Omar is jumping on this issue.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar wants Democratic Minnesota AG Keith Ellison to investigate USA Powerlifting because it won’t allow biological males to compete as women.

Omar sent a letter to USA Powerlifting on behalf of JayCee Cooper, a male athlete who identifies as a transgender woman.

Omar accused the powerlifting organization of violating Minnesota state laws against discrimination.

Omar called it a "myth" that men who identify as transgender women have a "direct competitive advantage" and copied Ellison on the letter, "with a recommendation that he investigate this discriminatory behavior."

...

USA Powerlifting in late January announced that men who identify as transgender women aren't allowed to compete as women. Female athletes who identify as men are allowed to compete, but are required to abide by the same bans on external androgens as other athletes.

A sensible couple of rules. If both men and women are forbidden from boosting their muscle with androgens (steroids), then why should female-to-male trangenders be permitted to take steroids and the compete against women?

Why is Ilhan Omar, of all people, jumping on this issue?

Is this because she's an extreme intersectionalist leftwinger? Or is it because she harbors the usual Islamic notions of what a woman should be and what a woman shouldn't be, and doesn't mind the notion of destroying women's sports altogether?

Maybe women shouldn't be doing Manly things like sports. Maybe they should just be servicing their husband and making dinner with their husband's other wives.

* By the way: I think that is overstated. There will always be outliers. There is no doubt that serious powerlifting women who compete will not just beat but embarrass not only the average man, but even an average-ish man who does some not-so-serious weightlifting.

But you're talking there about 0.01% of women. And they're only beating average men, or average gym bro's. They themselves get blown away even by semi-serious amateur male powerlifters, nevermind serious male powerlifters who compete.

And this is related: female-to-male transgenders are discovering that "Male Privilege" actually doesn't exist, and that the actual privilege belongs to women. They're saying that now as "men," they are being accused of "mansplaining" for merely disagreeing or correcting errors, and are expected to defer to women in any social interaction.

posted by Ace of Spades at 03:35 PM

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