I think I probably should have always known this, after all the racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny in sports has been omnipresent for decades and longer. In some ways I place some shame on myself for coming to my distaste later in life, but here we are.
We have the NHL making it very clear that they were never in it as allies. They're already talking about re-evaluating Pride Nights in a climate where we need visible allyship more than ever. When you disappear in the hour of most need, it's pretty clear that you're in it for the money, not to help. That combines with hockey's very recent history of sexual assault and racism. Hockey Canada is an absolute shit show of bigotry and I have yet to see evidence that has changed.
World sport has been on a racist and transphobic rampage over the past year. The latest is World Athletics. Make no mistake, the alterations in the rules have very little to do with the zero trans women competing (can you name one?) at the elite level. Trans women are a very easy smokescreen for the racism and intersexphobia of that body as they immediately managed to disqualify cis women from Africa. Don't pretend that wasn't intended. It's always intended.
Mixed into all of this is the raging misogyny around women's sports in general. Unequal funding, unequal support, sexual assaults, and more. Feels like every time I open the sports section of a news site I am reading about another story about some misconduct in sport and the shit handling of it.
I feel that some of my hatred of the sporting world has evolved out of a feeling of being betrayed by it. I always wanted to believe that there was something decent and pure about sport and competition. The corruption, greed, bigotry, and more has really just disabused me of it badly. So now, I just hate it. All of it. Nothing will change there. We all know it.
I understand your outrage, After many years away I was all set to start taking part in my sport again at the start of teh season in September, I had been invited to joy my local women's rugby team to come and train with them, and maybe standby as a specialist front row replacement. that is I was until the RFU decided to ban me, along with the 5 or 6 trans women playing anywhere in the Country. I can tell you it felt personal!
ReplyDeleteNow we have international athletics joining them with a blanket ban, it is not about safety, it is not about fairness, it is just further persecution of an much abused minority as a way of getting at other minorities.