thepersianpopinjay:runcibility:erikkillmongerdontpullout:thatpettyblackgirl:This is so unfairThis co
thepersianpopinjay:runcibility:erikkillmongerdontpullout:thatpettyblackgirl:This is so unfairThis connects back to what a lot of Black cis and trans women have been saying about constructions of gender resting in whiteness. The things people say that routinely exclude trans women have been used to deny womenhood to Black cis women as well.So, to put it another way…Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who has more Olympic medals than anyone else, is a physiological freak of nature. But he wasn’t banned for his double-jointed ankles (that allow him to make more powerful kicks). They didn’t force him to wear special sleeves around his double-jointed elbows (that help him pull through the water faster). They didn’t ask him to remove bone from his extra-long arms. They didn’t ask him to swim in a separate pool full of thicker liquid. They didn’t ask him to take a tranquilizer before he swam to somehow make it more fair to the other competitors. There was no concerted effort to blunt the “unfair advantage” his natural physiology gave him. No. We know exactly why this is happening to Caster Semenya, why so many people think it’s okay. It’s racism, sexism, and transphobic bullshit. Fuck this gender-panic fuckery. Phelps also has a metabolic system that produces around ½ the lactic acid (what creates the burning in sorry muscles) that the average person produces. This means he can go harder longer before he feels the fatigue.They aren’t making him take drugs to make his metabolism more “normal.”The fact that the organization bans performance enhancing drugs, but enforces performance lowering drugs is extremely telling. -- source link