Because basic biology is rejected by transgender activists and left-wing ideologues, they often resort to censoring dissent. Otherwise, they are forced to push inane arguments such as saying that male swimmer Lia Thomas competing against women is equivalent to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
Such is the argument of Cheryl Cooky, a professor of “American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies.” Proving that professor is a title that should be treated with less reverence than it is, Cooky argues in her NBC opinion piece that gender-segregated sports are the same as “separate but equal” racial segregation was for schools, bathrooms, and restaurants.
Cooky’s arguments are all over the map. She claims coaching, training, and resources explain the differences between male and female athletes. She downplays the role of testosterone and completely ignores the natural biological advantages men have over women in terms of strength, speed, bone structure, and muscle mass.
Cooky claims banning men from women’s sports isn’t based on science but in “societal and cultural definitions of what constitutes gender or what defines a woman” because, in her mind and the mind of activists who hold her anti-science worldview, nothing defines being a woman other than claiming you are a woman. Genitals and chromosomes apparently have nothing to do with it.
All of this is delusional, as is reflected in her central argument. Lia Thomas is not Jackie Robinson, even by Cooky’s own argument. She claims women’s sports are treated unequally compared to men, just as “separate but equal” treated black people unfairly compared to white people. For this analogy to work, Thomas would have to be a woman (which he is not) breaking the “gender barrier” to compete against men (which he is not).
The difference in societal treatment of men’s and women’s sports is based on revenue. There is a difference in revenue because more people watch men’s sports because men are stronger and faster and, as a result, are more entertaining to the average person who wants to see feats of athletic achievement. If there are no biological differences between men and women, how is it that more men dunk a basketball in a day’s worth of NBA games than WNBA players have in the league’s 25-year history?
If Lia Thomas has gone from being a noncontender in men’s swimming to a dominant force in women’s competitions, is it because he is suddenly getting better coaching and resources on the women’s team, completely contradicting Cooky’s argument that women’s sports are treated unfairly compared to men?
Having gender-specific sports leagues is nothing like the color barrier, which kept black athletes out of professional sports based on the irrelevant, arbitrary color of someone’s skin. Sports for men and women are separated because of the clear biological differences between the sexes. Jackie Robinson proved the color barrier was ridiculous. Lia Thomas is proving the separation between men’s and women’s sports is necessary. Only a blinkered ideologue can’t tell the difference.
