We Admit Your Female Identity, But Please Get Out of Women Sports
40min
April 2022
"The very simple answer is that I'm not a man," Lia Thomas says. "I'm a woman, so I belong on the women's team. Trans people deserve that same respect every other athlete gets." On controversial topics like transgender athletes, staying neutral is the cruelest attitude. Anyone should not cut another person in two halves and process two incompatible standards on its broken body.
In March 2022, swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender female athlete to win an NCAA championship, representing UPenn. A photo taken at the post-game ceremony exacerbated the fire that has already raged through the field of sports, education, and politics. The majority believes the huge physical advantage of transgender female athletes would destroy the shaky structure of women's sports, while someone walks out of this structure and says, "let's burn it and rebuild it."
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​Threading through the ongoing debate around Lia Thomas and the behind-the-scenes story of that photo, this episode discusses the change in transgender athlete measurement and rules and tries to unpack why the transgender female athlete issue unleashes such a high level of resistance.
Cover Design Inspiration
The free-body diagram of a swimmer at the starting position. Gravity, friction, normal force. Chaotic curves hamper the swimmer's arms and head, dragging down, pulling back, rendered in the color of the Transgender Pride Flag. And the water surface is no longer clear.
It's blurry.
Click its title to listen to the full episode on Spotify