At the Ivy League Championship Swim Meet last weekend, Thomas easily won four events, setting pool and league records. She may be the most-improved swimmer in history. She was ranked 462nd in the country a few years ago, and is now ranked Number 1.

The difference is not that her swim times have gotten better. It’s that her competition has gotten worse. Her Number 462 ranking was against men, while her Number 1 ranking is against women.

Thomas is on the women’s swim team at Penn but went through her entire life including her development years of puberty as a man with male testosterone levels producing male height, weight and muscle mass.

It’s true that she has now undergone gender-change surgery. (They call it “gender-correction” surgery, as if nature erred in giving a male phenotype to a person with a male genotype.) She has also been taking drugs to suppress male hormones has been taking female hormones as well.

But no scalpel touched the musculature she’d developed from a life as a male with male homones. And the medication she’s taking is not retroactive. Thomas still has the height, weight and musculature of a man. When’s the last time you saw a biological woman with those shoulders?

Such knowledgeable notables as Martina Navratilova, Caitlin Jenner and Michael Phelps have expressed opposition to Thomas competing against women.

It’s not just that a man on a women’s team gives the team an unfair advantage against other teams. Like other team sports, swimming involves competition against other teams and also competition within the team. There are only so many spots on the team. Thomas takes every spot she wants, at the expense of some woman who has worked since infancy for that spot and holds a ranking in women’s swimming far better that Number 462.

Thomas’ teammates have objected to this outcome. In response, their mega-woke university has explained, “shut up,” and so they now make their objections anonymously.

The teammates are also forced to share a locker room with Thomas, and she’s apparently not the shy type.

I’m not a misogynist for mentioning the fact – yes, it’s a fact – that women on average are smaller, lighter and have less dense muscles than men. That doesn’t make women inferior to men; it makes them different. It’s also a fact that women on average are more communicative and better in languages than men, while men on average are better at linear analysis.

I hope this doesn’t come as a surprise but – TRIGGER WARNING! – men and women are different.

How long must we accommodate men-turned-women who want to compete against women in athletics? Women’s boxing is now an Olympic sport. Imagine Mike Tyson in the ring against a woman. Will this amuck wokeism continue until and after a man-turned-woman kills a woman in a competition?

It doesn’t bother me that Thomas “identifies” as a man, though I think “identify” perhaps exaggerates her predicament. She surely doesn’t think she’s a woman. The most she can possibly think is that she enjoys pretending to be one.

Fine, I’ll honor that. After all, I enjoy pretending to be a writer, and most people honor that too.

Note too that I honor Thomas’ choice of pronoun. If she wants me to call her a “she” then I will. I take the same position with Caitlin Jenner (for whom I’ve expressed admiration).

It also doesn’t bother me that Thomas is unwilling to consider that her problem might be not what’s between her legs, or used to be, but what’s between her ears. I think she needs therapy more than she needs surgery. But that’s her business, not mine.

All that said, Thomas’ choice of a woman’s pronoun and genitals doesn’t make her a woman even if I honor that choice out of respect for her feelings. She’s still a man objectively. And so I do care about her competing against women in athletic competitions. A person who went through puberty as a male, competing against a person who went through puberty as a female, is cheating.

I have to wonder about Thomas’ mindset. She’s aware that her teammates think she’s playing unfair. Deep down, and probably right on the surface, she’s aware that they’re right. Their female bodies cannot and never will beat her male body.

Thomas obviously competes with women not despite the fact that the women can never beat her, but because of that fact. After all, she could still be competing against men if she wanted to, but against men she’s only the 462nd best. She seems to revel in the attention of being Number 1 even if it means being a woman-beater.

Thomas should be ostracized. She’s a bad man.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5036903&forum_id=2#44002946)

Lmao @ this pathetic subtle groveling to libs (“I’m not *that* bad! I still call him a ‘she’ even if I don’t really think it!”). This author lacks the insight to realize that giving these insane libs an inch (e.g., cowing to social pressure and calling a man “she”) inevitably leads to men participating in women’s sports and creating the Emperor Has No Clothes Pt. II.

The title of this piece is cringe in itself

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5036903&forum_id=2#44003714)

'It's definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women,' one swimmer on the team told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

Lia has told her teammates that she dates women.

While Lia covers herself with a towel sometimes, there’s a decent amount of nudity, the swimmer said. She and others have had a glimpse at her private parts....

And it's frustrating because Lia doesn't really seem to be bothered by all the attention, not at all. Actually she seems like she enjoys it. "

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10445679/Lia-Thomas-UPenn-teammate-says-trans-swimmer-doesnt-cover-genitals-locker-room.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5036903&forum_id=2#44003202)

https://twitter.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1495017999425806342

Megan McArdle

@asymmetricinfo

Whether or not you think Lia Thomas should be allowed to compete in women's sport, Thomas is not "cheating"; she is following the rules as laid out. There is no underlying natural law order that demands there must be a sporting league exclusively reserved for biological women.

7:50 AM · Feb 19, 2022·TweetDeck

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5036903&forum_id=2#44004621)

You cannot write that sentence and continue to use English words and grammar to make sense. Kant, etc.

The very existence of sports depends on the idea that "differences" are measured along a scale of inferiority to superiority. So, indeed, being a faster and stronger swimmer IS superior.

The winner of a race is superior.

Male swimmers are superior.

That this is a controversial statement means it needs to be hammered home 100000x a day.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5036903&forum_id=2#44004674)

they just want to identify as being pure and noble and being the most rightthinking of the rightthinkers... up until the point there is an iota of sacrifice or personal consequence. they are the most disingenuous people in the world.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5036903&forum_id=2#44039638)