NBC News reports on trans swimmer Lia Thomas and the long tradition of 'gender policing' female athletes

Brett T. | 6:45 PM on March 16, 2022

OK, NBC News, what have you got for us? There’s been plenty of debate over University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who as a woman is shattering records left and right in the pool. Is that fair to the biological females on the team? It was just this January when NBC News reported that there’s “little scientific evidence” that biological males have an advantage in women’s sports. Is it possible NBC News found “little scientific evidence” because so many might be afraid to get canceled if they were to point out the obvious?

Now we have NBC News reporting on Thomas and the long tradition of “gender policing” female athletes. This ought to be tedious; let’s have a look:

For as long as women have excelled at sports in the modern era, their gender and sexuality have faced fierce scrutiny, historians say. https://t.co/HbKgT4EsIQ – @NBCOUT

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 16, 2022

"historians say" 🤡

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) March 16, 2022

Julie Compton reports:

“Historically, there’s just been a concern that sports would masculinize women or that women might either feminize sports or that you would lose gender distinctions that many people valued,” said Susan Cahn, a history professor at the University of Buffalo and the author of “Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Women’s Sport.”

She added that trans and intersex athletes — those who are born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical “male” or “female” categories — further blur boundaries and raise questions about how separate and distinct sex and gender really are.

“The dislike of women who appear masculine or seem to compete in ways that are masculine extends to transgender women and intersex people competing as women,” Cahn said.