it seems like science doesn’t know. so lemme finally segue into trans rights. one of the coolest, unique things about speedrunner demographics is how inclusive they are to trans ppl, and how visible they are<br><br>so it’d be insane if what happened in chess happened there

fleegar

@shoutplenty

i had forgotten that back before ppl started arguing male bodies didn’t have an advantage in sport, there were also ppl arguing that the dominance of men in like computing, gaming, even music, was entirely explained by social factors. “biological essentialism is cringe” [1/10] https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1691936623624089956

8/18/2023, 8:46:08 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

sometimes on twitch you can catch a rare sighting of a speedrunner who is on a fully different plane to gender ideology. he offered an insight that was fresh to me – the reason speedrunning is dominated by men is bc it appeals to autists and autism is much more common in men

8/18/2023, 8:46:08 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

by “men”, i’m kinda reductively describing an aggregate of one’s biological characteristics in the past and now, some of which are for sure factors that interest one in speedrunning. social factors make hardly a difference here, which comes across in 2 ways

8/18/2023, 8:46:09 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

(1) trans women outnumber cis women in speedrunning, and (2) across almost all speedrunners, you see traits of social reclusion; they come to this place thru a single-player escape into the internet, mostly bypassing the men who would hypothetically gatekeep them

8/18/2023, 8:46:09 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

this is all just my opinion mind. i could see someone saying that upbringing, childhood years pre-transition are what establish the “sex” difference but instinctively i dont feel it

anyway, it’s interesting cos, there’s a biological diff in athletics ofc, but is there in chess?

8/18/2023, 8:46:10 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

it seems like science doesn’t know. so lemme finally segue into trans rights. one of the coolest, unique things about speedrunner demographics is how inclusive they are to trans ppl, and how visible they are

so it’d be insane if what happened in chess happened there

8/18/2023, 8:46:10 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

i had considered it understood that the female events are a kind of affirmative action, so it’d make no sense to exclude anyone who is female in any way

however, someone told me he interpreted those events as a sex category, so questioned the point of the events existing at all

8/18/2023, 8:46:11 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

it seems silly to think of men as having a sex advantage in speedrunning, but it could well be true for all anyone knows. so at what point do terfs start arguing to exclude trans women?

well, i would beg never, cos u ought to have a proven reason to ruin their day

8/18/2023, 8:46:11 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

this is the logic i would apply to this chess case. idk who even asked for trans women to be excluded from women’s tourneys *w/o evidence*. over some guess about them having an advantage. their alienation is still real then, from not being affirmed and not fitting either camp

8/18/2023, 8:46:12 AM

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fleegar

@shoutplenty

the point of this whole thread is i wanted to emphasise how trans people will always exist, need rights and our support, long after gender ideology fucks off and dies

and that isn’t a kind of self-sabotage. ppl r just too used to framing everything thru 1 way of thinking [10/10]

8/18/2023, 8:46:12 AM

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