Is that a man, baby?

[trashcanman]

So seeing all of the LGBT equality issues being the hot topic of the past decade or so it looks like it's just taken the next step: to pro sports.

Should this former man, current woman, Fallon Fox, be allowed to fight natural-born females professionally?




Natural born females, like our lovely and talented young UFC champion here, who fought in the same weight class as Fox.



Notice the difference in build. Now, if you choose to externalize your mental misconceptions with hormone therapy and surgery, it is your right to do so, preferably without discrimination, but I can't really get behind this thing. As it is, we had a mannish female on testosterone and steroids (Cris "Cyborg"' Santos) whose fights often looked like one-sided domestic disputes, and that was bad enough. People were pleased when she got caught and suspended. She looks like this:



A female genetic freak cheating a bit is one thing, a former dude with the muscle mass of a man who had his penis removed so that he can beat up on girls is probably not the image the LGBT community needs right now. Talk about a slippery slope. But still, Fox has been licensed to fight and a UFC fighter was actually fined and suspended for speaking out a little too harshly on the topic. And Miss Rousey has weighed in the topic as well.

msn.foxsports.com/ufc/story/ronda-rousey-says-transgender-fighter-fallon-fox-has-unfair-advantage-041113

Rousey makes a good point. What would people think of the UFC if the women's division consisted of a natural born man who had surgery and therapy beating up regular women and being crowned champion? There seems to be one scenario everybody is okay with: Cyborg vs Fox. Throw the cheating freak of nature in with the unethical freak of science and whoever loses, we win. What does everyone else think about this whole fiasco?

[Ben]

This is pretty nutty. Why is Fox interested in fighting women when she's equipped to battle more challenging (see: larger, stronger) opponents? I get that Fox is probably amped to be a woman now and wants to hang with the girls, but come on. Sports and everyday life are two different beasts; I wouldn't take issue with the UFC telling Fox to piss off.

[trashcanman]

Well, the UFC managed to keep Cyborg out by having only a 135 pound women's weight class, which Rousey and most of the other big name ladies made no problem, but Cyborg apparently cannot. I'm guessing Fox would have a problem dropping those extra 10 pounds too, given that muscle mass. Invicta specializes in female MMA, so we'll see if they'll take her. Seeing that they could use the publicity (ANY publicity), I'm betting they make Fox/Cyborg happen, but the UFC is big enough to have to worry about image problems, so they probably are not having it.

I'm kind of bent about Mitrione's suspension. I mean, he expressed himself in an over-the-top and insulting manner, but he was also kind of getting at what everybody was already thinking. Given the PR issues of publicly calling a transgender person a "sick freak" I think a fine was in order, but taking away his livelihood (and most mixed martial artists are not paid on the scale of other pro athletes) entirely for an unspecified amount of time just for speaking his mind is kind of too far in my opinion.

[Ben]

I was taken aback by the indefinite suspension as well. I always thought UFC was more lenient about athlete commentary than most sports, but anything negative to do with sexuality is the current big no-no. It was the severity of his language that probably did him in, not his actual point (which is arguably very valid). On a more personal level, Mitrione is one of my favorite fighters so I'm bummed to see him banned for awhile.

[The Curmudgeon]

Yeah, you can do what you want with your own body and turn yourself into whatever you want. I have no problem with that. But if you THEN want to use your (and I use this term loosely) God-given natural size and weight to proffesionaly fight women that are obviously smaller than you? Get out the fucking door. Unacceptable.

It's a tricky one, because there are probably all kinds of hand wringing PC types saying she has every right to compete, and she is as much a woman as every other athlete in there.

Well, of course she is. No-one's disputing that. But she's not only all woman, she's part man as well. Part bigger, stronger man. That's life. That's genetics. Now get out of the Octagon and make me a sammich.

[trashcanman]

Nice. Well, when the person's body spent three decades developing as a man, I don't think any amount of fucking hormones in a couple years as a woman is going to take that muscle and bone mass away. Supposedly, the doctor said that her thigh muscles or something were comparably weak to a natural females so it was okay, but I personally find it odd that they'd choose one particular body part to test. I mean visually her shoulders and abdomen alone next to the other women pretty much speak for themselves. That kind of build is going to be an advantage and it wasn't gotten as a woman.

[Ben]

Curmudgeon- isn't sammich-making an innate womanly ability? Fox, having grown up a man, probably isn't qualified to help you out. Unless it's a gender thing, in which case she may be up to the task. Certainly a question worthy of being made into a Philosoraptor meme.

Trashcanman- I don't know why the thigh would be the muscle to test even if you were to single one out. Leverage? Power? I've heard the strength of a punch comes from the legs and the core, but Fox's abdominals are horribly manly. Surely that advantage alone is enough to show her out the door.