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Originally Posted by marykae
They should decide what's safe for them and then decide whether or not to participate in this sport.
I don't join football and say "except I don't want to be tackled, because some of these women may be stronger than I am and I don't feel safe."
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The sentiments that you are expressing here are becoming disgustingly anti-woman. Don't you think women should be allowed to compete on a fair playing field within the realm of statistical advantages characteristic of a female form? The UFC is interested in more fights and more match-ups to sell tickets above the safety of the competitors and fairness of the sport.
Yes it is a sport, but it's also the livelyhood and way of life for many of these female competitors. Hormone replacement therapy isn't good enough yet and Ronda Rousey's sentiments are backed by several medical professionals.
The point that a lot of people that have seen her fight and that have fought her make is that, her residual strength and muscle retention from 30 years of being male bodied gives Fallon Fox an advantage that is outside the realm of what is reasonable for someone that is born female bodied to achieve. This advantage requires more than just hormonal treatment to calibrate it to a level to be fair for competition. I work in science research and to just roll over and think we know everything about the human body to decide that Fallon Fox can compete after only doing hormone therapy is completely ridiculous and sexist as hell. All of the reports on hormone therapy and corresponding muscle density trends for gender reassignment surgery are for the goal of making the male body and much like the female body as possible, and they do really well, but they aren't judging the body change on a scale of combat potential, just the size of the musculature.
People should be petitioning for more research done to find how level you can make the playing field with the inclusion of transgender women into WMMA. Rather than having Fallon Fox permanently injure other competitors and make it more difficult for transgender women fighters in the future when the regulations and assessment are more thorough.
to quote what I already posted on the last show thread:
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A lot of the criticism around the how thorough the UFC regulations are regarding transgender women point to the lack of data and scientific understanding on the effects of bone structure (not just density) and in particular muscle retention (endurance and the effects of aerobic exercise).
As a side note, the effects of bone structure that people are concerned about are:
- the size of the shoulders; this can provide a mechanical advantage in combat due to the higher levels of torque the body can produce to swing a punch etc.
- the orientation of the legs to the hip bones and the thickness of the leg bones. The shape of women's hip bones are different to a males because of the pressure placed on the body when undergoing child birth. The difference in shape if I recall correctly makes it easier for a woman's leg to angle sidewards (sidesplits), at a cost of being unable to deliver as much forward thrust power through the legs as males.
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