S8 E2 Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory

E2 Competitive Bosh!

I’m going to take you from the sublime to the ridiculous in this blog, and I’m going to sincerely be an advocate for women’s rights, or more specifically, women’s rights in competitive sports.

So, let’s begin with the sublime by quoting the founder of the Olympic Games Committee from 120 years ago. “The Olympic Games were created for the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with female applause as reward.”[1] French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin made this seemingly misogynous comment adding, “as no women participated in the Ancient Games, there obviously was to be no place for them in the modern ones.”[2]

In today’s world, what a load of bosh![3]

Women certainly did compete at the Herean Festival (Hera was the wife of Zeus) at the time as the ancient Olympian Games. A committee of 16 women had oversight creating athletic competition for unmarried young women. Coubertin was not only historically inaccurate, but his surmise of women was decidedly the substance of bosh, by today’s standards. “It is indecent that spectators should be exposed to the risk of seeing the body of a woman being smashed before their eyes. Besides, no matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks. Her nerves rule her muscles, nature wanted it that way.”[4]  

I will admit that his view of women was typical in Victorian Europe. And by the way, all the members on the Olympic Committee at that time were men. However laughable we may think the comments of Coubertin were, it does show there was a distinction between men and women, albeit an exaggerated Victorian one.

Let’s go back to the beginning, to Greece, where the Olympic Games originated. It will help shed light on Willy Woke and what’s coming out of the Chocolate Factory as an affront to the rights of athletic women.

The first recorded Games were held in 776 BC though historians claim athletes had been competing for at least 500 years before. In honor of the Greek god Zeus, athletes from all over Greece competed every four years, as athletes from all over the world still do today. By the second century, Greece lost its independence to Rome, and as a result, support for the Games and fair play diminished. I mention fair play because Emperor Nero once competed in a chariot race, fell from his vehicle, but declared himself the winner anyway. I think it would be correct to say Nero suffered from premature wokisim where everyone gets a prize.  

Let’s leap forward to April 6, 1896, where the lost tradition of the Olympic Games was reborn in Athens, 1,500 years after Emperor Theodosius cancelled the culture of athletes. It was a glorious moment when King Georgios I of Greece opened the Games to 60,000 spectators from 13 nations.

However, it was not until 1900, four years later, that women officially competed as athletes. Of the 1099 athletes from 19 nations, 12 were women competing in golf and tennis. I guess the “exposure to the risk of seeing the body of a woman being smashed before their eye” was still a lingering dogma. Four years later women were allowed to compete in archery. Four years after that, diving and swimming were added, though no skin above the ankle or below the neck could be seen. More evidence of the dogma.

Let’s leap forward another 108 years to the Summer Olympics of 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

More women than ever before ran, sprinted, shot, jumped, leapt, aimed, hit, peddled, swam, threw, and flipped their way in hope of a gold medal. Of the 11,000 that competed, 45% were women. Bravo!

Now let’s take a small step from 2016 to the upcoming 2021 Games in Tokyo.[5]

There are 48.8% female athletes competing in 300 events in 46 athletic disciplines. Compare this delightful fact with Coubertin’s statement, “her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks. Her nerves rule her muscles, nature wanted it that way.” Laughable right? Yes, it is considering female athletes we now celebrate as household names: Serena Williams, Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky and many more.

I promised you that I’d take you from the sublime to the ridiculous. Well, this is where ridiculousness begins. In the 2016 Games, athletes who transitioned from male to female were allowed to compete with women, though no openly transgender athlete competed this way.

Today, there are at least nine male athletes – that have transitioned to become female – bidding to compete in the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games:[6] Tiffany Abreu from Brazil (volleyball); Nikki Hiltz USA (track and field); Laurel Hubbard New Zealand (weightlifting); Robyn Lambird Australia (Para-Athletics); Ness Murby Canada (Para-Athletics); Valentina Petrillo Italy (Para-Athletics); Quinn Canada (Soccer); CeCe Telfer USA (track and field); Chelsea Wolfe USA (BMX).

Let me be clear. I am not writing about the sexual practices of athletes or how they identify sexually. I am writing about men who transition to become women and compete in an ancient tradition we call the Olympic Games (Summer, Winter, and Para-Athletics). The issue is about gender identity and how ridiculous it is becoming. So let me be clear, this type of ideological bosh is coming straight out of Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory.

For example, Laurel Hubbard has been given the green light to compete in weightlifting. However, Belgian weightlifter Anna Vanbellinghen said it would be unfair for women and “like a bad joke” because the principle of inclusion should not be at the expense of others. She also stated, “Anyone that has trained weightlifting at a high level knows this to be true in their bones: this particular situation is unfair to the sport and to the athletes.”[7] She continued, “Life-changing opportunities are missed for some athletes - medals and Olympic qualifications - and we are powerless."[8]

A group called Save Women’s Sports Australasia said, "It is a flawed policy from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that has allowed the selection of a 43-year-old biological male who identifies as a woman to compete in the female category."[9]

Former swimming gold medalist, Sharon Davis posted in a Tweet, “Do not use women’s sport as a live experiment.”[10] Former tennis gold medalist, Martina Navratilova said, “Transgender athletes in women's sport is insane, cheating!” Furthermore, Navratilova is a huge supporter of LGBTQ rights. Transgender Caitlyn Jenner gave her opinion as a former male gold medalist saying, “That's why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls' sports in school. It just isn't fair.”[11]

I am deliberately quoting gold medalists who are heterosexual, lesbian, and transgender to make my point. This issue is not about the sexual practices of athletes as there are at least 100 who will compete this summer who identify as LBGT or Q.[12]

You see, what is coming out of Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory is the lunacy of men competing with women as women. The transgender ideology is blatantly hijacking the platform of athletic sport under the guise of inclusivism. The best platform for this type of Will Woke activity is British pantomime (and I say that in jest in defense of pantomime). It seems that wokism has made its way onto the Olympic Committee from the sublime (Coubertin) to the ridiculousness of today.         

Ironically, the current vision of the Olympic Committee reads, “The vision of the International Olympic Committee is to Build a Better World through Sport.” It’s not better, it’s actually unfair! The Olympic Games do so much good in the world, but this type of wokism is a contradiction to their own vision.

The result of allowing men who transition to become women and compete with women is a distortion of athletic records, especially in the disciplines of field, track, and swimming. Lawmakers in five states[13] have already drafted measures to prevent male high-school students who transition to become female competing with female students. At least 17 states allow trans male to female students to compete with females. Some schools require testosterone suppressing treatment, gender reassignment surgery, or no requirement whatsoever. No standardized practice.

Even the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation in the State of Connecticut. Three female high school athletes complained when two biological boys, who identify as girls, won first and second place, smashing the record. Half a second for me means very little, but to an athlete a fraction of a second can mean all the difference between a bronze, silver, or gold medal. 

Here’s the bottom line.

Transgender ideology within the context of athletic sport benefits men at the expense of women. Men have greater levels of testosterone, cardiovascular reserve, lung capacity per body mass, denser and stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments. Even if a trans male athlete meets the required testosterone levels to compete as a female, there’s a whole lot more going on in the male body. Transgender ideology in this context is not just a benefit to men at the cost of women, but the ideology itself is a denial of science and fair play. Sublime to ridiculous bosh! Even the Journal of Medical Ethics has called it “intolerable unfairness.”

Here’s the real rub. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ensures that the “athletic interests and abilities of male and female students must be equally and effectively accommodated.” The transgender ideology wants nothing more than to erase equal treatment of men and women.

Here’s where I would like to land this blog about what’s coming out of Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory: weights and scales with a surprising alternative. The Book of Proverbs has a great deal to say about fairness in terms of weights and scales. For example,  

(Prov. 11:1) “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him” (Prov. 11:1). “Honest scales and balances belong to the Lord; all the weights in the bag are of his making” (Prov. 16:11). “Differing weights and differing measures— the Lord detests them both” (Prov. 20:10). Reliable, valid, and dependable science tells us that trans men competing with women as women is simply unfair. The science is echoed by Olympic gold medalists that cover the identify spectrum of LBGTQ. It’s not fair to female athletes.

So, what about a surprising alternative?

From the ancient days of Athens, the rebirth of the Olympic games in 1896 with Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s sublime comments, and through the years where athletic women have been increasingly represented, there is one commonality: games for men and games for women.

In the ridiculousness of today, why doesn’t the International Olympic Committee develop a third category for trans men who want to be women? Creating this category is nothing new to the Committee. In Rome 1960, 400 athletes from 23 countries first competed in the Paralympic Games. Then, in the Winter Olympics of 1976, the first winter Paralympic Games took place in Sweden. Since these dates, the Paralympic Games have taken place every four years. So, why not create Games for trans men and women?

However, on one hand, this alternative suggestion may resonate with the fairness principle seen in the use of weights and measures in the Book of Proverbs. On the other hand, transgender ideology does not stand up to the identity of a man and woman seen in the Book of Genesis and echoed throughout the canon of Scripture.

So, for now, though wokism marches to the beat of Willy Woke and the Chocolate Factory’s transgender ideology, I sincerely advocate for women’s rights in competitive sports. And for the balance of male ego, what man would not want “solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with female applause as reward?”  

[1]International Journal of Physical Education, 1981.

[2]Ibid.

[3]British slang for absurd.

[4]Linda Fuller. Female Olympians. 2017.

[5]Postponed in 2020 because of the pandemic.

[6]Some athletes on this list may have been accepted or rejected for the Games by the time this blog is published.

[7]BBC News, Anna Vanbellinghen, May 2021.

[8]Ibid.

[9]ESPN February 3, 2021.

[10]September 26, 2019.

[11]NBC May 3, 2021.

[12]Outsports July 24, 2019.

[13]Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Washington.