I've been holding onto this for two weeks. in Those Public Entries

TERFs, to put it bluntly: Y’all are weird.

Now that all the people butthurt by being called spades are running to the comments section, I didn’t watch the Olympics this year, but I heard all about them. Specifically, I heard about Imane Khelif, the Algerian welterweight boxer, supposedly “being a man” after Angela Carini lost her match with Khelif. Because Khelif hit her, and Carini claimed that she’d “never been hit so hard before.” So naturally, Khelif is trans! First we disrespect the Bible and mock the Last Supper, and now we’re letting men compete in women’s sports?! When will this woke shit end?!

Actual footage of me, hearing all this bullshit.

If I can just go off for a minute, is the Olympics not, and has it not always been, the competition of the Best, Fastest, and Strongest? And do most Olympic athletes not have physical attributes that make them the Best, Strongest, Fastest athletes in the world? Does Simone Biles being 4‘7”, with short legs and broad shoulders, not give her a distinct advantage over most female gymnasts, who typically average around 5‘1” with narrower shoulders and longer legs? Did Michael Phelps’s long arms, ginormous hands, and long torso not give him an advantage over other swimmers, including Katie Ledecky? Do Olympic bicyclists not tend toward having huge, muscular thighs, which gives them more leg strength to pedal? In short, aren’t most elite and Olympic-level athletes, in various ways, “freaks” of nature, built to be better, stronger, and faster than the rest of us mere mortals?

And maybe I’m an idiot about boxing, but isn’t the whole purpose of that sport to punch your opponent harder than they punch you? I think Miss Italy (and boy, am I embarrassed to be Italian-American right now) would have cried “trans” if her opponent had been literally Rapunzel from Tangled, because she just seems like a spoiled brat and a sore loser.

Which, by the way, what kind of shit-awful coach does Carini have? I’m not doubting that Carini is one of the best boxers in the world -she made the Olympic cut- but how fucking delulu is she, and how delulu is her coach, to not even consider that there could be at least one better boxer than her in that field? Let’s be realistic, here: Let’s say there were 20 women welterweight boxers competing in Paris this year (no, I don’t know how many female welterweight boxers were competing this year; moreover, I don’t care). Only three of those women are going to medal. Every boxer in that field has a 15% chance of getting a medal, which also means they each have an 85% chance of not getting a medal. If your field has more competitors in it, your chance of getting a medal decreases. If you’re competing at the Olympics, you’re already one of the best in the world, but be realistic: You’re probably not going to walk away with a medal. And yeah, “not with that attitude,” but at the same time, attitude doesn’t change the stats, so maybe change your attitude to match the stats.

I can understand Carini being upset that her chance at getting a medal was gone after her match with Khelif. That would be crushing for anyone. But the way she reacted was so horrible that I honestly want to kick her coach in the soft bits, for not being realistic or reasonable with her. And telling her that the only way she could possibly lose was if her opponent was “really” a man.

Now, let’s get to the facts: Imane Khelif is not trans. She doesn’t have “high” testosterone levels. The organization that said she “failed a gender test,” the International Boxing Association, is regarded as deeply corrupt and unreliable. And bee tee dubs, even if it was true that Khelif has high testosterone levels, a lot of cis women have high testosterone levels! If you have PCOS, acne, hirsutism (excessive hair on your body or face, like I do), hair thinning or loss, otherwise unexplained weight gain, or infertility, and you’re a cis woman, you likely have high testosterone levels! It’s not fuckin’ uncommon! Hormone levels are the worst indicator of someone’s sex, because as it turns out, both males and females have estrogen and testosterone, and the levels of both these hormones can be thrown out of whack for any reason, or none at all! A man with Klinefelter syndrome, for example, has higher estrogen levels than a man without it. And Joe Rogan, who has been one of the loudest voices calling Khelif trans (as if that’s a bad thing to be; also, it’s illegal to be LGBTQIA+ in Algeria, so everyone who still insists she’s trans, go to the bench) has admitted to having low testosterone levels and taking testosterone replacement therapy for it. Fine. But now he’s arguing that any woman who has high testosterone is really a man. Does that make Rogan actually a woman, by his own argument?

To any TERFs still reading this, I want you to know: This is how you sound to the rest of us. Stupid, uneducated, reactionary, and controlling. There is no correct way to be a woman. Who gives a fuck if a woman competing in a sport doesn’t “look” feminine (especially, excuse me, in an inherently violent and toxic masculinity-ridden sport like boxing)? Who gives a fuck if a woman has a beard or a mustache? Who gives a fuck if a woman has a big nose? Who gives a fuck?! What harm do these attributes cause you?!

I want physical proof that you have been harmed by just seeing an ugly woman. And just to be clear, I don’t take “bitch made me scratch my eyes out!” or “mein retinas!” or “I was staring at her and walked into a lamppost” as “legitimate harm.” That’s on you, and your lack of impulse control/situational awareness, sugar-pie.

So: Provide me actual proof that merely looking at an ugly woman caused you measurable and unavoidable physical or psychological harm. Go on, I’ll wait.

And no, not liking looking at a woman with a beard/big nose/who isn’t traditionally feminine does not constitute harm done to you. You are 100% allowed to not find these traits attractive or pleasant. You’re not allowed to cry foul, or pretend that we’re “men appropriating womanhood,” just because ugly women exist and you don’t want to look at us. Not every person is going to be physically attractive, TERFs included (and excuse tf outta me, TERFs, but I’ve seen a lot of you, and I have some bad news…). Most people, when you get right down to it, are 5’s at best. If your “criteria” for transvestigating somebody is “they’re not a 10!”, then you’re going to end up thinking that 90% of humanity is trans. That’s how the fuck this works! There’s a reason exceptionally beautiful people catch our eye and get famous, and it’s because they are exceptions to the rule. Most of us are objectively not beautiful, and that’s considering and accepting that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” For that matter, so is ugliness.

Again, it’s okay to not find certain features attractive or pleasant. That’s just part of being a human who isn’t asexual or aromantic, or both. But you’re not going to do anyone any favors, least of all yourself, if you just dogmatically proclaim that everyone with features you, personally, find unattractive, is trans. And on that note, like I said earlier, TERFs aren’t exactly winning most traditional (i.e., white and European standards-based) beauty contests, either.

That, my fiends, is called “projection!” And I’m tired of seeing people project their insecurity about their looks onto everyone else! I mean, I get it: I don’t like what I see in the mirror, either, but I’m not about to cause legitimate harm to other people just because I can’t deal with my own ugliness.

TERFs, once again: Y’all are weird.