Leftism

The question that I don't think society has wrestled with, and I'm including both left and right wing people, is who should be allowed to do women's sports? What's the purpose of the competition?

Imagine a world without male and female events. Instead, every category is open to any athlete who wants to compete. In that world, very few Olympic events would feature any female athletes at all. You'd see some in equestrian events, some in shooting events. In most other sports, having a male body is enough of an advantage that you won't see many women at all.

So, the purpose of having a women's category seems mostly to be allowing women to have a chance at winning something by not having them compete with men. That means you have to draw the line somewhere. And, wherever you draw the line, some people are going to be left out.

Who gets to decide where the line is drawn? Different cultures have different ideas, and at something like the Olympics, every country is represented. Historically, it has been men deciding who's female enough to be allowed to compete. I think most people could agree that that's bad, and it should be women making that decision. But, should it be all women, or only athletes who are actually competing in a sport? If it's left up to the athletes, isn't there a chance they'll want to draw the line somewhere that favors themselves?

It's always going to be a sticky situation because the whole point of a women's category is to keep out another group who would otherwise have an advantage. But, there's no obvious line that can be drawn that everybody will agree with that separates the two groups.