"Yet I’m the only one I know with any kind of chronic connection to running who even seems to have identified all of this next-level foolishness as anything more than, at worst, part of an annoying fad in which people get to make stuff about body parts until comparative sanity again rules the fray." - Well, you and the brojos.
Regarding merging men's and women's sports (which I oppose wholeheartedly for not only running but any physical sports, age 6 and up), perhaps the natural endpoint is to merge the sexes and eliminate competition, which is innately exclusionary. If one is truly inclusive, why do we need to time races and identify winners and losers? After all, the goal should be to celebrate people of all speeds, correct? If we stop hosting competitions, the problem of transgender women and girls being faster than other women and girls is solved. Replace track meets with fun runs and cross country races with group social runs where everyone is welcome!
"Yet I’m the only one I know with any kind of chronic connection to running who even seems to have identified all of this next-level foolishness as anything more than, at worst, part of an annoying fad in which people get to make stuff about body parts until comparative sanity again rules the fray." - Well, you and the brojos.
Regarding merging men's and women's sports (which I oppose wholeheartedly for not only running but any physical sports, age 6 and up), perhaps the natural endpoint is to merge the sexes and eliminate competition, which is innately exclusionary. If one is truly inclusive, why do we need to time races and identify winners and losers? After all, the goal should be to celebrate people of all speeds, correct? If we stop hosting competitions, the problem of transgender women and girls being faster than other women and girls is solved. Replace track meets with fun runs and cross country races with group social runs where everyone is welcome!