I was reading and writing today about why women can't be deacons, and I came across a now old story about a man who identifies as a woman, got plastic surgery to make him look feminine, and fights women in mixed martial arts competitions.
No to that, too.
Although agitating for a women deacons is obviously just a step to women priests, I have to say that I am momentarily even more horrified by the man who punches and kicks women opponents while claiming to be a woman fighter.
When I was a boxer, I found out how strong men are. Even lazy, weedy men are pretty strong, relatively speaking, but big, muscular men who box? Really, really strong. I used to spar men--I was the first woman fighter in my gym--oh dear, being "the first woman this or that" is starting to feel so lame--at any rate, being the only woman around meant that if I sparred anyone, I sparred with guys, and if the guys hadn't been good, clever, disciplined fighters, I wouldn't have a face now.
I am amazed Fall*n F*x retained a license and, in fact, wasn't arrested for assault or fraud after being outed. Whatever Thai surgeons do in "gender reassignment surgery", 30 years as a man, building adult male muscle and adult male bone, is a long time for a "female athlete" to be male. Even at my most devil-may-care and at the top of my training, I would not have got in the ring with a 40 year old man, no matter what doctors had done to his face and genitalia. And my coach wouldn't have let me either.
And to think boxing fans still argue over whether or not real women should be allowed to fight. Whoo! Are they out of date. When I got involved with the sport, it was to find out if boxing would help or hinder female flourishing. Transsexuals have certainly confused the issue, and I will be interested to see if a soi-disant F-to-M attempts to join the Jesuits.
Reminds me of the craziest question I ever got from one of my high school students: "If a man decided he wanted to be a woman, had a sex change operation, entered the convent, and then decided she wanted to be a priest, what would the Church say about that?" This was probably 8ish years ago. I guess the kid was ahead of his time.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you tell him?
ReplyDeleteI think I started by saying God had made us male or female and it's important for us to respect and appreciate that. Then I probably made the case for the male priesthood. Mostly what I remember was being flabbergasted by the question, and also that the asker was sitting beside a kid whose parents had written the Vatican asking for Humanae Vitae to be rescinded because they thought NFP was equal to birth control, and wondering how on earth a teacher meets every student's needs at once????
ReplyDeleteEven crazier than all that was...the kid's question wasn't connected to what we were discussing. Out of the blue. But not one where I could easily say, "We're not discussing that right now; I'll come back to it later."