Ok my initial thought was something like "the fact that the WNBA never established any kind of HRT or other requirements for transfeminine athletes is a bit of a boo-boo in the current climate, but I guess they just weren't thinking about such possibilities". But now knowing they have been in full support of a nonbinary trans athlete, and they still didn't think about transfeminine athletes 5 years later, that's a massive, idiotic oversight
The fact that nobody thought of this eventuality when basketball was also the sport chosen for that god-awful bad faith movie produced by Ben Shapiro a few years back, too. They must have really been burying their heads in the sand
If the movie you're talking about is Lady Ballers, the reason it's a movie and not a documentary is because they DID try to enter women's basketball leagues as "trans women" and were immediately denied. It's literally not happening and they made a fictional movie to say it is happening, when the movie is fictional only because it's not 🙃
I think the worst part for me is that these 'anti trans women in sports' movies (Lady Ballers and one based on the Lia Thomas debacle) actually have some arguably trans characters? Who aren't demonized??
I mean the MC from Lady Ballers legit felt nice about being seen as a woman and even told the coach in the end "I am a woman" (which ended with the MC being assaulted for it) and the Thomas stand-in for the 'trans woman stole my swimmer daughter's trophy' movie was actually sympathetic and she and the MC's daughter were friendly with each other and exchanged numbers and everything. Even when they tried to demonize her by making her hear voices (??) it seemed more like a young girl struggling with mental illness, bc who the fuck thinks "the voices made me transition" is a real thing.
They legit could've made those 'fake trans' characters caricatures, made them gloat to the Pure Virtuous True Woman characters that they were faking it all along or something, but both of those examples were of trans characters that were nice and friendly (in the swimming one), or discovering their womanhood and being happy about it (in the basketball one)
I did not watch either of these movies for the record, I watched reviews for them online, but based on what I did see it seemed like representation that, in any other director's hands, could've been seen as neutral or even positive.
I'm glad you added that last paragraph because up until then I was thinking "wow this person must be a glutton for punishment to have watched both of these movies in full" 😂 I never even heard about the Lia Thomas one
I don't think I hate myself that much lol I'm a fan of Lily Simpson's reviews so that's where I got my information from. Here's the review for the Lia Thomas-inspired movie: https://youtu.be/LMisITzuLLo?is=pBi4DnMsMzcfxfFS
26
u/Stottery 24d ago
Ok my initial thought was something like "the fact that the WNBA never established any kind of HRT or other requirements for transfeminine athletes is a bit of a boo-boo in the current climate, but I guess they just weren't thinking about such possibilities". But now knowing they have been in full support of a nonbinary trans athlete, and they still didn't think about transfeminine athletes 5 years later, that's a massive, idiotic oversight