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[–]emptiedriver 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Fascinating article and so frustrating too. The entire time it is simply assumed that Navratilova is unfortunately misled, emotionally riled up into becoming bigoted and backwards. There's no room for the possibility that she actually did the research as she promised to do and rationally concluded that the fair answer is also what initially seemed to make sense: that male-bodied people should not compete in female sports, and if exceptions are made they must be strict & non-reversible not just based on self-identification. How is what she's saying a sad, discriminatory, unacceptable viewpoint that doesn't even deserve to be part of documentary anymore? It's so boringly obvious, and also scientifically evident...

[–]ImPiqued1111111 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Hi there. I have a bit of a different take. I'm very familiar with Greenwald's work. I believe based on the tone of the article and his careful choice of words that he agrees with Martina.

He takes pains throughout the article to paint her as an admirable figure. He demonstrates how appalling TRAs behave. He shows what an asshole MacKinnon is, and how respectful Martina was in that exchange.

As for the issue of how he handles trans women in sports itself. Greenwald is an honest, factual journalist. He's legendary, as well as a lefty. Also in the LGBT community. He's not quite in a position to come right out and agree with her on this or he'll be canceled out of existence. Instead what he did is walked a fine line. He said he believes his intentions were good, that she wants to uphold the institution of women's sports that she worked so hard to build up (true). He throws a few bones to the TRAs that he KNOWS are rabid and says maybe she's misinformed (not necessarily inaccurate from a factual perspective, he's not a mind-reader). And then ultimately says I don't personally understand the science enough to ultimately make my own judgment on this matter (so not actually disagreeing with her). Which, he can get away with because he's not a science reporter. And he can eke by without enraging the TRAs, while also indicating to his sane readers that he doesn't necessarily buy into all of that.

When you take this all together with the overall tone of the article, I'm going to read between the lines and infer that he actually is Team Martina on this, and very cleverly gets this across while toeing the line enough. Or, at the very least, has constructed the article in just such a way to present this issue to a wider lefty audience where Greenwald is highly respected to show them the madness that is really going on in the trans/TRA community. If you take a look at the comments, people are peaking hard.

*New to Saidit, longtime lurker on reddit, hope I'm welcome here.

[–]emptiedriver 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thanks for the insight. I sometimes forget how hard it can be to get a word in edgewise if you aren't extremely subtle, which of course just makes people accuse even the most softly spoken comment as being secretly transphobic...

[–]ImPiqued1111111 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time to read my comment! Appreciated. :)