Where is the brave little boy to say, “But the Emperor has no clothes!”? This famous Hans Christian Andersen line could come to mind when pondering the case of University of Pennsylvania athlete “Lia” Thomas, the man claiming to be female who has been smashing women’s swimming records. After all, it has just been learned that his teammates’ publicized “support” for him is a façade erected because the female swimmers fear criticism and being “canceled.”
In fact, says one teammate speaking under the condition of anonymity about Thomas’s competing against women, “everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing.”
As OutKick, the site that interviewed the swimmer, writes:
While … Lia Thomas [whose given name is Will], who spent three years at the Ivy League school swimming as a male, has been busy smashing female pool records, friction has been building within the team, according to a Penn female swimmer who said she feared for her ability to find employment after graduating from college for sharing her honest opinion about a transgender teammate.
… Thomas’ latest round of swimming record destruction came at a three-day meet in Akron, Ohio where numerous pool, meet and program records weren’t just destroyed but lowered to a point where they may never be broken. Friday, the Ivy League 500 freestyle record was broken. Saturday, Thomas set the nation’s best time in the 200 freestyle, which also destroyed pool, meet, and Penn program records.
In the 1650 freestyle final, Thomas didn’t just win and set new program, pool, and meet records. It was total annihilation. Penn’s Anna Kalandadze finished in second place — 38 seconds behind Thomas.
It should be noted, too, that the intersex performance gap in swimming is narrower than in most any other “physical” sport (e.g., not auto racing).
But it’s still wide enough that Thomas is widening eyes — and inspiring complaints. “Pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this,” OutKick relates the anonymous swimmer (AS) as saying during a phone interview. “Our coach [Mike Schnur] just really likes winning. He’s like most coaches. I think secretly everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing to do.”
In reality, Schnur is to an extent likely motivated by the same fear the AS expressed. After all, a college professor was actually fired in 2019 for criticizing Made-up Sexual Status (MUSS, or “transgender”) ideology. Schnur also lists his “pronouns” on his UPenn biography page as “he, him, his,” which means he’s a normal man except for his kowtowing to the quite the abnormal MUSS agenda. But that’s the point: If he’s willing to indulge pronoun insanity, why wouldn’t he accept Thomas’s MUSS fantasy? He’s either scared or woke or both.
But acceptance is the message Thomas has gotten. “The team has been unbelievably supportive since the beginning, you know, teammates and coaches,” the Daily Mail quotes the 22-year-old MUSS swimmer as stating.
Yet commenting on this, the AS said, “‘When the whole team is together, we have to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, go Lia, that’s great, you’re amazing,’” the Mail relates. “‘It’s very fake,’ she said.”
The AS also mentioned how ridiculous it is that the Ivy League, which isn’t known for its swimming exploits, could have a potential NCAA champion. What’s more, she said that if Thomas can return to the form he had before he began taking female hormones, he’ll be faster than any woman who ever lived.
“On paper, if Lia Thomas gets back down to Will Thomas’ best times, those numbers are female world records,” the Mail also quoted her as saying. “Faster than all the times [Olympic swimmer] Katie Ledecky went in college. Faster than any other Olympian you can think of. His times in three events are [female] world records.’”
In reality, though, there’s a poetic aspect to this, as this attack on women’s sports was enabled by earlier feminists, as I explained here.
Unfortunately, not only is this generally unrecognized, but even “conservatives,” seldom failing to conserve yesterday’s liberals’ mistakes, are enabling this agenda today.
That is, many conservatives will say (about a man), “I don’t care if you wear a dress, and I’ll call you what you want, just don’t enter women’s arenas and don’t tell children what you’re doing is normal.” Yet this is like telling your teen daughter that she can have sexual relations — just don’t get more than half-pregnant.
Analogized more precisely, saying “I’ll accept socially this mental illness, but I’ll only accept half the social consequences of the mental illness” is akin to saying, “I’ll accept a toxin in the water supply, but I’ll only accept half the health consequences of the toxin in the water supply — and don’t let it poison the kids.”
It doesn’t work that way. As I explained in here, tolerance leads to acceptance, and this leads to (too-often-successful) marketing.
Consider, too, how to win this cultural battle. Question: What’s compelling the UPenn female swimmers — along with millions of other Americans — to express support for the MUSS agenda even though they oppose it? If you answer “social pressure,” go to the head of the class.
Now, how can the cultural tide be turned?
Also with social pressure, is the answer.
How is this done? Well, when enough people express support for an idea long enough and passionately enough, it can become a social norm.
What this means is that defeating MUSS ideology, or any agenda, starts with speaking out against it. And every time we allow ourselves to be cowed into silence, we enable what we should be opposing with our mistake of omission.
The problem is that expecting people to speak out en masse is a bit like expecting a universal tax revolt. It’s just as how Cape buffalo are collectively and usually individually more powerful than lionesses — as the “Battle at Kruger” proved — but are rendered docile and easy prey by their fear.
In our case, the pseudo-elites controlling the culture-shaping media, academia, entertainment, Big Tech, and most of corporate America are the feline predators using the fangs of career and reputational destruction to punish every lone dissenter straying from the herd — and thus keep the rest of the herd in line.
With respect to the UPenn team, Thomas shouldn’t be supported but scorned and ostracized. If this sounds harsh, remember that these are culture-war weapons — ones the Left uses to great effect. And the best way to avoid being canceled tomorrow is to cancel the cancellers today.
