I'm glad Steph Daniels from Bloody Elbow is looking into all of this, uncovering for herself and MMA fans what we in the LGBT community have known for years:
Steph Daniels: Does Fallon carry a significant advantage in mixed martial arts competition, due to being biologically born a male?
Dr. Marci Bowers: Most measures of physical strength minimize, muscle mass decreases, bone density decreases, and they become fairly comparable to women in their musculature. After as much time as has passed in her case, if tested, she would probably end up in the same muscle mass category as her biologically born female counterpart.
...
Dr. Sherman Leis: She's been doing that (hormone therapy) for so many years, that she probably does not have a significant advantage, if any at all. Especially because she wasn't a big man when she lived as a male. She's 5'7 and slight of build, and basically the size of an average female. Factor in that she's been on hormones for so long, and has had the surgery, she more than likely has the muscle mass, bone density and strength of most females.
Great job, Steph! Keep asking questions!
Comments
Thank you so much!
By Stephie Haynes on 03.08.13 7:26pm
It was a great interview Steph
And important for education purposes. Good job.
By KJ Gould on 03.09.13 5:26am
Of Course
This doctor happens to be a transsexual herself and has a great deal of personal stake invested in the issue. Not exactly impartial.
Also, my eyes must truly be deceiving me if “she more than likely has the muscle mass, bone density and strength of most females.”
Plus, it seems irrelevant that she was 5’7 and slight of build. She’s going to be fighting people in her weight class, so her SIZE is not the issue here. The issue is whether her bio mechanical constitution allows her to do MORE with that size than a natural woman would. And for that, I think a lot more demonstration is required than the "probably"s of a doctor who is a transsexual herself.
Comparing things like raw strength may not be the most relevant position, as the argument can easily be made that a woman at X level of strength is a fair match for a man at X level of strength, with regards purely to raw thresholds of exertions. But am I to understand that ease with which X level of strength is acquired is the ONLY physiological difference that sets men above woman in terms of ability to inflict maximum damage?
Are there no inherent genetic differences, for instance, in the shape and size of certain bones and joints, or differences in the mechanical propensity of movement between men and women? Do these differences, if they exist, contribute to the capacity for more power generated in a punch or kick?
Furthermore, am I to believe that physicians who offer hormonal supplements for transsexuals actually KNOWINGLY and INTENTIONALLY treat their patients with the aim of DECREASING their bone density? I understand that hormonal supplementation would decrease the RATE at which bones repair themselves, but to suggest that one who was formerly a full grown man has had his bone density aggressively atrophied for the sake of her gender identity, and that doctors are okay with this? Note: Loss of bone density is also known as osteoporosis, which drastically increases your chance of death at an earlier age.
At the end of the day, Fallon Fox is a fighter and has kept her body in peak physical condition. Her training has the focus of generating power and speed with her body, to the ultimate end of inflicting damage on another person. At the end of the day, her body is one that was developed over an adult lifetime as the body of a male. So the only way for me to really believe that she has the “body of a woman” is if I believe that she actively and consistently targeted all of the physiological advantages that a man has over a woman and demonstrably reduced them in structure and function so that they were no longer existent. And I find that difficult to believe.
By alejandro.alonso.71653 on 03.15.13 6:48pm