{"id":2381754,"date":"2024-12-19T07:45:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T12:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lefts-takeover-of-science-is-obvious-with-sex-differences\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T07:49:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T12:49:02","slug":"lefts-takeover-of-science-is-obvious-with-sex-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lefts-takeover-of-science-is-obvious-with-sex-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"Left&#8217;s Takeover Of &#8216;Science&#8217; Is Obvious With Sex Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flefts-takeover-of-science-is-obvious-with-sex-differences%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2381754&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In a \u2064recent exchange, comedian Bill maher critiqued \u200castrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson regarding \u2064the belief that inequities in sports between men and women stem from societal biases rather then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-county-nukes-unfair-advantage-abused-by-transgenders-bans-male-athletes-from-competing-in-girls-sports\/\" title=\"New York County Bans Male Athletes from Girls&#039; Sports to Address Unfair Advantage for Transgender Athletes\">inherent biological differences<\/a>. Maher referenced an article published in *Scientific American*, which claimed that the disparities in athletic performance are not due to biological factors \u2062but to biases against women\u2062 in sports. Tyson, though, sidestepped Maher&#8217;s concerns and \u200dinaccurately attributed the\u2063 claim solely to a past tweet from the magazine&#8217;s resigned \u2064editor. <\/p>\n<p>Despite acknowledging some differences in endurance \u2063and performance metrics between genders, Maher\u2062 emphasized that the article&#8217;s conclusion about \u2064sports inequality\u2063 fails to account for biological\u200d realities. Although the article mentioned women\u2019s potential advantages in ultra-endurance events, it ultimately contradicts\u200d its central claim by recognizing that\u2063 males possess inherent advantages, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/majority-of-americans-oppose-trans-athletes-competing-in-womens-sports\/\" title=\"Majority of Americans Oppose Trans Athletes Competing in Women\u2019s Sports\">greater muscle mass<\/a> and lung capacity, which can affect performance across various sports. <\/p>\n<p>Maher&#8217;s commentary highlights ongoing debates regarding the \u2064intersection of science and\u2063 societal issues, notably in\u200c the context of \u2063gender sports, emphasizing\u2063 the importance of maintaining a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">scientific perspective amidst politically influenced \u2064narratives<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Comedian Bill Maher&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EricAbbenante\/status\/1860162914956505568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1860162914956505568%7Ctwgr%5Eca0af5487c99d8c717a9b39fb960ec9f9e3e3ef0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2024%2F11%2F23%2Freal-time-bill-maher-spars-neil-degrasse-tyson-men-women-sports-scientific-american-laura-helmuth%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exchange<\/a> with science commentator Neil deGrasse Tyson on male-female &ldquo;inequity&rdquo; in sports underscores how <em>unscientific<\/em> scientists can be when captured by a &ldquo;woke&rdquo; agenda. Tyson has used his astrophysicist credentials to spout absurd views about <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MythinformedMKE\/status\/1686005316939345921\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">day-to-day changes in gender identity<\/a> while ignoring the dangers to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=w89etN8QqNQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">women in private spaces, minors who get chemical castration, and free speech<\/a>. Though the spat between Maher and Tyson may be a flash in the pan, the issues at stake matter. This includes safeguarding women&rsquo;s sports from the intrusion of &ldquo;transgender females.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>The Exchange between Maher and Tyson<\/h2>\n<p>Maher began by asking Tyson about the resignation of Scientific American editor-in-chief <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/11\/15\/us-news\/editor-in-chief-of-scientific-american-laura-helmuth-resigns-following-expletive-filled-rant-against-trump-voters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Laura Helmuth<\/a>, who, after the election, attacked Trump supporters as &ldquo;fascists&rdquo; and the &ldquo;meanest, dumbest, most bigoted&rdquo; group.<\/p>\n<p>Maher then pointed out that last year Scientific American published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/the-theory-that-men-evolved-to-hunt-and-women-evolved-to-gather-is-wrong1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an article<\/a> entitled &ldquo;The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt and Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong&rdquo; (Nov. 1, 2023) in which the female authors (one a biologist, the other a biological anthropologist) stated: &ldquo;Inequity between male and female athletes is a result not of inherent biological differences between the sexes but of biases in how they are treated in sports.&rdquo; Maher commented, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s nuts, and it sure ain&rsquo;t scientific &hellip; Scientific American is saying basically that the reason why a WNBA team can&rsquo;t beat the Lakers is because of societal biases.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Tyson dismissed Maher&rsquo;s concern, claiming mistakenly that the comment was only a tweet from the resigned editor-in-chief. He was also unwilling to criticize directly the statement that sports inequity for women was due to bias rather than biology. Instead, he attempted to salvage some truth from the statement, claiming: &ldquo;Long distance swimming, women might actually have the advantage, you should look into that.&rdquo; To this Maher retorted: &ldquo;Yeah, maybe long-distance swimming &hellip; Well, I&rsquo;m gonna file you under &lsquo;part of the problem.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>The Contradiction Between the Scientific American Claim and Their Evidence<\/h2>\n<p>As &ldquo;nuts&rdquo; as the quote from Scientific American was, the authors of the article conceded that there are biological differences between males and females that affect athletic performance, though not entirely in males&rsquo; favor:<\/p>\n<p>Overall, females are metabolically better suited for endurance activities, whereas males excel at short, powerful burst-type activities. You can think of it as marathoners (females) versus powerlifters (males). Much of this difference seems to be driven by the powers of the hormone estrogen.<\/p>\n<p>One can&rsquo;t take &ldquo;marathoners&rdquo; literally, though, because <a href=\"https:\/\/worldathletics.org\/records\/all-time-toplists\/road-running\/marathon\/outdoor\/women\/senior\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the fastest women&rsquo;s marathon time<\/a> ties for <a href=\"https:\/\/worldathletics.org\/records\/all-time-toplists\/road-running\/marathon\/all\/men\/senior?regionType=world&amp;page=15&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1899-12-31&amp;lastDay=2024-12-15&amp;maxResultsByCountry=all&amp;eventId=10229634&amp;ageCategory=senior\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1465<sup>th<\/sup> fastest among all runners<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The article makes some interesting observations &mdash; for example, that females experience &ldquo;less muscle breakdown than males after the same bouts of exercise&rdquo; and that women are &ldquo;able to perform significantly more weight-lifting repetitions than males at the same percentages of their maximal strength.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The authors conclude: &ldquo;If females are better able to use fat for sustained energy and keep their muscles in better condition during exercise, then they should be able to run greater distances with less fatigue relative to males.&rdquo; They recognize that a counter-response would be: &ldquo;Wait &mdash; males are outperforming females in endurance events!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Their rejoinder: &ldquo;But this is only sometimes the case. Females are more regularly dominating ultraendurance events such as the more than 260-mile Montane Spine foot race through England and Scotland, the 21-mile swim across the English Channel and the 4,300-mile Trans Am cycling race across the U.S.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Even if this claim about females &ldquo;dominating ultraendurance events&rdquo; were true, it wouldn&rsquo;t substantiate their next claim about male-female athletic inequity being due to bias rather than biology. In all other sports &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2023\/06\/biological-differences-between-men-and-women-matter-in-sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">males have<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-shred-nyt-science-reporter-complaining-about-scrutiny-of-trans-swimmer-lia-thomas\/\" title=\"Conservatives Shred NYT \u2018Science Reporter\u2019 Complaining About \u2018Scrutiny\u2019 Of Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas\">inherent biological advantages<\/a>, such as taller body height, &hellip; more muscle mass, greater muscle strength, larger hearts and lungs, higher maximal oxygen consumption, and stronger bones than similarly aged, gifted, and trained females.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Records in Ultraendurance Events<\/h2>\n<p>Yet even their limited claim to female advantage is not accurate. The best we can say is that in ultraendurance events the disparity between women and men is not as great. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Take the 21-mile <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_successful_English_Channel_swimmers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">swim across the English Channel<\/a>. The record is held by a male (6:45), with the female record (7:25) 40 minutes slower. The time gap between the female record and overall record for two-way (16 hours 10 minutes) and three-way (28 hours 21 minutes) swims across the Channel are 1 hour 4 minutes and 6 hours 19 minutes, respectively. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guinnessworldrecords.com\/world-records\/longest-ocean-swim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The longest distance ocean swim<\/a> (155 miles) is held by a man (Pablo Fernandez of Spain), as also <a href=\"https:\/\/longswims.com\/longest-swims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the longest river swim<\/a> (299 miles; Ricardo Hoffmann of Argentina).<\/p>\n<p>This doesn&rsquo;t mean that women don&rsquo;t shine in ultra-long swimming events. As regards current-neutral swimming, American <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sarah_Thomas_(marathon_swimmer)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sarah Thomas<\/a> holds <a href=\"https:\/\/sarahthomasswims.com\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the world record<\/a> for the swims that are the longest (2017, Lake Champlain, 104.6 miles, over 67 hours), second-longest (2019, four-way cross of the English Channel, 84 miles, over 56 hours), and third-longest (2016, Lake Powell, 80 miles, over 56 hours). <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Penny_Lee_Dean\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Penny Lee Dean<\/a> held the English Channel world record (7:40) for 17 years (1978 till 1995). She still holds the world record in swimming from Catalina to California, a mark she set in 1976 (7:15:55).<\/p>\n<p>As regards the 260-mile <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spine_Race\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Montane Spine foot race<\/a>, the records are all held by men, though women won two of the 34 events since 2012. With respect to the 4,300-mile <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trans_Am_Bike_Race\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trans Am cycling race<\/a> across the U.S., since 2014 there were 32 top-three finishers, of which two were women (with one finishing in first place in 2016, the 10th fastest all-time). A <a href=\"https:\/\/runrepeat.com\/state-of-ultra-running\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2020 study<\/a> found that &ldquo;female ultra runners are [0.6%] faster than male ultra runners&rdquo; after the 195<sup>th<\/sup> mile.<\/p>\n<p>In sum, although women have achieved notable successes in ultraendurance events (swimming, footrace, bicycling), even in these events men still dominate. A <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.humankinetics.com\/view\/journals\/ijspp\/13\/1\/article-p2.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2018 study<\/a> found that since the 1990s &ldquo;sex differences between the world&rsquo;s best athletes in most events have remained relatively stable at approximately 8&ndash;12%. The exceptions are events in which upper-body power is a major contributor, where this difference is more than 12%, and ultraendurance swimming, where the gap is now less than 5%.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this does not mean that great women athletes are not better than most men. But it does mean that the best men beat the best women.<\/p>\n<h2>Why This Matters<\/h2>\n<p>The claim in Scientific American attributing &ldquo;inequity between male and female athletes&rdquo; to bias rather than biology is false. In sport after sport, males have a decided advantage over females: boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, football, soccer, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, track, tennis, swimming, rowing, volleyball, skiing, skating, archery, squash, bicycling, judo, karate, lacrosse, etc. A partial exception is shooting. <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0291017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">One study<\/a> found that women are as good at shooting as men, but only so long as the target is stationary.<\/p>\n<p>Why does this matter? It matters because we live in a day and age of craziness, where nonsense claims about &ldquo;inequity between males and female athletes&rdquo; being due to bias, not biology, go hand in hand with support for female-identifying males in female sports. Even when &ldquo;transgender females&rdquo; undergo hormone therapy, they still have a significant advantage. &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2023\/06\/biological-differences-between-men-and-women-matter-in-sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Men<\/a> have 30&ndash;60 percent higher muscle strength than women, and undergoing testosterone suppression decreases that strength by only 0&ndash;9 percent.&rdquo; This puts real women at a major disadvantage. In contact sports, it also puts them in harm&rsquo;s way.<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing this obvious reality is not an anti-woman view. It is a pro-woman view because it preserves the integrity of female sports from unwanted, unfair, and unsafe male intrusion.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Robert A. J. Gagnon is a visiting scholar at Wesley Biblical Seminary and the author of &#8220;The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Maher and Neil deGrasse Tyson debate gender inequity in sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2781,"featured_media":2381755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/52755135601_4c2e220794_5k-scaled-e1734387071702.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[47099,28841,5894,4613],"class_list":["post-2381754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gender-differences","tag-leftism","tag-politics","tag-science"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/52755135601_4c2e220794_5k-scaled-e1734387071702.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2381754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381762,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381754\/revisions\/2381762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2381755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2381754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2381754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2381754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}