Editor's Note: The following article is a transcribed speech made by Chloe Satterfield, an ambassador for Young Women for America, at the Our Bodies, Our Sports rally on June 23, 2022, in Washington D.C. The Liberty Jacket edited the text and added media to conform with this publication's style. The original speech can be watched here.
As a biological female and a four-year high school varsity tennis player, I can personally attest to the physical advantages men have over women when it comes to athletics. Not only did I train with young men my entire life in tennis, but in high school, I competed against a freshman male athlete who identified as a female. And even though I had gone through years and years of expensive coaching and performance training, I lost. Not because this athlete had trained longer or had a better strategy, but because of inherent biological speed, strength, and stamina. The playing field, or court, in this case, was uneven, and I was the clear loser. Whereas this high school loss was not something I held onto for very long, I know that the collegiate and professional female athletes who are forced by the NCAA to compete against biological males cannot say the same. How do I know this? Because I watched the friends and families of the female athletes that lost to Lia Thomas, a biological male, in the recent NCAA swimming championships, held at my school, walk out of our facility teary-eyed, frustrated, and disheartened. It was heartbreaking. They watched their daughters’ years of work tossed aside as they fell behind someone who had an inherent and unfair advantage.
We know male athletes have more overall muscle mass, less body fat, longer and larger bones, and higher oxygen-carrying capacity than female ones. Men also have a greater aerobic advantage due to their higher number of red blood cells and have an advantage in throwing, kicking, and hitting due to their more flexible and less fragile ligaments. Male athletes have consistently shown to be 10% faster in running and swimming due to their higher muscle mass to body weight ratio, which allows for greater speed and acceleration than women. Even if they undergo extensive treatment to change these characteristics, we know that there are “legacy effects”, or unchangeable advantages, that will give them an advantage for years to come.
Therefore, I think you can see why any biological male, competing in our female sports competitions, regardless of their attempts to become more feminine, is unfair to our female athletes. This is not hateful; this is objective truth. We cannot change it.
Women have come so far in the past one hundred years, and I am so grateful for the women who came before me to fight for my rights. Title IX was a significant turning point for women which increased athletic, scholastic, and financial opportunities for us. Here we stand on the 50th anniversary of Title IX having to fight for our rights all over again. I think about my future daughter and what she might have to go through if we don't fight now for these protections. It is incredibly difficult for me to understand why the same people who are constantly crying out in the name of “women’s equality” are also trying to drag us fifty years backward by allowing men to participate in our female athletic competitions. The current administration is threatening to trample women’s rights and their futures as successful scholars and athletes by removing our Title IX protections intended to provide a level playing field. Common sense tells us female sports should be for GIRLS ONLY. As an Ambassador for Young Women for America, I am speaking on behalf of thousands of women and girls across this nation. I ask you to stand up for our rights and defend the integrity of female sports. //
Chloe Satterfield
Did I make an impression? Did I leave anything out? Voice your opinion by sending a letter to the editor or submitting a counter-point as an article on our Contact page! I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Let's make political discourse civil again.