Biology isn't a social construct

A scandal in chess has reignited an old argument that sports shouldn’t be segregated by gender – an idea lefty intellectuals think will solve the question about trans participation in sports. Matt stamps it as a bad take because it’s based on a falsehood, that women aren’t allowed to compete against men in chess – they are! The idea, Matt points out, requires a belief that biology is“a social construct.” Laura agrees it is bad take, but she sees it as more insidious. Intellectuals, she argues, are threatening the existence of women’s sports behind a sheen of progressivism. No elite woman athlete – cis or trans – is calling for the end of segregated sports. The question is who gets to play women’s sports, not whether they should exist.

Om Podcasten

Grid contributor Matthew Yglesias and his longtime editor, Laura McGann, Grid’s executive editor, discuss a take each week that’s gotten under their skin. They peel back the layers of the "bad take” to figure out what it tells us about American politics and policy.