via CNN/sports link:

QuoteThey call her "The Queen of Swords" in the cage, but in the press, some call her unrepeatable things. After undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 2006, she chose "Fallon Fox." 

By definition, Fallon means superiority. Fox chuckled when talking about the meaning, saying, "I've heard a lot of different meanings of the name. What I first found was that it means 'the girl who is in charge.' It kind of describes me."

Her nickname is just as appropriate. When the Queen of Swords is victorious, she spins her imaginary sword and sheaths it back in its rightful holster as a post-fight celebration, akin to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian.

 Reading the comments in articles like these is always an interesting reminder of the cruel nature of so many members of our species.

She's a pretty amazing person... all the strength in the world to her. She needs it, really, with how people like to treat her. She's an inspiration to me; I probably can't properly understand just how strong she must be.

I don't watch videos of Fallon Fox because the comments always upset me greatly. They're all so rude and dehumanizing...

Like in a video of one of her fights, they'd threaten to kill her and call her a woman beater.

Quote from: kyh on May 25, 2013, 04:52:30 AM
I don't watch videos of Fallon Fox because the comments always upset me greatly. They're all so rude and dehumanizing...

Like in a video of one of her fights, they'd threaten to kill her and call her a woman beater.

I agree.  it's shocking how transphobic the MMA crowd can be.

There are two kinds of "aggressive" people out there...the talkers and the do'ers. People who post rude comments are 99.9% talkers, whose opinion they would not dare speak in public.

Going by the number of awful (offul?) comments, one would think we have to run a gauntlet of violence just to go to the mailbox...but the reality is we might run into one jerk a week...everyone else is either polite, or sheepish. Most people imho are good people...and the abusive ones aren't really worth the time of day.

The truly violent ones are so rare (again, imho) that we should not live in fear of them. Life is too short for that, and if one is not skilled in fighting and/or carry a gun...if it happens, it happens. No sense is in getting upset about people who are keyboard bullies.

I'd stand with her.

Sigh... yet another case of public ignorance at exactly what HRT does. And yet another article about a transgender person that fails to properly talk about it.

I'm getting kind of tired of this. The way the media describes it, all that happens is that she had SRS and she takes estrogen. That's it. And it is this exact damned assumption that kept me from transitioning for so damned long, because again, nobody in the media EVER mentions HRT in the fullest sense when discussing transgender people.

With the information they provided, it's easy for people to say things like "What? Just cutting of your guy parts doesn't make you a woman" and stupid stuff like that, because again, nobody seems to understand that T-blockers and estrogen actually change the body, making it impossible to have the same kind of muscles, and pretty much completely changing the soft tissue of the body and the very way that the body build muscle and metabolizes.

My co-workers at the casino had a conversation about Fallon, and again, the language that they used was just "had a sex-change," and they were going back for forth about whether she had an advantage or not, and I basically had to explain to them from square one about exactly what HRT does to the body. (And I'm not out at work yet, so that conversation was rather interesting... a couple of raised eyebrows...) Seriously, though, NOBODY seems to even know about HRT. It is not public knowledge. The way everyone else words it, you get SRS and poof! You can call yourself female. They are just completely ignorant to the entire process and what it does to you. So that's where a lot of this bitterness and anger and hatred toward Fallon in the comments section is coming from.

Great response, Carrie Liz!

I would suggest that the reason why it's not talked about is because it takes time to say all that. Yes, it does need to be said...but the place to say it would be on a show like Oprah, or one of those shows. Also, in editorials in the paper.

Some media have time limits (the 5 o'clock news being a good example...a LOT of detail is left out in all stories presented; not due to conspiracy, but simple time constraints)...some media's target audience have attention-span problems (partly due to the nature of youth and testosterone, imho).

Primary schools, in their sex education classes, could be a good starting point. That would require long-term expectations, though.

I know I was happy when the article got the pronouns right!   

Don't let stupid people bother you. Its not always their fault they are stupid.

I know a lot of people in the MMA crowd and most (not all) have extreme views of gender, sexuality and roles in society. They are often extremely homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic , and hyper-masculine. They are a bi-product of their environments and how they were raised. It's a combination of ignorance, lack of education and choice of role models.

Most of this is so ingrained that no matter what you do to educate them or how many facts you throw at them they will simply go through one ear and out the other. Mostly because they have no desire to consider a view outside of their current mentality. To change their minds is simply another sign of weakness to them.

QuoteTo change their minds is simply another sign of weakness to them.

I've had several "hyper-masculine" types tell me (prior to transitioning) that my manner of communication--where I listen to the other person, and try to understand their POV--was how "women" talk. Men state their opinion, and don't give a rat's ass about yours.

I could never figure out how they get along with each other...

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." Thomas Gray

The Fallon Fox debate will be going on for a long time.   A friend of ours is a fencer and she is a bit uncomfortable competing with a transitioned opponents.  I asked why as the muscle mass has changed.  She pointed out the height difference based on initial starting points.  I suggested weight classes to balance that out and she liked the idea and brought it up.  I do not recall the outcome there.   She asked about addressing skeletal differences such as Anne Richards documents here:  http://www.secondtype.info/skeleton.htm.   In sports where bone structure and associated reach can be important there is a lot to consider. 

Quote from: mistressstevie on June 04, 2013, 02:12:18 PM
The Fallon Fox debate will be going on for a long time.   A friend of ours is a fencer and she is a bit uncomfortable competing with a transitioned opponents.  I asked why as the muscle mass has changed.  She pointed out the height difference based on initial starting points.  I suggested weight classes to balance that out and she liked the idea and brought it up.  I do not recall the outcome there.   She asked about addressing skeletal differences such as Anne Richards documents here:  http://www.secondtype.info/skeleton.htm.   In sports where bone structure and associated reach can be important there is a lot to consider.

Yes, but is height and "reach" a factor in cis-on-cis competitions? (I don't know, just asking)

Quote from: Beth Andrea on June 04, 2013, 11:05:40 PM
Yes, but is height and "reach" a factor in cis-on-cis competitions? (I don't know, just asking)

Well I guess it could, but not being the wizard, I am at best guessing.  I do remember watching the tale of the tape on boxing, wresting, and MMA stuff where height and reach (arm length) are both considered elements that can give a significant advantage when used properly.  As with all things where game theory applies, I suppose you can train to compensate.   

I used to have a human factors engineering book that has gone into hiding.  The book had a bunch of charts on arm length, height, weight and so forth broke out by all sorts of elements.  I am long arm sort so always pay attention to that measure.  IIRC it generalized to: Adjusted for height, guys arms were slightly longer and hands somewhat bigger.  Generalizations can be quite misleading so this is worthy of much more discussion. 

There is no such thing as an equal competition. All this banter about advantages and disadvantages as reason for not fighting someone is utterly ridiculous. Human beings come in all shapes, sizes, experiences, training, skills, strengths etc etc etc

Nothing is fair.

Quote from: MaidofOrleans on June 05, 2013, 02:21:49 AM
There is no such thing as an equal competition. All this banter about advantages and disadvantages as reason for not fighting someone is utterly ridiculous. Human beings come in all shapes, sizes, experiences, training, skills, strengths etc etc etc

Nothing is fair.

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

Quote from: MaidofOrleans on June 05, 2013, 02:21:49 AM
There is no such thing as an equal competition. All this banter about advantages and disadvantages as reason for not fighting someone is utterly ridiculous. Human beings come in all shapes, sizes, experiences, training, skills, strengths etc etc etc

Nothing is fair.

I agree. If a trans woman with a large body frame can't fight against cis girls because of the advantage her bone structure and bone density give her, then what about a natal woman who has the exact same body frame? She has all the advantages that the trans woman has, so why isn't she banned from fighting women who are smaller than her? She's allowed to fight other women simply because she's cis. That's all there is to it.

If a match is deemed unfair because one woman is significantly larger than the other, then *all* women who are that size and up shouldn't be allowed to compete in a match like that, cis or not. Anything else is discrimination based on one's trans identity.

Frankly if Manny Pacquiáo can box up a weight class and win I think a cis woman can handle a tans woman of the same size as her self without that great of a disadvantage.

Quote from: Naomi on June 12, 2013, 09:25:50 AM
Frankly if Manny Pacquiáo can box up a weight class and win I think a cis woman can handle a tans woman of the same size as her self without that great of a disadvantage.

But I would not bet on Manny if he was to go against Nikolai Valuev or one of the Klitchko brothers .

Quote from: Carrie Liz on May 25, 2013, 12:00:54 PM
My co-workers at the casino had a conversation about Fallon, and again, the language that they used was just "had a sex-change," and they were going back for forth about whether she had an advantage or not, and I basically had to explain to them from square one about exactly what HRT does to the body. (And I'm not out at work yet, so that conversation was rather interesting... a couple of raised eyebrows...) Seriously, though, NOBODY seems to even know about HRT. It is not public knowledge. The way everyone else words it, you get SRS and poof! You can call yourself female. They are just completely ignorant to the entire process and what it does to you. So that's where a lot of this bitterness and anger and hatred toward Fallon in the comments section is coming from.

You're right. It's not public knowledge. That's a problem, and not just for the general population, but us as well.

I didn't know about HRT until about a year ago. Hell, because no one had ever really talked to me about it, I didnt realize that what I was feeling and being frustrated over and hating myself for and being disqusted with my body as I developed was largely all because I'm transgender in the first place. If I'd known about all of this when I was 18? I'd have started transitioning as soon as I had a job and was on my own while I was still single and young.

I wish it was something they discussed in high school. I'm sure they'd say something like it affects so few people it's not worth covering, it's too expensive, or it's too controvercial though.

Quote from: Michelle-G on May 25, 2013, 11:02:33 AM
I agree.  it's shocking how transphobic the MMA crowd can be.

Really?

Given that the MMA fanbase consists predominately of dudebros it's anything but shocking if you ask me.

And no I'm not from that sub->-bleeped-<- that shall not be named, the word "dudebro" just caught on with me that's all. <_<