This is cruel and stupid.
And unethical.
The organizers of an international figure skating event in Finland last week decided to show their oneness with the times, known at Ethics Alarms as “The Great Stupid,” by featuring Markku-Pekka Antikainen in the opening ceremony of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships. Antikainen is a 59-year-old man who at age 50 decided to “transition” and become a female figure skater. He would have been just as successful aspiring to be a bunch of carrots. His skating name, which he will presumably use when he is featured in “Disney on Ice” (can you really say with confidence that that won’t happen?), is Minna-Maaria Antikainen.The results of this trans-worshiping grandstanding by the organizers were guaranteed and pre-ordained, because he can’t skate. Minna-Maaria looked ridiculous (as you can see) and was humiliated. Some commentators, in an excess of sympathy, are giving the skater kudos for “having the balls” to go out there despite the fact that he’s incompetent at his chosen avocation. That’s not courage; it’s narcissism, selfishness and self-indulgence. The audience didn’t pay to see a clown show or a pathological mid-life crisis in action, it paid to see great skating. When the genuine female figure skater came over to help the fool get up, she looked like a different species, like the Eloi in “The Time Machine” when they stand near the Morlocks.
Acrid conservative pundit Stephen Green wrote, “Our scorn ought to be directed at Finland’s event organizers who didn’t give a damn about Markku-Pekka Antikainen and only cared about making themselves feel good about how “tolerant” and “diverse” and “progressive” they could make themselves appear with their pet trans figure skater.” I think that’s right, but Green doesn’t go far enough: they also don’t care about the audience, their sport, or the event they were supposed to be organizing.
This was the equivalent of “American Idol” deliberately letting one of its deluded tone-deaf auditioners hang around to perform with the real singers so the audience could laugh at him….with one difference. The American Idol judges would know that their decision was mean and ridiculous. The people who put “Minna-Maaria” on the ice actually think they were doing a good thing.
Come to think of it, this debacle is similar to Joe Biden letting Karine Jean-Pierre try to be a press secretary.
The Great Stupid’s fever has to break soon, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it???
There’s nothing wrong with diversity. There’s everything wrong with putting a 59-year-old farmer who can barely skate out there as an “ice princess.”
Give some small kudos to Antikainen for having the balls to go out there, even though he had to know that he would look exactly like what he is: A 59-year-old man in a sparkly dress who can’t skate very well.
Antikainen’s true humiliation didn’t come until after he’d fallen. That’s when an actual woman — an actual ice princess, who must have been half his weight — had to help him up off his knees. That unnamed skater demonstrated genuine feminine strength and grace, unlike Finland’s mock ice princess.
If you were looking for a perfect (and perfectly awful) example of why men can’t be women, this was it.
But you also won’t find a more perfect example of the cruelty that seems to motivate this kind of diversity hire. At some point, someone needed to tell Antikainen, “Thanks for trying out, but you didn’t make the cut. Better luck next year.”
Instead, they sent him out on the ice to humiliate himself and become an object of scorn and derision.
[For some reason you have to click on the replay icon to get the video to play from the start…]
Ethics Alarms 
Maybe the Russians would be justified in invading Finland.
(I refuse to watch the video. Too depressing.)
Speaking of balls, I can’t let this situation go without its being noted:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/college-basketball/article-11710177/Duke-womens-basketball-coach-Kara-Lawson-blasts-embarrassing-use-MENS-ball-loss-FSU.html
I guess I’d forgotten women’s basketball uses a smaller, lighter basketball. The Duke coach was outraged her team had to play a half with a men’s basketball. She seems really mad at someone, but I’m not sure whom. I’m guessing there’s some white supremacism or misogyny to be taken into account, but I can’t really figure it out.
Anger at incompetence is justified, although I don’t know why the referee wasn’t informed immediately.
If you think the size of the balls is that significant, shouldn’t you have an assistant coach always check the game balls? Before tip-off? Shouldn’t the players have noticed? And why do girls get to play with a smaller ball? You mean there’s a difference between boys and girls that needs to be taken into account? I’d have loved to have been able to palm a ball when I was playing in grade school and high school. Why not a lower basket? A shorter court? And why can’t guys who identify as being girls play on the girls’ team? With the smaller ball!
“You mean there’s a difference between boys and girls that needs to be taken into account?”
Other things being…um…equal…the subject of Lady’s Golf Tees and Track-n-Field Throwing Events deserves mention:
*Shot: Men-16 lb (7.26 kg)/Women-8 lb 9 oz (3.88 kg).
*Discus: Men-2kg–22cm diameter/Women-1kg–18cm diameter
*Hammer: Men-16 pounds (7.26 kg) –3 feet 11 3⁄4 inches (121.3 cm) long/Women 4 kg (8.82 lb) and 3 ft 11 in (119.4 cm) long.
*Javelin: Men-2.6 to 2.7 m (8 ft 6 in to 8 ft 10 in) long and 800 g (28 oz) weight/Women 2.2 to 2.3 m (7 ft 3 in to 7 ft 7 in) long and 600 g (21 oz) weight.
I’m all for eliminating gender specific sports in all sports at all levels. Give em what they want. Gender doesn’t exist? Fine. Have fun. May the best athletes win.
Women’s shot is 4kg. I can’t see the USA using a different weight than the rest of the world.
“And why do girls get to play with a smaller ball? You mean there’s a difference between boys and girls that needs to be taken into account?”
The jokes should just write themselves here, so I won’t.
Curmie posted this in Open Forum earlier. (Different source)
Dang nabbit!
I saw that story on ESPN when I was watching women’s basketball yesterday. I think I might have known that the women use a smaller ball — I don’t dwell on it, but then I am not a women’s basketball player or coach (just a fan).
One might think that the players would have immediately noticed there was something off about the basketball — after all, they handle basketballs what, 60 hours a week or something like that?
Lawson did have to admit that this was not what caused Duke to lose the game, but she was still outraged by the embarrassment of the whole thing.
Isn’t talking about a transperson’s “balls” a cruel taunt? WHAT ARE THE RULES???
“Give some small kudos to Antikainen for having the balls to go out there, even though he had to know that he would look exactly like what he is: A 59-year-old man in a sparkly dress who can’t skate very well.”
Why? There is nothing brave about this incident, as any clear thinking individual would have and should have predicted. I can’t skate to save my life and having me skate in some opening ceremony is a recipe for disaster. If I did it, the likelihood of me getting off my face, let alone my knees, is not assured. Likewise, just because I identify as a Level 1 Elite sprinter doesn’t mean I can defeat the likes of Manute Bol or Elaine Thompson-Herah.
Yet, would it be different if, say, Johnny Weir identified as a woman and skated at this particular event? Weir can skate and can skate at Olympic levels. To me, there is no difference, aside from the embarrassing fall. Even though this Finnish skater (or Weir) identifies as a woman, he is, in fact, a biological male, regardless of his prowess on the ice. Just because someone identifies as a gender other than what biology (and science?) reflects doesn’t mean that I, as the humble and casual observer, have to believe that suddenly, and magically, Markku-Pekka has physically changed and is now, in fact, Minna-Maaria. I won’t mistreat him but I sure as hell won’t believe that he is now a she.
jvb
The Great Stupid’s fever has to break soon, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately no, because it’s terminal.
I was watching this episode on the Megyn Kelly show and she found an older clip of this person skating at some event or another. What’s weird is that the skating was much better in the earlier clip.
Perhaps this person’s skills are simply deteriorating with age? 59 seems a bit old for a figure skater.