welliam

So women made their own chess teams where they could compete together but also didn’t have to worry about sexism from other male coaches and male players.

In fact, we find that gender bias inhibits women chess players; when women are told they are playing against men in online games, for example, they consistently play les aggressively, because we all still live in a sexist society and yes that even affects how we play chess. When women think they’re playing against other women they revert back to aggressive play. (And let’s not ignore the historic dismissal of female chess players by male chess players. Bobby Fischer’s “women are not so smart” quote for example)

So yes. We still allow women to have separate chess competitions, because at it turns out sometimes “equal opportunity” doesn’t actually lead to equality, even in a game like chess.

The mind turns from a focus on seeking success (being bold and creative) to a focus on avoiding failure, which involves being cautious, careful and conservative. A mind that is struggling with negative stereotypes and anxious thoughts is not in a psychologically optimal state for doing taxing intellectual tasks.

Stereotype effects have been seen in women who: record their sex at the beginning of a quantitative test (which is standard practice for many tests); are in the minority as they take the test; have instructors or peers who hold sexist attitudes or have just watched women acting in air-headed ways in commercials."

Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine

Add to that the pressure of having to represent all women: indeed, every time a woman fails against a man it is held as proof of the unfitness and inferiority of our entire sex. I also remember a study that showed men try harder when facing a woman, they really make it a point to destroy her, because it's not just a game to them it's about maintaining their dominance. Worth noting that male chess players have been sexually harassing and threatening female chess players since the begining. You make a piss poor political commentator if you refuse to take any of this into account (or are simply ignorant of those facts) as you complain about women not wanting to compete in a male environment.

Honestly, these people just keep outing themselves. It's like they're negging women or something.

Men are KNOWN to sexually harass women, we KNOW women perform worse among men because of rampant and internalized misogyny (see the points above). So women want their own spaces to get away from that.

The fact that these people are incapable of understanding that women don't want to deal with misogynistic bullshit from men, and instead default to "if you don't put up with men sexually harassing you in chess, you admitting that you're weaker than them. You're lesser? Are you dumber than men, is that it? You're just a stupid woman? That's why you don't want to compete with men who statistically put you in danger? You're inferior?"

women: we'll just go over here and play chess amongst ourselves then

trans activist: so you agree....you think you're inferior and unintelligent?