in a lot of ways the moral panics surrounding people faking disabilities and trans women in sports are very similar.
in both cases, the primary emotional argument is "these people are faking something in order to gain access to spaces and/or resources that belong to a different group who REALLY has that thing" and in both cases the thing that people are supposedly trying to gain access to is a broken system designed to marginalize a group of people so that other people dont have to think about them.
women's sports are less prestigious, less lucrative, and less well-funded than men's sports. they exist as a way to silo competent women away from men who might be discouraged that a woman is better at a thing than they are and so that everyone else can say, "look, we respect women, we gave them their own sports!" and pat themselves on the back for handing out peanuts.
disability payments (in the US at least) are difficult to get, easy to lose, impose harsh restrictions on ones finances, and dont even pay that well. they exist so that politicians can pretend we have an effective social safety network, despite the inordinate requirements meaning many people who qualify will never recieve their benefits, and many who should qualify do not.
in both cases, the juice is simply not worth the squeeze. the idea of a man choosing to pretend to be a woman in order to win at a sport that will pay and respect him less is absurd. the idea of someone faking a disability to a doctor in order to then spend months or years trying to legally prove their disability so they can make less than they would working at mcdonalds and never be allowed to save money or get married is absurd. an athlete who wants an easier time winning will probably just take steroids. a person who has the resources and time necessary to fake a disability to the government could probably find a job that pays more for less effort.
and yet, both of these lies are effective at drumming up rage in certain cultural groups, because the idea of someone they dont like getting resources that they dont deserve is so morally repugnant that they will go to great lengths to prevent it, even when it means people who "should" get those resources get snubbed.




















