Hi Everyone,
I found the case of Fallon Fox extremely interesting and wanted to further research her life as a male, previous to her transformation surgery, because I was interested in if she fought as an MMA fighter, which could trigger a type of skill advantage over her female competitors, as she is now transformed, due to the perceived higher level of competition in men's sports. Men are stereotypically believed to be bigger, better, faster, and stronger athletes than females. If Fallon had participated in fighting in MMA as a male, she would not only have the perceived advantage because she was once a man and obtained those physical male qualities and hormones, but she was able to gain that experience with competing against males who are, as previously stated, perceived to be better athletes.
Here's some background information regarding Fallon Fox...
Fallon Fox was born as Boyd Burton who is from Toledo, Ohio. She was from a very religious background and originally thought that she was a homosexual male. Fox did, however, marry her girlfriend at the age of 19 where they had a child and Fox decided to join the Navy in order to support her family after attending, and unfortunately dropping out of, The University of Toledo because of psychological stress due to her unresolved gender issues. The interview/short documentary have more information on Fox along with where I originally found this information on http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mma/news/20130307/fallon-fox-profile/.
This is a short interview on Fallon Fox by CNN that I found very interesting because it discussed how she did not start MMA training until two years after the male-to-female sexual transformation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_1TkD7eEHc
Also, here is a short documentary that I found very interesting as well. This documentary include Kye Allums after hormonal therapy; however, I do not know if he underwent a sex-change operation. This documentary, in my opinion, is very powerful and even features her daughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8cgJ0qyurI
I would like to know some of your reactions to the videos I have posted and if you found them as interesting as I did. Also, did you find it interesting in seeing Kye Allums after (at least to my knowledge only hormonal) transformation?
Casey Daulbaugh
Casey,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Fallon Fox’s scenario is very interesting when looking at transgender in sports. I can understand why people might see that it is unfair for her to go from being a guy to girl and participating in MMA fighting, especially because MMA is largely based on brute strength. However, I think that since she did not start training for MMA until after her male-to-female sexual transaction, that she isn’t at an advantage. She never trained as a man, so she never had any male experiences with fighting.
I also found it extremely interesting to see Kye Allums after his hormonal therapy, especially after seeing him in the first video that was shown in class. I also went back and compared his voice before the hormones and his voice after the hormones. The fact that his voice had rarely changed or went deeper seemed very different to me.
Nicole Zawislan