Media Outlet Puts 'Female' in Quotes When Talking About Woman Who Finished Second to Lia Thomas
Call University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas a man — even though he has XY chromosomes — and you’ll likely find yourself taken off of Twitter in a hurry.
Meanwhile, the top woman in the 500-meter freestyle — the University of Virginia’s Emma Weyant, who finished second to Thomas — was referred to as a “female” by the Orlando Sentinel, with quotation marks around it.
As Krusty the Clown might have put it, they’re saying the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet.
(The move is the latest sign the media has gone completely gaga over the transgender agenda. Here at The Western Journal, we’ve chronicled the media’s double standard when it comes to transgender issues — even when platforms like Google try to starve us of ad revenue for doing so. We’re going to keep bringing America the truth, no matter the cost. You can help us by subscribing.)
As you may recall, Thomas — a male University of Pennsylvania swimmer who identifies as female and who swims in the women’s division — cleaned up at the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship last week.
Thomas’ big win was the 500-meter freestyle, where he was first in the prelims by almost three seconds — the same amount of time that separated finishers Nos. 2-11, according to Swim World — and won in the finals over Weyant by almost two seconds.
Weyant is from Sarasota, Florida — which induced Florida’s governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, to weigh in on behalf of the University of Virginia swimmer, calling her the “rightful winner” of the event.
In the proclamation, issued Wednesday, DeSantis noted that “a male identifying as a woman was allowed to compete and was declared the winner of” the 500-meter freestyle and said “the NCAA’s actions serve to erode opportunities for women athletes and perpetuate a fraud against women athletes as well as the public at large.”
By allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the NCAA is destroying opportunities for women, making a mockery of its championships, and perpetuating a fraud.
In Florida, we reject these lies and recognize Sarasota’s Emma Weyant as the best women’s swimmer in the 500y freestyle. pic.twitter.com/tBmFxFE3q6
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 22, 2022
“If you look at what the NCAA has done, by allowing basically men to compete in women’s athletics, in this case, the swimming, you had the number one woman who finished was from Sarasota, Emma Weyant, won the silver medal,” DeSantis said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The bigger story, however, might have been the Orlando Sentinel’s take on it: “Gov. Ron DeSantis waded further into gender politics today, issuing a proclamation that said a swimmer from Sarasota is the nation’s best ‘female’ in the 500-meter freestyle after she finished 2nd to a transgender athlete at the NCAA championship.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis waded further into gender politics today, issuing a proclamation that said a swimmer from Sarasota is the nation’s best “female” in the 500-meter freestyle after she finished 2nd to a transgender athlete at the NCAA championship. https://t.co/pVSAUVn92a pic.twitter.com/c9zNgaaWtU
— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) March 22, 2022
The first paragraph of their story was essentially the same, as well: quotation-marks female.
Needless to say, Twitterers were unimpressed — including Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw:
Uh, why is ‘female’ in quotes here? Emma is female; it is an undisputed fact. Florida media is truly going off the deep end this week. pic.twitter.com/Pd8GpSXIDH
— Christina Pushaw ?? (@ChristinaPushaw) March 22, 2022
I’d put the “competition” in quotes before “female”.
— Mike Rathbone (@MikeRathbone86) March 22, 2022
An actual female is questionable and a pretend female is legit. It’s an upside down world
— David Biddle (@davidebiddle) March 22, 2022
Not quite sure you know how to use “quotations”….
— Nicholas Cifolilli (@NicholasCifolil) March 22, 2022
Ironic, isn’t it?
The real woman gets female in quotes, but the other thing is unequivocally female.
Big yikes.
— Scottie Binyons (@B82Scottie) March 22, 2022
And, yes, I’m aware of what the potential counter-argument would be — DeSantis used the word “female” and they were just quoting him. That’s a bit ridiculous when you consider it would be difficult to avoid, given it’s one of two common words used to refer to the distaff gender.
It’s clear what the intention was: By putting the word in quotation marks, the writer is attempting to distance the paper from DeSantis’ viewpoint that a man is a man, a woman is a woman and the former has an advantage over the latter in most athletic competitions no matter what hormonal treatments are applied.
Instead, it backfired by drawing attention to the double standard at play. No one at the paper would consider referring to Thomas as a quote-unquote “female,” but Weyant’s gender is inadvertently called into question because it’s a convenient cudgel to beat Ron DeSantis with.
Amazing stuff, this. We’re now inhabiting a world where a man is a woman but a female is a “female.” Anyone who holds that transgender ideology doesn’t have consequences isn’t paying attention.
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