Fallon Fox is a 2-0 female Featherweight mixed martial artist, her most recent fight ending in just 39 seconds due to knockout. Her next bout is scheduled for April 20th, but her fight license application is currently under review from Florida’s state athletic commission partly stemming from her not being officially licensed in California, as Fallon originally thought. Through all this, it has been revealed that Fallon Fox is transgender (Believed to be the first, male or female, in MMA), having undergone gender reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy in 2006, at age 30.
Because MMA fans are The Worst, there’s a fair amount of hate being directed at Fallon, whether it is from “journalists” saying “All I will say is you may be able to change the cover of the book, but the story inside the book never changes,” or the typical meathead fan talking about dudes with mutilated dicks (That are gay, because of course) beating up women.
Personally, I think if Fallon’s hormones test within the ranges and ratios established for females, there shouldn’t be a problem. Especially since a guy like Vitor Belfort, who tested positive for steroids in 2006, and then got sort of clean, but now has lowered natural testosterone, can get a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy (Though Keith Kizer wants to put the kibosh on that, but that’s a whole other kettle of Megillahs), then a woman who’s been getting female hormones since the same time should be able to fight other ladies. Though I say that with no idea of how science works. Luckily, I don’t have to know about science, because the IOC would allow Fallon to compete as a woman according to their guidelines, and we all know the IOC’s rules are byzantine and insanely strict.
Besides, I’m sure Ediane Gomes would have no problem fighting her, considering she’s crazy enough to fight dudes in Vale Tudo matches and win (Which isn’t to say I think Fallon is a man, I mostly just wanted to point out that Ediane is cool, and I hope she beats Cris Cyborg at Invicta 5).
Actual, intelligent, non-inflammatory information can be found here.
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thanks for letting me write words, brandon.
Guh, hopefully when enough of the McCarthy Era Mindfucks die off, we can have true tolerance in this country. We ain’t saying you gotta like Fox or be her #1 fan, but if gender reassignment freaks you out, just leave her alone. I doubt she is going through anyone elses life and trying to prevent them from accomplishing their goals based on her moral compass.
The words, they make me read. They make me think.
Holy moley! I just read the rest of everyone else’s words. They make me think. Mostly they make me sad. You have elicited all of the feels.
This was a well written and a very correct article. Maybe it’s just Canada’s Charter of Rights, but, I could have sworn as soon as a male goes through the operation he officially becomes a woman (in addition to the continued taking of hormonal pills). This shouldn’t really be an issue in 2013.
Thanks so much for the feedback, cool friends!
Lead us into war, Mobsy. #PunchMansWomansLBGT
I want to know what Rorse Facie would have to say about this.
i don’t know if 15 seconds is long enough for Rorse to voice his opinion, other than “IN FAVOR”
This article is an example of political correctness run amok. Despite no longer having a penis, Fox has spent the last 30 developing in the body of a male fighter. I assume you would see no problem if Vitor Belfort had a gender reassignment and then entered the female MMA ranks? That would in no way compromise the integrity of sport, right? And why does a fighter have to undergo genital mutilation in order to be recognized as a man or woman? This is almost as absurd as the 45 year old 6 ft 8 inch transgender that joined a woman’s community college basketball team. It’s a comedy of the absurd.
Ugh, in the words of Gabe Gonzaga, YOU ARE A BAD.
I’d say if Vitor’s hormones test out at what a female does and can make a weight class other ladies compete at, and, like the IOC requires, is at least 2+ years past hormone therapy, then sure.
And fuck you, it’s not “genital mutilation”. It is a surgery underdone after after counseling and again, hormone therapy and so on, to make a person fucking comfortable with their own bodies, you thick headed, empty skulled doofus meathead.
helpful reminder for Beefaroni1: this is not the Yahoo comments section. You can find tons of dumb assholes over there.
Thank you and fuck you right back. You can call it what you want, but it is a form of genital mutilation. The rest of your sloppy comment is arbitrary nonsense meant to deflect from what is obviously a far more complicated issue than you would like to acknowledge. At 5’6′ and 145 lbs, Fox is larger, more muscular and obviously able to inflict more physical damage than any other female MMA fighter. Trying to obfuscate the facts by shrieking discrimination is pathetic. Here’s an idea, let’s submit to Olympic style gender testing. Let’s see the results of a karyotype test then I’ll give your bullshit argument consideration.
She fights in the proper weight category right? So what do you mean by “At 5’6′ and 145 lbs” ? She doesn’t fight 50 lbs women!
And yeah, I’m pretty sure that your opinion (or mine, or even Lobster’s) on her adequacy to fight doesn’t really matter: if doctors estimates she fits in, then she fits in. I’m pretty sure none of us here knows much about advanced biology.
Lobster’s response has more 209 in it than Brandon’s.
Feel free to delete away. Apparently your “writer” can’t handle being challenged on her subject matter so she throws an f-bomb my way and then deletes my response. Here, I’ll boil it down in a nutshell. Fox knocked out 5 women in the first round of their fights without telling them that she was born a man. A lot of amateur and professional athletes might have a problem with this for reasons this “writer” chooses to ignore. So let’s follow Olympic guidelines for gender testing. Submit to a karyotype test. If the test reveals you to be a male, you fight other males. If it says you are woman, you fight other women. If you are a transgendered person and you want to fight outside of the gender you were born with, you do it in a non-sanctioned fight and you DISCLOSE IT TO YOUR OPPONENT.
You are the worst. I guess your adamant opinion on the matter explains your anonymity and why you signed up for an UPROXX account with a hotmail address.
Ediane Gomes is literally the exact same size.
“Olympic style gender testing” do you not click on things in red? Because I linked to an article about OLYMPICS ALLOWING SEX CHANGE ATHLETES THE ABILITY TO COMPETE AGAINST THE GENDER THEY CHANGED TO. DOCTORS SAY MUSCLE/FAT RATIOS DECREASE AFTER HORMONE THERAPY.
also i didn’t delete anything, i don’t have that power. it was all brandon, because he doesn’t want the site he’s editor-in-chief of to be filled with dullards. i have no problem with either a calm, rational discussion, or lowering myself to hurling invective at a guy that guys, ‘hurr, durr, dick mutilation’
additionally, your ignorant bullshit is all still there.
People should be allowed to self identify with whatever the fuck they want to self identify as without some asshole getting upset. Beefaroni does not have the right to tell someone they are not who they think they are. People is people, yo.
Plus, it turns out that weight classes aren’t enough to level any playing field because I guess weight and muscles works differently for men and women or something?
Lady muscles weak. Man muscles strong. Scared of man without peepee. Scared of own identity.
Beefaroni1, Jessica threw an f-bomb your way likely because she is upset with your comments, which is a perfectly valid emotional reaction to the words “political correctness run amok”, “genital mutilation”, and “comedy of the absurd” in reference to transwomen in sports. If you express opinions in an incendiary and frankly offensive manner, be prepared for the push back.
Thanks, Ari. You’re completely right, if he would have just left out “genital mutilation” I would have had a civil discssion, but he went dumb, and so did I.
What’s wrong with registering your Uproxx account with a Hotmail address?
oh boy as a trans person I sure do love when people dehumanize my friends and myself.
Piss off.
I don’t know how I feel about this because MMA is about beating people into unconsciousness and men are naturally better set up for that than women. I took Rocks for Jocks in college (GO NOLES!!!) so I have no idea if there is a core masculine strength advantage that hormones, or lack thereof, can completely nullify.
I guess as long as her transgenderitude is disclosed and her opponents with factory parts are cool with it then game on.
If you have a dissenting point of view regarding this story, I urge you to phrase it like a grown-up and attempt to talk about it like a human being.
+1
I urge everyone to do that with EVERYTHING.
I urge those with progressive point of views on this story NOT to call those with dissenting points of view on this story “McCarthy-era fucks” and then maybe civil conversation will ensue. I mean, this isn’t Reddit.
So if Im born a man but feel like I am really a dog, does that mean I can get sanctioned to fight other dogs? Maybe we should ask Mike Vick. It really doesnt matter if she thinks she is now a woman, the fact is she was born a man and still has a physical advantage by being born orinally as a man. I saw in all fairness let her fight other post op trannies. Im sure there are others who would fight.
You’d be a lot happier if you stopped thinking shit like this.
What physical advantage is there in being born a man if there are weight classes? Are men’s muscles stronger but lighter than lady muscles? HOW DOES THE HUMAN BODY EVEN WORK???
Guess what Brando, this is a comment section where we are allowed to have different opinions than yours. Last time I checked I am free to think how ever I want.
Of course you are. I’m not telling you not to take a “if we let gay people get married, people will marry their dogs!” point of view. I’m just saying you’d be happier if you didn’t use phrases like “trannies,” because that’s true.
Males have and can build larger muscle mass than women. Its basic genetics. Not a knock that women aren’t strong, Im sure there are plenty of women who could kick my ass out there.
Sure, men are usually taller and bigger than women. But why does that matter when there are weight classes? How does that advantage come into effect when both people are the same weight? Are dude muscles and chick muscles different? Wikipedia is not being helpful here, so I’m counting on Dr Tommy Dickles to learn me a thing or three.
This link should help show you that men create more muscle power than women.
[www.livestrong.com]
[www.livestrong.com]
The “If I were a man and thought I was a dog” argument is about as adequate as Kirk Cameron’s “A BANANA FITS IN MY HAND, SO IT PROVES THERE IS A GOD”. I’m a Christian, and even I think that’s stupid.
Males can and do build larger muscles because of hormones. Hormones that Fallon no longer has in her system. Therefore, Fallon cannot build larger muscles. This is really not hard to comprehend.
At least your better at presenting your opinion than that other guy. I’ll give you that much.
Differences in Performance
Similar to physiological differences, women produce about two-thirds the power and strength outputs as men. However, the NSCA reports that women often produce higher relative lower body strength and power outputs, due to having wider hips, and the fact that women store most of their weight in their lower bodies
From your link all I can gather is that at the same weight class the differences in body composition vary between men and women slightly more than two different women might. I fail to see the problem.
Hey next time you start talking about transfolk like a complete ass, maybe you should consider that a trans person might actually reading it.
Yeah, I’ll echo everyone else in saying that I don’t know enough about human physiology to have a particularly informed opinion on the matter. But it seems really far-fetched that simply removing genitalia and injecting a man with hormones is enough to totally wipe the slate clean. There’s got to be more physical differences between the sexes than just those, right?
There are, but I won’t claim to know them, not being a biologist/geneticist/physiologist. However, if the IOC says it’s cool, and they’re usually way more stringent about EVERYTHING, so blurg.
Yeah, but the IOC doesn’t think wrestling should be an Olympic sport, so fuck those guys.
@THESTINGER but should man horses and lady horses be allowed to dressage against each other?!
That much is true, but my impression has been that most of their obsession has been with drugs/hormone levels. If there are other advantages a transgendered fighter might have, I don’t know that they would have done the research into it (especially considering the rarity of the situation).
Anyone who participates in or enjoys dressage should be brought to a slaughterhouse and repurposed.
That ESPN article said doctors (Olympic doctors?) said that after 2+ years hormone therapy, a dude’s natural, genetic increase muscle:fat ratio and lung/heart function tapers down to barely a negligible advantage to natural, genetic females. they might have denser bones, but that might even get taken care of since us ladies are just riddled with osteoporosis.
Bone density, eh? If only headbutts were still allowed, we could see Mark Coleman make the switch and have a triumphant return!
he’s sadly done fighting. total hip replacement surgery :(
so long, hammer, and thanks for all the fists
oh shit, has anyone taken into consideration the difference in PHRENOLOGY betwixt the sexes? HEAD BUMPS MEAN GREATER ABILITY TO LEARN AND RETAIN JIU-JITSU KNOWLEDGE FOR MANS, I BET
HEADBUMP LEARNTIMES
I’m happy to see this article here and I love that you wrote it, Mobs. The comments, on the other hand…
Thank you!
I was kind of expecting worse, so hey, pleasant surprise!
Seconded. Great article Lob.
Dynamite work, Lob.
Thanks so much, you cool cats (*GUITAR SOLO* MEOW!)
(I will use that whenever possible, T-Boggs, it is glorious)
If a woman fighter accepts fights with Fox knowing her history, I don’t see what the problem is. As fans, you and I don’t have to step into the cage with her. Only her opponents do at their informed discretion. LET THEM BANG, BRO!
What do you do if one of the opponents does have a problem with it?
You call her a pussy.
or you don’t
@Brandon
In MMA, or any other confrontational sport, if Fighter A refuses to fight Fighter B then Fighter B calls Fighter A a pussy. It’s stupid and it’s juvenile, but no stupider or more juvenile than the sport itself.
I’m aware of how that works, but the fact that confrontational sports guys think the worst possible thing is a “pussy” is one of the reasons why women and LGBTQ athletes are having such problems. Because the WORST THING is being like a woman. It’s stupider than the sport, and something people should stop doing.
The preceding is another example of why B=Best.
no, you quack at them (don’t duck me, yo), say “don’t be scared, homie” or just be all “whatevs, yolo” and fight someone else.
like, everyone should always avoid masakazu imanari, and i would applaud their intelligence.
and yes, brandon is right, saying “you are bad because you are a woman” is fucking awful.
minor side-track, like half the time i see “LGBTQ” i keep wanting it to be “LGBBQ”
So did Hitler…
“Don’t be scared, homie” is always preferred in my book.
oh, wait, i think you can call cat zingano a pussy, but only in reference to her first name
Fine let’s play this game.
I’d appreciate it if you all would stop using the word “homie”, whether you’re black or not. It’s offensive that you find it necessary to code switch from Standard English into Southern Black slang in order to be funny or colloquial. If you’re black then you need to deal with your self hatred. If you’re not black then you’re flat out racist.
The fact that homie/homeboy has been assimilated into popular vernacular and bears little resemblance to its original meaning is irrelevant.
We don’t have to play a game. It doesn’t have to be an offensive/defensive thing. It’s very, very easy to think of a word to say other than pussy. You don’t HAVE to say pussy because people say it. Nobody’s stealing it from you. It’s a conscious decision you can make and requires zero effort.
It’s also part of that systematic thing where it’s not pussy meaning something totally different now, it’s that ALL the classic tough guy “you’re a wimp” words equate to the person being feminine. Bitch, pussy, faggot. Those words still mean what they mean. Their definitions haven’t been lost in time, we are all still very aware of what they mean, and they mean what they mean when they’re said, whether we’re directly saying “you’re like a woman” or not. It’s not an opinion I have, it’s the truth. It’s an easy fix.
+1 to Brandon for once again explaining it better than I can without resorting to the use of expletives
“Homie” is etymologically not necessarily “black”, nor is it even a predominantly Southern word. It’s also not an offensive term in standard context. The meaning hasn’t changed; it was NEVER an offensive term. It’s simply slang, plain and simple. You must have been thinking of a different word. Either way, your weak-sauce attempt to try to turn the true subject around was embarrassing, and no amount of fancy words can hide the fact that you were dodging the salient point.
Or maybe you should all be grown-ups and not get worked up over a bunch of words and potential hurt feelings.
What, pray-tell, are grown-ups supposed to do? Let ignorance run rampant? I believe that grown-ups stand up for their beliefs. Shall I show you the way back to the kiddie table, or can you find your own way home?
Standing up for your beliefs? You’re all just whining about guys calling each other pussy in an internet comment section. You aren’t accomplishing anything.
Right now, we’re all sitting at the kid’s table.
Fighting ignorance wherever it rears its head is standing up for beliefs. If one person is shown that they’re wrong, that’s an accomplishment. An accomplishment at any level is an accomplishment, no matter what weight it may bear.
You sound like a giant pussy.
And you’re just driving the point home, ya fuckin’ asshole.
It absolutely is a game. If you were truly offended by the overt misogyny of meathead culture I doubt you’d be into sports, but you are.
Louis C.K. and Chris Rock disagree with you about the static definition of faggot, and their logic carries over to the other two words. And you don’t get to decide what everyone means when they say something. You also don’t get to decide what is “truth”.
I made a (bad) joke about a female transgender fighter calling another fighter who wouldn’t fight her a pussy. I guess the irony I was going for didn’t come thru. I thought it was funny because women athletes tend not to act like their male counterparts, and it would take an unfathomable lack of self-awareness for a transgender woman to call someone else a pussy, yet it would still be totally consistent with MMA culture. I missed. But then you, the guy who writes a minimum of 3000 words a week on the most racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, jingoistic show on television, got offended.
I’m not hanging on to any word, and I would never disrespect any high level athlete in any sport outside of a joke, but I understand that in confrontational sports (and sports entertainment) there’s brutality and hatred dyed in the wool of the culture, and so do you. I’m not bunged up because I can’t use the P-word. This is about you throwing stones from your big glass house.
I think sexism offends you enough to scold me in the comments section of your blog but not enough to interfere with its page views. You start writing about Sally Pearson in addition to Michelle Jenneke and I’ll take your outrage more seriously.
Kingjitsu – +1. Also, thank you Jessica, for starting the discussion here.
@Kungjitsu – I just want to point out that Brandon spends like 2997 of those 3000 words every week lambasting WWE for being sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, jingoistic, xenophobic and that “it is just wrestling” is not should have ever been a valid excuse for all of those awful things (the last 3 words are “lol kofi kingston”)
This issue is as simple as having even hormone levels (which she should have now) and weight class. Not that is even matters, really, but I bet Rousey would accept the fight.
Enjoyed the read, Lobster Mobster.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m as big a champion of LGBT rights as you’ll find. I wish nothing but the best for Fallon Fox.
That being said, there are physiological differences between men and women (with outliers both ways, of course) that would give someone who was born and grew into adulthood as a male some presumed advantages in a combat sport. Males have significantly (40-50% if Wikipedia is to be believed) denser muscle mass. Males also have greater bone density and stronger tendons and ligaments than females. And males have larger, squarer jaws than females. It would be disingenuous to say that all of these physiological differences wouldn’t be beneficial when you’re squaring off with someone in a combat sport. Whether those differences are enough to disqualify someone like Ms. Fox from competition, I will leave to the governing bodies of those sports, but they should at least be acknowledged.
I don’t know much about the science behind it, but I wanted to say thank you for presenting a dissenting point in a valid way. Even if I were to disagree with you, (which I don’t, because I don’t have enough of a knowledge base to make a valid opinion), but i appreciate you making your point in a thoughtful way. Thank you for open and honest discourse!
I like how the post with the reasonable, thought out response gets 1 (now 2) replies but the guy that used the word “Pussy” got like 50.
And we wonder why cable news has such high ratings.
+1 would read again, except the parts where everyone who knows nothing about biology knows everything about biology.
Funny you should say that, because I have a doctorate in pretending to know everything about biology.
Separating sports by sex is stupid anyways. If I want to be recognized as the best 200lb fighter in the world, I don’t want any sort of asterisk next to it.
This is especially frustrating in sports/games like bowling and billiards where it really makes no difference which sex/gender you are.
I have very little tolerance for some of the shit appearing here. A former coworker of mine was transgendered and moved away in order to fully transition after surgery. She committed suicide. A lack of sympathy and understanding was no small part of it. So, because I really can’t deal with some of the crap said here without RAGE, I will just leave this:
[www.apa.org]
If your looking for credible material on what being transgendered means, that is an APA pamphlet discussing the topic. It also discusses the difference between sex and gender, which is not the same thing. It mentions how those transitioning might be “using hormone therapy treatment, and/or undergoing medical procedures that modify their body to conform with their gender identity.” The more you know and all that…
Or you know, you could just Google and post the first link you find. That’s cool too.
*internet hugs, Stacey*
I also LOVE how people are so casual with like “oh she got hormones and got an operation and now-” like it’s this big easy thing that doesn’t totally change your life.
Apologies about your friend. It’s still an all too common story these days, especially in the professional and workforce sphere.
My view is this
If people sign consent forms and want to bash eachother’s brains in, have at it. I just won’t pretend to be sad when they cant hold a pen in 10 years or get lost on the way to the grocery store
That’s cool. It’s just hard for me to square that viewpoint with all of the things that “must be done” to limit concussions in football.
In contact sports such as football or hockey, headshots are illegal, and physical contact is a means to an end.
In MMA, headshots are legal (and glorified) and physical PUNISHMENT, while not necessarily the end, is THE means to achieve the end goal.
Short answer: In hockey and football, you don’t win by inflicting more pain than the other guy
I still believe she has an inherent advantage being born with the Y chromosome. As far as the argument regarding the same weight class/size issue, I think that 9 times out of 10 a 150 lb man beats a 150 lb woman in a fight, assuming similar skill and fitness levels.
But that’s just like, my opinion, man.
Im not touching this with a ten foot poll.
*mauro ranallo 10cm pole joek* (though it was initially 25ft/cm, whatevs)
LobMob, you are the best, and keep writing awesome things.
thanks so much, i will try!
Look at all this navel-gazing PC goobledygook. Do you guys go to some school to learn to talk like this? It’s almost like another language.
Ooh, buzzwords! Fuck outta here with that.
Yes, we call it ‘school’, where we learn to think like ‘people’.
I don’t like MMA, but this article is ace.
The good news for regular readers is that the people who’ve stopped by to wave and drop “look at me, I’m ignorant” posts are not representative of our audience, and are just awful people on the Internet.
Hey Lobby Mobby.
Thank you. I don’t have chance to post much, and I know I’m pretty vocal about all my SOCIAL CAUSES~ but this is something that I and some other friends deal with sometimes. It’s awesome enough that we have a transwoman in pro wrestling now, but other than that I only really see it with my local roller derby team.
So thank you for this. Thank you for not misgendering her, which is something that not every journalist does, thank you for presenting the facts you have and thank you for acknowledging your short comings in the facts you didn’t have.
Also, I’ve lived in Florida all my life, so I agree. Fuck Florida.
Another Floridian here. Our state is truly the worst.
Are you feeling okay? I was wondering if you had seen this post. UGH @ the transphobic comments and pathetic derailing.
I’m honestly very curious about this case though, and from my earlier post I do wonder if an advantage does exist in being born a male and then getting the hormone therapy/surgeries to change to female? My common sense would indicate that this fighter has an advantage but maybe I’m wrong? It seems like 2 years of hormone therapy wouldn’t exactly overcome 30 years of male development.
@garciansmith – thank you so much, i hope i was able to treat fox and the situation with the proper amount of respect (which is “all of it”)
One more thing actually. Hey, the idea of the informed consent or whatever, I know the people who said that may have their hearts in the right place, but you should also understand the implications of having to our yourself or be outed over and over again to strangers. She might be cool with it, but I don’t know. We don’t know.
So yeah just a thought because it might hurt the “hey I’m a woman competing thing” with having to say “hey your fighting a trans person who etc etc”.
Honestly, this is the best thing to ever happen to this Fallon. He obviously wanted the publicity when he decided to become a she and then take up MMA. The brain does things for a reason, even if the mouth doesn’t admit it. Now, this person is getting all the publicity he/she ever wanted.
It’s just “she.” She also probably wanted to feel okay in her own body, and did not go through difficult mental, physical, and hormonal changes to get an imaginary advantange at MMA.
Friends, please stop feeding the trolls.