{"id":48515,"date":"2019-05-25T03:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=48515"},"modified":"2019-05-24T10:00:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T14:00:17","slug":"zuby-breaks-the-womens-deadlift-record-while-briefly-identifying-as-a-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2019\/05\/25\/zuby-breaks-the-womens-deadlift-record-while-briefly-identifying-as-a-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuby breaks the women’s deadlift record while (briefly) identifying as a woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spiked<\/em><\/a> talks to Zuby about his (her?) world-beating achievement:<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s and women\u2019s sporting competitions have historically, with a few exceptions, been separate. But in recent years, it has become more common for trans women (biological males) to compete in women\u2019s events. Trans women have competed against biological women in the top flights of several sports, including athletics, cycling, handball, volleyball and weightlifting. Most famously, Rachel McKinnon, born male, won gold in female track cycling at the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships.<\/p>\n

Many argue that male biology confers certain unavoidable advantages and so women could lose out if women\u2019s categories are opened up to biological males. Zuby, a rapper, podcaster and fitness coach, set out to prove this. He has produced several viral videos in which he breaks British women\u2019s weightlifting records while \u2018identifying\u2019 as a woman. spiked caught up with him for a chat.<\/p>\n

spiked<\/strong>: Why did you decide to identify as a woman to break the women\u2019s deadlift record?<\/p>\n

Zuby<\/strong>: I already have a lot of footage of myself working out, including the video of me \u2018breaking\u2019 the women\u2019s record. Around the time I posted the video, there were multiple news stories popping up about transgender athletes \u2013 technically biological men \u2013 competing against biological women. They were winning races and competitions in all kinds of sports. I\u2019d seen this kind of thing springing up over the years, but in a very short period of time it seemed like there were lots of cases<\/p>\n

Out of curiosity, I googled what the British women\u2019s powerlifting records actually were and I saw that I could beat all of them. So that video I posted, that wasn\u2019t me lifting my maximum \u2013 the women\u2019s record is 215kg and my maximum is 275kg. It\u2019s similar for the bench press. And the women\u2019s squat record was roughly the same as my own personal best. So I tweeted the video:<\/p>\n

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I keep hearing about how biological men don't have any physical strength advantage over women in 2019…<\/p>\n

So watch me DESTROY the British Women's deadlift record without trying.<\/p>\n

P.S. I identified as a woman whilst lifting the weight. Don't be a bigot. \ud83d\ude02 pic.twitter.com\/dYRraHCB42<\/a><\/p>\n

— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) February 26, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n