Ronda Rousey: Trailblazer, UFC Hall of Famer, and WWE star. Ah, I forgot a couple of her accomplishments: She shared an inflammatory conspiracy video about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre to her millions of Twitter followers and made transmisogynistic and outright asinine comments about transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox.
And as of Mortal Kombat 11, she’s the voice of iconic character Sonya Blade. Let’s take a moment to consider how messed up that is.
In 2013, Rousey shared a conspiracy video regarding the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that claimed 26 lives, including 20 children. The video suggested the massacre was a hoax carried out by the government.
When called out about it, Rousey started by doubling down.
“I just figure asking questions and doing research is more patriotic than blindly accepting what you’re told,” she said in a reply on Twitter.
The following day, she made another tweet saying that she “never meant to insult or hurt anyone” and that she was “sorry if anyone was offended.”
But it doesn’t stop at her sounding like a corporate bullshit apology bot. Take her comments regarding Fallon Fox. Fox is the first openly transgender MMA fighter in the sport’s history. She had undergone sex reassignment surgery in 2006 but received pushback against the idea that she could fight against other women. UFC president Dana White stated that he didn’t believe Fox should be allowed to fight other women.
Former NFL defensive tackle and MMA fighter Matt Mitrione called Fox a “lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak,” and was later suspended for his comments. Through all this, Rousey declined to fight Fox, insisting that her fellow fighter would have a physical advantage in the ring.
“She can try hormones, chop her pecker off, but it’s still the same bone structure a man has,” Rousey told The New York Post. “It’s an advantage. I don’t think it’s fair.” She also commented that she was glad the UFC didn’t “straight cut” Mitrione for his comments.
Thank the stars that Ronda got the pronouns right, I guess.
I didn’t write anything sooner because I thought that maybe I wouldn’t have to be the one writing this. As this piece was in the middle of being edited (I’ve been writing this over the course of two days) my peer Danielle Riendeau at Waypoint published an article about Rousey’s involvement, which is heartening.
Still, I wish it didn’t have to be queer folks speaking up. Where are our allies on this?
You know what I want to do? Play Mortal Kombat 11. But I would have to be wild to consider it. I’m not obligated to let bygones be bygones, and I’m just not going to. Rousey’s presence in Mortal Kombat 11 is unacceptable.
Sonya could have been played by any number of capable actresses, but instead, NetherRealm stunt casted someone whose very presence makes many of my friends feel completely uncomfortable playing Mortal Kombat 11. Tl;DR, this sucks.
Comments
107 responses to “Ronda Rousey Being In Mortal Kombat 11 Is Bullshit”
Netherrealm absolutely need to Nolan North Rousey out of the game before I would consider buying it. When I found out who she was and what she stood for the other day it completely killed any desire I had to own the game (that hadn’t already been killed by the insane grindiness of unlockables, anyway).
I need to know that the voice actors of the characters I’m using to rip people’s spines out align with my values too.
That’s a false equivalency. Fantasy violence in fantasy worlds with fantasy characters is NOT equivalent to actual, realworld behaviour. MK’s violence affects nobody; her behaviour does. Your statement has the appearance of a rebuttal via logic, but it’s really just an appeal to inaction.
So wait, the characters’ violent actions are fantasy and “affect nobody”, but their voices cross the digital threshold and must be changed?
My statement is an appeal to inaction, you’re right. Because the real fantasy characters are the transgender people who asked you to get offended on their behalf, pre-emptively, for the words someone else said that are not re-stated in the game in any way shape or form. No action required.
Uh, Heather is trans and is telling us that she finds this offensive. Is she a fantasy?
Can I just add – as someone who doesn’t have Heather’s personal perspective or background, and just as a regular white bloke from a town in NSW:
Ronda Rousey is fucking terrible actor. Legitimately awful.
The WWE has been great for her and all, but honestly, anyone else. Especially with that Sandy Hook truther garbage on top. Seen enough arseholes on Facebook from people spreading Port Arthur bullshit lately, and I have *no* time for that shit whatsoever.
(Cassie Cage has been miles better since MKX anyway)
It’s sad that you feel you need that ‘disclaimer’ at the top.
But yeah the rest I fully agree.
From the story, Rousey apologised about her Sandy Hook tweets. It’s Heather that won’t let go even after that.
As someone who was alive when Port Arthur happened, I can’t believe there’s anyone in my age bracket or older who can seriously deny it. That had a huge impact. Are they under 40s posting on Facebook?
As for stinky voice acting, people should go check out The Note on ps1 for the worst.
Yeah, I remember watching it unfold on TV at primary school. It’s mostly being spread by the same deadshit crowd that look for alternative cancer cures, aren’t quite into the anti-vax territory but also aren’t dismissing it outright.
Everyone probably knows someone like that on Facebook now. In my case, I’ve seen a few people under 35 (usually ones who have moved into some super remote location, or way ‘up north’) buy into it, along with the traditional boomer crowd.
Pauline Hanson stated she read a “blue book” that made her ask questions. Ugh.
It was a book called “where did my brain go…”
I’m from Tassie and my 20 yo cousin visiting from Sydney happened to mention he thought it was a hoax to remove guns. He got an ass kicking at the pub where he mentioned it and an ass kicking when he got home and explained why he got the first ass kicking.
My family are mostly red neck asshats but even they wont put up with that crap.
I normally don’t condone doing something like that but I wont exactly loose sleep over that
She didn’t apologise so much as excuse herself.
I’m not usually one for nailing people to their stupid mistakes forever but this is just so egregious. Who could have predicted that going in front of a global audience and promoting the theory that it never happened, that grieving parents didn’t actually loose children, and that American high school students don’t have to be afraid for their safety, would be hurtful to people. Anyone. Anyone could have predicted that. The ‘I’m so surprised anyone was upset’ act really shows her up as a coward, in my opinion.
That said I can only imagine that her being in this game was as some sort of promotions deal. I can’t imagine a casting meeting where they sit down and say ‘We had Tricia Helfer do this last time, but she’s old hat. Let’s get Ronda Rousey, she’s so hot in acting right now.’
I mean, she’s just about to leave WWE, so she had to keep her brand going somehow.
She didn’t apologize for the tweets though, she apologized in the case that anyone was offended, which is the most used non apology ever.
A simplified example :
I’m sorry I took a dump on your desk.
is different to
I’m sorry I offended anyone while taking a dump on your desk.
Such an awful actor, she makes Gina Carano look like Meryl Streep!
Funny you should mention Cassie Cage, because another UFC fighter (Felice Herrig) believes they stole her appearance when they modelled that character.
Not defending her choice of words but surely one can understand how a female would not be keen to fight against a trans female. Regardless of sexual organs body’s are different, should we just remove gender based fights and let men and women Duke it out?
I mean no disrespect to anyone and completely understand why you would choose to boycott the game. Shes also perhaps the worst voice actor I’ve ever heard.
Controversial opinions aside, this is probably the most important aspect of the topic. If she’s a bad voice actor, then she isn’t the right person for the job and should be replaced with someone more competent, and for that reason alone.
There have been a few studies lately showing that trans women don’t have an advantage over cis women in sport. To the extent that men are, on average, taller than women, this is an argument for height categories, not discrimination against trans women (what’s the difference in the advantage a 6’5 cis woman has compared to a 6’5 trans woman?). Same goes for most or all physical advantages; doubly so for a sport like MMA with weight categories.
Rousey’s specific complaint about bone structure is weird – the differences are so minor that archaeologists can’t generally tell men from women by their skeletons. One of the most pronounced differences, statistically, is that men have bigger jaws. Which seems like a handicap in MMA.
I think you are kidding yourself that there is no difference between men and women in physical structure apart from genitalia. Men are generally stronger, more muscle mass and thicker bone density. If you believe that trans women and cis women in the same weight class would be fair in MMA or weightlifting, then why not combine mens and women’s competitions. If it’s just weight class, we will see how the women go against similar sized men. What about supplying a link to the studies comparing trans women and cis women?
For all intents and purposes, someone who has undergone gender reassignment is the new sex.
Cis/trans women do not have the same levels of testerone as what men do hence they can not have the same amount of muscle.
Trans women often undergo a lot of hormone therapy which in her case would decrease her muscle mass. She wants to be a badass, but still look like a woman (I assume) so that will be the same muscle level as Rousey would have.
Here’s a link @kolreth posted earlier: https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/3/8/4075434/leading-sex-reassignment-physicians-weigh-in-on-fallon-fox
It’s a discussion with actual medical professionals. The tl;dr is that women on hormone replacement therapies quite quickly lose the muscle mass and bone density they had prior to transitioning.
Why is Bondles downvoted for providing a link? Regardless of your opinion on the matter that’s rather stupid. Bondles, im sending you this as a reply so it sits chronologically, not because I expect you to answer, ok? To the downvoter- what, does it offend you when folks provide an info source you dont agree with? Or does trying to remain reasonably neutral hurt your feels?
Not entirely sure, I have no horse in the race either way. But there was another link posted from the same website (before bondles posted here) with an endocrinologist stating that after transitioning, it may take at least 15 years for a former male’s bone density to start declining.
I guess it’s just him posting one without the other from the very same source.
Everybody responding with a science-backed argument to that post got downvoted by the usual crowd.
Rousey’s comments about sandy hook are eye rollingly dumb. She copped a massive blowback when she did say that ages ago and rightly so.
Her comments on fox however are bang on the money.
There’s a massive difference between accepting trans people and letting them fuck up an entire sport.
I dunno heather if you’ve ever played a physical sport before but gender makes a huge fucking difference.
She was right to refuse a fight with fox.
MMA and all other fighting sports have a strict weight bracket for a reason. When I fought even at amateur level muay Thai, if you were in the lower end of your weight bracket and they were higher end you could tell the difference from the weight of their punches to how they throw you around. It’s an insane difference.
So just because you feel you’re a different gender (which is fine, be what you wanna be) doesn’t mean your body is listening.
Don’t tell me that close to 20 years of male hormones morphing and shaping your body hasn’t enlarged your hands to an advantage or increased your bone density to an advantage or filled you with quick twitch muscle fibres that no biological woman will ever get.
It’s just bad luck. A trans person can never be in a physical sport and have it be fair. That’s just bad luck.
Yep, no one’s saying you can’t be trans. Be who you want to be. A lot of people are super accepting of others how they are.
The issue of transgender athletes is going to come to a head within the next few years though, I don’t know all the details of the story, but just this week a transgender female (formerly male) competed in a weightlifting event in American and broke 4 women’s world records. Now a lot of female athletes across various sports are speaking out about how it shouldn’t be allowed.
Yeah I just read that article. The fact people are surprised that this happened baffles me though, like honestly what did they think was going to happen.
I genuinely wonder how many of these female athletes wanted to voice legitimate concerns before this all started happening, but were worried about being immediately labelled as transphobic, a bigot, etc, and having to deal with the hate mob coming down on them like a tonne of bricks.
Quite a few have actually. Joe Rogan himself has many, many podcasts on the very subject. He’s discussed before how Fallon Fox in 2014 beat Tamika Brents so severely she had her skull broken, it was observed that at this point, it was attributed to Fallons excess muscle mass and masculine physique, hand size etc that contributed to the damage incurred upon Tamika. It’s worth taking into account Tamika Brents actual comment after the fight, after she’d gained consciousness:
It’s a touchy subject sure, but when I read a woman saying she felt absolutely overpowered? I’ll fly this as a flag. I as a man, have no right to say to that woman she has no right to say she felt overpowered, because that’s a real threat. Noone’s saying noone can’t identify, or be their true gender. But it definitely has to be remembered where someone originated, because they *were* another gender at one point in life, and with that comes certain other aspects, such as potential strength, weight and other advantages or whatnot, which in cases like this, could prove dangerous.
Yeah, physiologically she’s not wrong – biological males, particularly once you’ve gone through puberty, will be physically more powerful than females with higher bone density and muscle mass. If you then do deliberate physical training, you’re going to increase it and widen that gap. This is basic science which is totally unrelated to what you identify as. You can frame it as a diversity issue, but as you rightly point out, physiology doesn’t care what you identify as.
Rousey might be shit, but she was right about that. Otherwise you might as well abolish gender categories – but you’d find people demanding they return when XY physiologically typical males start dominating sports requiring high strength.
Why are people forgetting that muscle requires testosterone?
If you lower the level of T, you lower the amount of muscle the body can sustain.
Because people see trans women as Ronda Rousey is quoted: someone who can “try hormones” and “cut their pecker off”
Actually you’re right to a point, I forgot about testosterone reduction inducing some muscle atrophy – so Fox likely has lost some muscle mass with hormonal therapy. Doesn’t change any comments about bone density though given she transitioned well after puberty.
At the rate we’re going it will likely take a woman being outright killed by a transgender competitor during a fight before people stop pushing that insanity, and stop straight out lying through their teeth about how “there’s no difference” in the biology at play.
I had never thought of the possibility, but I think you are right.
Fallon Fox fractured a skull fighting another woman.
Particularly when it comes to a combat sport, I think it’s legitimate turning down such a fight.
Leave the fight itself to the side and look at her wording. She thinks that trans women are men who took some pills and cut their dicks off.
We can debate the merits of dividing sports by gender or weight class, but most non-shitty people should agree that she has a shitty opinion and she tried to convince millions of people that it wasn’t shitty. That’s the issue I see.
So basically her otherwise valid opinion is invalid because you didn’t like the tone? I can agree that her wording was shit, but her concerns over fighting a trans opponent is valid.
These are two different topics. Her views on organising a sport are not her views on the existence of trans people. They just happen to intersect, here.
Whether her concerns about the fight itself are valid or not are for the people running the UFC to deal with. She’s a fighter, her concerns on things like appropriate weight classes are totally worth noting when arbitrating rules. Whichever way they decide is a bridge the sport will have to cross when they come to it.
The topic that’s actually a pertinent problem is her treatment of a minority. You can say it’s because I don’t like her tone, but I feel like that’s being dismissive in the same way. If for example (and it’s a clumsy comparison, but bear with me) she said that gay people are more likely to have AIDS and that’s why she won’t fight a gay woman, it’d be an outrage. And rightly so. Even if that’s technically true (I don’t know, but that’s the cultural stigma), she’s going to be pilloried for it because that’s a pretty gross attitude to like 10% of the population.
On a sporting level the UFC would have to decide if that’s a legitimate threat to their athletes and decide what (if anything) to do about it. But it wouldn’t change the fact that she’s being a jerk and it goes a lot deeper than not liking her tone. It’s actively discriminatory to a subset of the population who already face a hell of a lot of unearned hatred and discrimination. We shouldn’t be aggrandising people who have those kinds of views if we want a society that accepts and values people as a whole.
Well yeah, it is – because I’d presume that if there was an actual risk of infection you’d have to declare it as a fighter – or if there’s minimal to no risk, it’s irrelevant. That’s a ridiculous link for the hypothetical statement to make. But that’s not really equivalent to Rousey stating she didn’t want to fight a trans opponent who was physiologically male because of a potential inherent physiological advantage.
I don’t disagree that what Rousey said is offensive (re: ‘chop your pecker off etc’), because it is, but the entire point of what she was saying was that her opponent could have a significant advantage given her initial biological gender. That is a valid question, albeit asked by a fucking tool.
Honestly, it sounds like we’re mostly in agreement. The only difference is that I don’t think it matters why she said it because the issue is what she said, not why. Refusing to fight someone for a (perceived) unfair advantage isn’t the issue. The issue is that she’s throwing out unacceptable bullshit into the public and shouldn’t be rewarded for it.
She could have asked that question of the UFC management – even publicly if she thought it would get her traction she needed to force them to seriously consider it – without calling Fox a dude who ate pills and chopped off his dick. That’s the problem. She called a trans woman a dickless dude. That’s it. That’s the problem. Whatever situation made her think that was an ok thing to say is irrelevant.
Some research suggests that the physical advantages are quite possibly very small, but as you said, that’s a risk to be assessed by the sporting peak body. I’m not debating that the safety of their athletes is important. If athletes are worried about a particular safety issue (real or imagined), they have a duty to address it. But that doesn’t make what she said any less deserving of scorn.
Not nescessarily true :
SD: Does Fallon carry a significant advantage in mixed martial arts competition, due to being biologically born a male?
MB: Most measures of physical strength minimize, muscle mass decreases, bone density decreases, and they become fairly comparable to women in their musculature. After as much time as has passed in her case, if tested, she would probably end up in the same muscle mass category as her biologically born female counterpart.
https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/3/8/4075434/leading-sex-reassignment-physicians-weigh-in-on-fallon-fox
Astonishing that for all the angry anti-trans comments in this thread, the only one citing actual medical evidence is being completely ignored.
Honestly, what comments are actually anti-trans?
Has anyone outright said that trans people shouldn’t be accepted in society?
Yes, a lot of people are saying that trans people shouldn’t be able to fully participate in society (of which sport is a big and important part). And they’re doing it based on assumptions about strength or other physical advantages that are not supported by any medical science.
Where? Can you please direct me to the exact comments in this conversation that say that?
Maybe its time we have a new Transgender category for sport then.
I don’t think so.
https://images.app.goo.gl/xhzyGYkNtAnajb4G6
Look at those hands consuming majority of that ball, tell me that doesn’t make a massive difference.
https://images.app.goo.gl/QFR3pziueWfciPEb8
Good luck tackling that. Nothing anti trans about this at all. Just a factual difference in mass and proportion from being born male.
Finally an actually fight from Fox:
https://youtu.be/VRMh0YZkUdg
She ripped her to shreds,
Also a quote from Brents who actually had to fight her:
“I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night. I can’t answer whether it’s because she was born a man or not because I’m not a doctor. I can only say, I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right… I still disagree with Fox fighting. Any other job or career I say have a go at it, but when it comes to a combat sport I think it just isn’t fair.” – Tamika Brents
If your objection is that Hannah Mouncey is tall, then campaign for a height limit for AFL players. Some women are tall. Some have big hands. Some are strong. Unless they’re somehow in territory that is impossible for cis women to inhabit (they aren’t), the fact that they’re trans just isn’t relevant.
So Chyna was a man?
https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/very-tall-women/83195023/
Look at the pie tins on these ladies.
If we want to cite pop sites as clinical evidence, then: https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/3/20/4128658/dr-ramona-krutzik-endocrinologist-discusses-possible-advantages-fallon-fox-has/in/3847225 (from the same site).
Namely these points:
– She transitioned late, after developing fully into a male
– She’s likely on oestrogen to prevent bone density loss, thus potentially maintaining bone density
A quick search through PubMed suggests that with inadequate care a male to female transperson could suffer from lower density if not appropriately treated, but may maintain bone density with proper management. Given Fox is an athlete I’d say it’s safe to assume she’s being appropriately managed and thus would likely maintain bone density (otherwise she’d be at risk of osteoporosis and increased fractures).
Doing further reading on it, the actual interactions between sex hormones and muscle mass/bone density seem much more complicated than I’d first assumed (I have a bit of an A&P background too) but I also see nothing to suggest that the comments made in your linked article are definitive proof that there’s no difference.
Maybe, but I’ll take the word of sex reassignment specialist doctors over a hormone disorder specialist doctor. Focus matters a whole lot in science these days, the amount of learning it takes to actually contribute to a field is beyond anything most people will ever subject themselves to. You don’t go to a gynecologist for cancer treatments.
No, but the function of sex hormones is also part of endocrinology so that “hormone disorder specialist” also knows what they’re talking about. There appears to be a lack of consensus – and whether Fox actually has the same done density will also depend on her treatments. Or, in other words, the concerns may be valid.
Ah, the old… “My science good! Yours bad!” shtick when someone cites things that disagree with you. Classic.
You can link all the ‘evidence’ you like. The problem? As women’s records keep being broken by formerly male transgender competitors all your ‘evidence’ starts looking a more and more full of shit.
That’s one of the major things isn’t it? At what point, when pretty much all the records get shattered by former males, will people look at it and say “We kinda… shoulda known this would happen…”
Yeah, since none of the science is mine I don’t know who you’re pissy at. Since the thing your argument hinges on happening all the time seems to have happened once, with a powerlifter, I’d suggest if men were willing to cut parts off in order to win records you’d more likely see a rash of testicular cancer survivors since it worked so well for Lance Armstrong. The dumb shit rapper from 2017 who tried the ‘I’m suddenly identifying as a woman” bullshit would never have been able to actually pull that shit in a properly regulated competition.
My bad, above response was meant for @kolreth
If one of the actors in Game of Thrones was revealed to be a paedobear would you stop watching the series? I find this idea of social censorship very strange.
Some would. And then some would demand that HBO cut the scenes featuring that actor from the entire series and replace them with re-filmed scenes, just like Sega did with Judgment.
I’ve stopped listening to Ryan Adams since his behaviour with young female musicians has been revealed. So, yes…
You won’t have much left to listen to, watch, play, or read if you start curating art and entertainment with a moral compass.
So the solution is to keep spring abusers? No thanks.
When the culture changes enough that shitty people can’t continue being shitty for years without consequence, the arts will have places for new, better people to fill the spots held by terrible people in the past.
Nonsense. The majority of people, whether in arts or entertainment or anywhere else, are perfectly functional human beings that don’t do things like offer professional opportunities for sexual favours or knowingly expose themselves to underage girls.
There is an overabundance of media to listen to, watch, play or read without needing to give shitbags a free pass because they make something some people like.
Im kind of on the fence, Some people here would start the stoning if they didnt say the exact thing they want them to say or do.
But at the same time, i can no longer listen to Lostprophets because of Ian Watkins and its hard to enjoy 2 of my top 10 movies because of Kevin Spacey.
Fair call. I vaguely remember the LP thing. Holy hell.
But yeah on the degree of severity scale, Ronda Rousey being in MK11? That’s just her getting work. Having committed no crime i think she has a right to do that. And equally people have a right to not play the game.
Basically that question is just ‘But we still all love Roman Polanski, right?’
He has continued to make films and win awards since fleeing justice, so clearly at least some portion of us do. Equally clearly, not everyone finds it forgivable.
Yep. And Rousey hasn’t actually broken any laws. Other than being a complete turd.
Polansky is undeniably very talented.
He’s also undeniably a very smelly piece of shit and despite being a massive film nerd, I will never buy anything that will ever make him a single cent.
Weird how some people wouldn’t want to give their money to a man who likes children too much.
The concept of the division of art and artist is a surprisingly controversial one. Thriller and Smooth Criminal are still in my playlist. I still enjoy Arrested Development.
Recently I tried an experiment. Could Bill Cosby still make me laugh? He did.
Joe Rogan covered it quite well why transgender athletes shouldn’t compete in MMA, link to the video https://youtu.be/OwAGdZKLMCc , woman with mens bodies competing in combat sports against biologically born woman is dangerous. I think Rondas comments were fair and you included matt mittirones quote to associate Ronda to it.
“Where are our allies on this?” Maybe they dont agree with you. Maybe this isnt actually a story. You’re trying to guilt people into caring.
Your article is very very similar to the waypoint and mary sue article. Very similar.
Other random shit below.
I understand that kotaku is a business and you have to get paid but is 17 ads before you get to the comment section necessary. Then when you try to leave a comment another ad banner appears above the keyboard.
I know I take all of my biology advice from a stoned comedian doing a podcast.
Just look at the trans women smashing records previously set by biological women if you’re not convinced
You mean the entire once that it’s happened? Maybe twice?
Hey look downvotes because I actually checked. lol
So you have to have a squeeky clean and clear moral outlook and social media now before you’re allowed to have anything to do with gaming?
Outside of opinions about her acting in the comments, is there anything in this article that actually relates to her role as the younger Sonya Blade in the game? Nope. It’s all about her comments on twitter. I’m hard time seeing how an article titled “Ronda Rousey Being In Mortal Kombat 11 Is Bullshit” has any actual relation to the game and the performance there in
It’s an interesting phenomenon. Bret Easton Ellis spoke about it recently – the concept of people being effectively deleted from society for expressing controversial or offensive viewpoints. In my opinion Heather should voice her opinion by not playing the game rather than requesting Rousey effectively be fired having broken no laws. She’s clearly an unpleasant person but that is not a crime or a justification for someone being unemployable.
I have to regularly fire people for shitty behaviors despite having broken no laws.
Did Ronda Rousey behave shittily while performing her VO work for MK11? Doubt it. Believe me, i find her comments as abhorrent as any other reasonable person. But we live in an age where internet outrage and cultural censorship can have people, as Easton Ellis said, deleted. I find that disturbing.
I literally fired someone a few weeks ago for stuff they did on social media, when they weren’t at work.
Edit: my wife’s boss also just ‘resigned’ over shit he was saying over social media.
Sure. But should those people now remain unemployed for the rest of their lives? Is that really how we want things to work?
i Don’t think it’s super relevant because Rousey’s not a nether realm employee
‘So you have to have a squeeky clean and clear moral outlook and social media now before you’re allowed to have anything to do with gaming?’
Not just gaming. If you’re targetted for crimes of wrongthink on the internet, you might as well pack your bags and head for the nearest cave.
Uh… that’s pretty fair to be honest.
Yeah 100%. Just like other athletes have the right to not want to compete against drug cheats. But that’s another argument…… or is it?
Same argument but (in some cases) different moral reasoning for taking drugs. I’m not saying we’ll never get to a point where someone who wasn’t legitimately gender dysphoric underwent a transition purely to pursue sporting success, but I don’t think we are at that point yet.
Yeah I agree with you there, and I am sure it would be immediately obvious if someone was to do something like that.
This is just common-sense. Typically you bring up the person’s past, but that rightful smearing of conspiracy absurdity is still irrelevant to that fact she does not want to fight a trans person, and this is not actually a problem. It IS IN FACT debatable the legality of such a match and has a very valid point of questioning fairness.
Wasn’t Fallon Fox legitimately out there busting eye sockets and cracking skulls due to a ridiculous physical advantage that Heather chooses to ignore?
Rousey’s wrongthink aside, she’s a terrible voice actor and her Sandy Hook stupidity and legitimate concerns about a transgender athlete don’t particularly need mentioning
The fight it sounds like you’re referring to was against Tamikka Brents. This was Fox’s last pro fight, 17 months after coming out as trans, 11 months after Fox’s first loss.
While Brents said she never felt more overpowered in a fight (her career at that point was 2-1, now 2-4), and felt fighting a trans person was unfair, I have little sympathy given by that point Fox was very publicly well known, with reams of opinion and analysis written about her, not only for when she initially came out, but also after her first loss to Ashlee Evans-Smith.
Wait, so she hasn’t won every single fight since transitioning? She’s actually lost some?
And the other fighter has had other losses against ciswomen?
Joe Rogan covered it quite well why transgender athletes shouldn’t compete in MMA on his podcast , woman with mens bodies competing in combat sports against biologically born woman is dangerous. I think Rondas comments were fair and you included matt mittirones quote to associate Ronda to it.
“Where are our allies on this?” Maybe they dont agree with you. Maybe this isnt actually a story. You’re trying to guilt people into caring.
Your article is very very similar to the waypoint and mary sue article. Very similar.
Other random shit below.
I understand that kotaku is a business and has bills to pay but is 17 ads before you get to the comment section necessary. Then when you try to leave a comment another ad banner appears above the keyboard.
There are no “women with men’s bodies” competing in combat. Read the link @kolreth posted above if you want information from actual medical professionals, not an angry guy on YouTube.
If Heather wants to blast RR for something, then fine, but DON’T uses videogames as a platform to push your political bullshit. This article has 0 to do with MK11, outside of mentioning she’s a bad actor, and the rest of the article is a character assassination boarding on defamation. How the hell does something like this end up getting on this site?
Stop using videogames to prop up an article that has nothing at all to do with the said game outside of mentioning it once. If it was about how shit she is in the game, then it would be all good. But your single mention of her being in the game does not justify the headline or the article itself at all.
re: the Fallon Fox topic
The only part of Fox competing in WMMA I disagree with is her first two pro fights before publicly announcing she was trans. Fighting a trans opponent is a very unique situation and I believe her opponents deserved full disclosure before agreeing to fight.
But once Fox came out, then it is entirely up to her opponents whether they choose to fight or not. Ultimately they still did, and eventually she was beaten (TKO by Ashlee Evans-Smith who since went on to go 3-4 in the UFC). To get licensed Fox had to meet a strict set of criteria that had previously been set by the Association of Boxing Commissions.
You know, as an Australian, it paints a bad picture of America to hear about all those shootings. I really don’t blame her for not wanting to face the truth, or look for other possibilities.
Because compared to any other country, it is insane.
As for boycotting the game, just… There are other ways to fight someone. All she did was voice act a character. If everybody boycotted the game you’d be putting hundreds of innocent people out of work. For petty reasons.
If any fight should be had, it should be more personal.
What I got from the article is that because of this she feels uncomfortable playing the game, so she won’t despite really wanting to. That feeds into a whole lot of other stuff about media we consume as personal choice and that’s an interesting topic. Even if you disagree with her point.
It wasn’t a call to boycott the game because of a niche personal issue. That’s definitely choice gamer food, but it didn’t happen here.
Those people have already all been paid and have moved onto new projects.
The only people a boycott hurts are the people at the top who thought the stunt was a good idea.
Since there’s a whole bunch of people going that the transwoman will have higher muscle mass, here’s a study which shows otherwise as well as a quote.
CONCLUSIONS:
Although trans women, before CSH, have a lower aBMD and cortical bone size compared with control men, their skeletal status is well preserved during CSH treatment, despite of substantial muscle loss.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25377496
A whole lot of scientists in here today talking about bone mass and muscle density.
P.S. Thankyou for alerting me to Rousey’s conspiracy bullshit, Heather. Your article is well written.
Here’s a better article:
It’s bullshit that Ronda Rousey is in MK11, because she is a bad voice actress, and her job could have gone to a better voice actress.
Now everyone can be happy.
I didn’t know about Ronda’s comments on social media, particularly with the Sandy Hook shootings, because I never followed her on platforms like Twitter (I did follow her on Facebook, but never saw such remarks).
I’m probably going to go way off topic here, but I used to be a big fan of Ronda Rousey, but that ended in 2016 around the time she fought Holly Holm, and no, it wasn’t because she lost to Holm, it was because of her attitude towards the fight.
Ronda is a bronze medal Olympian in judo. I do judo myself for the past ten years. I loved the fact that Ronda was hardcore representing judo in UFC and showing off dangerous practicality of judo’s techniques. What bothered me though, is that despite being a 4th dan judoka with over 20 years of training and experience, the values of judo, such as integrity, humility, honour and respect, seemed to be no longer of value to Rousey herself, and this was increasingly obvious to the lead up to the fight.
She would deliberately try to “psyche out” her opponent Holm by putting her fist against Holm’s face during the weigh-in conference, then when Holm acted accordingly, Rousey got all huffy-puffy about how Holm did the wrong thing, and how she (Rousey) was going to destroy Holm. When they fought, she refused to touch gloves, which is essentially UFC/MMA’s way of bowing, to show respect to your opponent and to thank them for showing up, and in response, it was Rousey who got destroyed and lost her title.
That fight made me lose a lot of respect toward Rousey. It wasn’t her loss that disappointed me, it was her attitude. I personally don’t care that she was just trying to put on a show, sell tickets etc. (as all UFC fighters claim when they discuss their shitty attitudes), but to me, it just seems like she threw away all the values that judo teaches.