Legendary surf brand Rip Curl replaces surfer Bethany Hamilton with a trans person — and sparks a firestorm of bullshit

Just days after women's surf brand Rip Curl promoted transgender person Sasha Laurison on its social media pages, all photos with the Western Australian professional longboard surfer have now disappeared from profiles. It appears as if the massive storm of many angry users has had an impact. Under the slogan “Stop replacing women,” many women in particular expressed their anger at the campaign.

What may have particularly surprised a lot of people is that just months ago, Rip Curl ended its collaboration with American surfing legend Bethany Hamilton. Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack in 2003 when she was just 13 years old, had previously criticized the participation of transgender athletes in surfing and threatened to boycott the sport. She, along with fellow surfer Kelly Slater, called for the creation of a separate category for transgender people in sport and received a lot of public support for this.

Despite their criticism, transgender people will still be allowed to attend the sport's Olympic bid this year. Surfers who were born biological men have to adhere to certain requirements, such as a certain level of testosterone, for twelve months.

The fact that this doesn't eliminate physical differences between women and men doesn't seem to matter to anyone here either. The muscular and physical advantages that men have over women alone lead to a clear advantage in sports that focus primarily on strength and endurance.

One thing is certain: Under the guise of tolerance, a misogynistic policy has been pursued in women's sports for years, where deserving female athletes are cheated out of their victories at the expense of biological men. The fact that people are no longer even ashamed to replace women like Bethany Hamilton, who fought her way to the top of the surfing world despite her fate, with a man in advertising campaigns, shows the complete unscrupulousness of this movement.