Physics, independent of biological reality, explains why Lia Thomas's victory over women is rigged

For all the think pieces and Twitter tirades penned over the transgender athlete debate, in the end, it really was a picture that said the definitive thousand words. After winning the NCAA 500-yard freestyle by just shy of two seconds, transgender Penn student Lia Thomas stood victorious next to the two girls relegated to second and third place.

In the picture, Lia carries the trophy. Lia stands atop the highest podium. And next to second-place winner Emma Weyant and third place Erica Sullivan, Lia's body is clearly not that of a biological woman.

The radical science deniers hijacking a century of feminism would have us believe that sexual dimorphism is a social construct and any biological differences that do exist between men and birthing people are mere coincidence at best, and unfortunate consequences of our capacity to create a new human life at worst. Acknowledging the difference between the body of Thomas versus those of Weyant and Sullivan would either deny Thomas her right to feel like a woman or, even crueler in the minds of certain activists who smear us fuddy-duddy feminists as "gender essentialists," center reproductive capabilities as the bifurcation of gender.