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ronon-dex · 4 months

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really not sure how I feel about the ending to travelers, or the show as a whole. it has such a fascinating concept and builds an incredibly rich world off of that, but there are so many pitfalls to how it's constructed. I've never seen such a rollercoaster of quality that's SO rapid. i'm talking 10 to 1 in the space of a minute and back again, over three entire seasons. insane. LONG POST INCOMING

good stuff:

the direction is amazing. visually, the show is beautiful, and sets up shots that are consistently creative and designed to depict the emotion the scene is supposed to evoke, which I've never seen done so artistically. we'll see half of marcy's face when she's lying. we'll see kathryn filtered through soft light when maclaren looks at her. blood and sunlight is shown in stark contrast. action scenes have moments of intense stillness in the middle, which make the violence so much more shocking. philip's addictive eye-drop medication is always shown dripping down his face like tears. standout eps for stuff like this are '17 Minutes', and 'Protocol 3'.

fairly anti-copaganda for the most part. it's rare to see.

the acting is wonderful. jared abrahamson (trevor), reilly dolman (philip) and jennifer spence (grace) especially blew me away. trevor's dual energy of sprightly teenager and wise old man had to be very difficult to get right, but it was done perfectly. when he stares down his host's abuser in 'Update' his eyes were nearly black; you could imagine a 400 year old man and the rage he must have accumulated through centuries of hardened existence. philip was a character who wasn't allowed to live up to his potential, and I will be repeating this, but the scenes he had were devoured. he had an addiction to multiple substances, he was mostly ignored by his team despite being the most crucial member, and he had not a single friend outside of his fellow travelers. the agony of all of this was portrayed to perfection. grace fulfilled a role that is normally given to a paunchy white guy, an annoying genius who gets away with inappropriate behaviour because they're clever. [the rodney mckay effect, one of many stargate echoes in this show, thank you brad wright.] she was absolutely hilarious and brought light to a very grim show at times.

the traveler missions were excellent. the pacing in these scenes was great, the plots were generally airtight, and the awareness of the audience's intelligence was thrilling to witness. i figured out mysteries exactly when I was supposed to, a few minutes before the fallout - so you see how the dominoes will fall, and you see how nobody could have caught them. SO on theme for this show. the one moment that did catch me off guard was maclaren's birthday party in s1. oh my god I was so mad at the gotcha jumpscare, it annoyed the hell out of me lmao

bad stuff:

my main gripe. this show is called travelers. this show spends only about 50% of its runtime with solely travelers. the rest of the time is spent with david (marcy's boyfriend who doesn't know she is from the future and possessing the real marcy's body), kathryn (who also doesn't know her husband, maclaren, is not her husband) and jeff (an abusive alcoholic who consistently tries to beat up his ex girlfriend, who is also now a traveler.) these people completely take over the show. they have multi-season arcs and entire episodes revolving around their problems with marcy/maclaren/carly, often domestic. attempts to give philip and trevor stories outside traveler missions are abandoned sometime around s2. when these civilian characters were abducted together in s2 I literally started calling them the Avengers of Being Annoying. I've said it before but imagine how awful the show leverage would've been if 20 minutes out of every episode sophie, nate and eliot left to talk to their individual spouses about their relationship problems.

there wasn't even a serious confrontation about the consent issues surrounding the takeover of someone's life - especially assuming a sexual or emotional relationship with that person's loved ones. like that should have been a huge ethical dilemma removed from simply possessing a previously dying body. like why are you now fucking your host's wife like it's ok??? you're not him and she doesn't know you????

it was grim. it was also very clear that david was a favourite, some writer had a crush on marcy's actress, and some other writer was apologising to his wife through the maclaren/kathryn storyline. or maybe I'm just a hater. idk

this show had an amazingly compelling narrative, but it sacrificed a great deal when it comes to character stories. these characters were established very well, and built up over season 1 to have great depth and rich histories... and then we never explored most of it. we don't know the original genders of philip, maclaren or marcy. we don't know about the families of philip or maclaren. we don't know if the main 5 knew each other well or just trained before coming to the past. the future is almost a complete mystery and that was what made it cool in season 1; by the finale? fucking annoying.

these characters' most emotional moments and deepest relationships happened with the 21st century people they emotionally abducted. idk why. maclaren had no reason to stay with his host's wife. trevor could have freed himself from high school sooner. carly (with philip's help) could have gotten rid of jeff very quickly. I don't know why they insisted on this aspect of the show when the main cast were so underdeveloped and remained so for 3 seasons. this, more than anything, made the finale seem very hollow. the main 5 were coworkers, and apart from philip, and occasionally trevor, marcy and carly, they weren't that invested in each other's wellbeing outside of their efficiency as agents. this was not the found family I signed up for.

basically:

7/10 show for me. very visually gorgeous, as mentioned, and besides the kathryn and david of it all, very tightly written. thanks for saving the world, I suppose. I'm going to go look at the sky.

#travelers netflix #netflix travelers #philip pearson #trevor holden #grant maclaren #marcy warton #carly shannon #traveler 3468 if I ever see you it's on sight. you should have stayed with carly. it's insane that you didn't #philip was originally a 50 year old lesbian. to me. marcy was a 37 year old bi man.#maclaren was originally a straight guy but he was also 25. this explains a lot when you think about it. THINK about it #the fact that they never explored the mess that would come from changing genders or having a sexuality that does not align with your host's #utterly tedious. white man writer's syndrome. they can't imagine the world not catering to them.#the way philip talks about his host 'this young man'............. like...........#i know the number sequence makes it so marcy's the youngest but i need it to be maclaren. he is very much a little shit #imagine exploring the differences between yours and your host's bodies.......... hall could've been an 18 year old girl.#boyd could've been a 45 year old man with a wife and kids. WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING COOL WITH THAT.#imagine marcy and david's relationship but marcy tells him she's a gay guy from the future. a conversation for the ages. and we missed that #going to travel to the past and tell brad wright to do this or there will be a plague outbreak in 2020. back in a sec #(meant to say this show REEKED of stargate universe. even the close up shots like I WAS THERE. I WAS IN THE TRENCHES)

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coochiequeens · 4 months

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If Drageset’s verbal commitment is finalized, it will result in a male seizing one of just twelve D1 scholarships intended for women’s volleyball at the University of Washington. The twelve scholarships are often spread out over the course of four years, with as few as two to three being offered per year."

He's OK with taking a full scholarship ment for a woman and women who object are told to "be kind". Kindness goes both ways, as in not taking scholarships and opportunities ment for others.

By Anna Slatz December 13, 2023

Reduxx has learned that a volleyball player from California is reportedly set to become the first known male recipient of a women’s Division 1 (D1) athletic scholarship. Tate Drageset, 17, has verbally committed to the University of Washington, and, if the offer is signed next fall, he would be seizing one of only twelve D1 volleyball scholarships available for females at the University.

The announcement of Drageset’s verbal commitment to the University of Washington was made in June to much fanfare within the volleyball community, with multiple sporting magazines and social media accounts covering the verbal commitment.

Drageset has long been considered a rising star within women’s volleyball, and he was the dominant force on two USA Volleyball teams in two separate age groups that both claimed national titles last summer. He was also named an MVP at the Girls Junior National Championships earlier this year. In addition to his club volleyball accolades, he was awarded the title of the California Interscholastic Federation’s Division 5 Player of the 2022-23 Year.

But Drageset’s transgender status has reportedly been concealed from public knowledge, with coaches, parents, and opposing players being left uninformed of his biological sex ahead of games.

Now, for the first time, a source close to the situation has anonymously come forward to reveal concerns about the steady escalation of Drageset’s participation in women’s volleyball, something which has now resulted in him preparing to take a rare, all-expenses-paid athletic scholarship opportunity

The source, who is the parent of a minor player within the Southern California Volleyball Association (SCVA) community, said suspicions were raised years ago when Drageset’s performance far surpassed that of his teammates. At the time, Drageset was 12-years-old but was playing against 14-year-old females in one effort to make up for his obvious advantages.

“You could tell even back then that he was different from the girls,” the parent says. “As he got older, it became more obvious that something was off. Anytime the subject of [Drageset] would come up EVERY PARENT from any SCVA team already knew about him. Parents look around before they speak in hushed tones. Some will wait to discuss until outside the gym.”

The parent revealed that most families have been hesitant to speak out due to fears that their daughters will be penalized.

“Everyone is scared of how their child will be treated if they speak up. It’s already so competitive to get on a good club team,” the parent said. “The stealing of positions and opportunities has been infuriating and so sad when you see how it affects the girls. There is no concern for their mental health or safety after being replaced.”

Speaking to Reduxx, representatives from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) noted that a number of local families have become aware of Drageset’s participation in women’s volleyball, but that there had been silence from his family, who appears to be actively obscuring his status.

“We know many of the girls he’s playing against do not know that they are competing against a male. There has been no consideration from his family to tell female athletes or coaches the truth. They have not been transparent, so girls are repeatedly and unknowingly put at a disadvantage and not given the chance to opt out over increased safety risks,” Marshi Smith said.

Her colleague, Kim Jones, added: “We also know that many local families do know and they are angry that their daughters are continuously put in a position to lose to a male player in girls’ sports. They recognize it is unfair and potentially unsafe as more instances of concussion injuries inflicted by male athletes arise.”

ICONS, a non-partisan campaign group, was launched in 2021 to address the issue of male self-identification into women’s sport, with co-founders Smith and Jones both being former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes. Jones’ daughter was also one of the female swimmers forced to compete against transgender athlete Lia Thomas.

While Drageset’s transgender status appears to have been carefully concealed by his family in recent years, his mother, Stacey Drageset, reportedly commissioned a short film to be made about Tate in 2016. Titled “Trans-mission.love,” the documentary-style film was produced when Drageset was 12-years-old. While his face is not shown in the film, Drageset can be seen holding a volleyball with his first name on it, and playing volleyball on the beach in sections from the trailer.

Around the same time, Drageset’s mother took his story to the Los Angeles Times, where she revealed that she became convinced her son was transgender due to his preference for “feminine” clothing and colors as a toddler. In the article, Drageset’s parents state that they showed him an interview with Jazz Jennings at age 6 and felt their son “related” to Jennings.

Curiously, the year before Drageset’s family began touting his journey as a “trans kid,” his mother published a children’s picture book on gender identity, one which was recently named in during inquiry into age-appropriate books in Texas schools.

While identifying as a “girl,” Drageset’s athletic performance has been far and above that of his female colleagues and competitors. Earlier this year, he took home a silver medal and $2,000 prize while competing against mature professional female volleyball players at the Teqvoly World Tour.

When compared to same-height female athletes within his volleyball club, Drageset’s standing reach, vertical jump, and other key physical metrics are all more favorable, something ICONS says is unsurprising even if Drageset had been placed on “puberty blockers” at a young age.

“No male is ever going to go through female development. Their bodies are not comparable in thousands of ways. Puberty blockers do not remove predicted adult height and males have a 5 or 6 inch advantage that influences athletic performance particularly in sports like volleyball,” Kim Jones said, pointing to a literature review completed by Drs. Gregory Brown and Tommy Lundberg.

The review, released earlier this year, stated that “the current evidence suggests that male children retain sex-based advantages in body height and lean body mass which may allow for retained male athletic advantages” even when placed on hormones or puberty blockers at an early age.

Jones also points to the fact that the net in women’s volleyball is set over 7 inches lower than in men’s, not just because men on average are six inches taller, but because the male vertical jump is at least 20% higher than that of a woman of the same height.

The ICONS representatives place much of the blame on the NCAA, the governing body which regulates collegiate athletics in the United States. Following the Lia Thomas controversy in 2022, the NCAA attempted to clarify its position on transgender athletes, but just sowed more confusion amongst critics.

“Right now, the NCAA guidelines and the upcoming Biden Administration’s Title IX reinterpretations incentivize male athletes and their families to hide their sex from women and girls,” Marshi Smith says, noting that the NCAA largely does not question any athlete’s biological sex, or allow for such interrogations to occur under “discrimination” policies. She likens it to “showing someone a pile of treasure” and then leaving it unguarded, as the NCAA provides substantial financial and professional incentives for athletes.

“We’re facing a situation where women aren’t even allowed to know if they’re putting themselves at increased safety risk. It’s as if men are allowed to do what they want to women so long as they can get away with it. The message to teams across the country is that if men excel at deception or if the NCAA effectively silences women, men are allowed to compromise women’s safety, dignity, and privacy.”

Smith adds: “The only solution to provide women with fair and safe sport is to have a female-protected category with no exceptions.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article mistakenly attributed a study on trans-identified male participation in women’s sport to Byron Wolter of the Center on Sport Policy and Conduct. Mr. Wolter provided editing, but the article was written by Dr. Gregory Brown of the University of Nebraska-Kearney and Dr. Tommy Lundberg of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The article has been updated to reflect the correction.

#usa #Tate Drageset is a man taking a scholarship earmarked for women #University of Washington #A male was an MVP at the Girls Junior National Championships #the California Interscholastic Federation’s Division 5 Player of the 2022-23 Year #Censoring girls and their parents for calling a male a male #Trans-mission.love #Male aligned mothers #Men taking prize money away from women #Stacey Drageset wrote a children's book about gender identity before her son came out #Puberty blockers do not remove predicted adult height #the net in women’s volleyball is set over 7 inches lower than in men’s #not just because men on average are six inches taller #the male vertical jump is at least 20% higher than that of a woman of the same height.

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