Author Malcolm Gladwell 'ashamed' he was cowed into silence about biological men in women's sports

Author Malcolm Gladwell admitted he was "cowed" into silence on the issue of biological men competing in women’s sports, sharing his regret during a podcast earlier this week.

Gladwell, the bestselling author of books including "Outliers," spoke Tuesday on "The Real Science of Sport" podcast, where he reflected on his role in a 2022 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panel about transgender participation in women’s sports. He admitted he did not speak his mind at the time.

Gladwell said that if such a panel were held today, now that what he called the "time of peak trans ideology" has passed, "it would be, I suspect, near unanimity in the room that trans athletes have no place in the female category. I don't think there's any question."

"The reason I'm ashamed of my performance on that panel [is] because I share your position 100%," he told co-host Ross Tucker, who was on the 2022 panel. "And I was cowed at the idea of saying anything on this issue."

Malcolm Gladwell's remarks on a podcast this week about transgender athletes went viral. (Samantha Burkardt/Getty Images for SXSW)

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Gladwell recalled a striking moment when fellow panelist Joanna Harper, a transgender athlete and researcher, said, "I would say that if we let trans women compete in women’s sports, then we have to let them win. Not win disproportionately. But win. At least some of the time." 

Gladwell, looking back, said, "And it was at that moment that I realized this position has gone, this argument has gone to the furthest extreme."

He elaborated further that the transgender movement, in his view, has gone beyond seeking acceptance into seeking dominance.

"What the trans movement is not asking for—they're not asking for, you know, a place at the table. They're not asking to be treated with respect and dignity," he said. "What they're asking is for no one to question the considerable physical physiological advantage they bring to the sport, and no one to question if they're going to win these races by five seconds. ‘Suck it up!’"

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Malcolm Gladwell argued that the years of the COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered as a time of cultural turmoil. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Gladwell and Tucker agreed that even the timing of the 2022 conference showed that the conversation had already changed, as people had begun to acknowledge the advantage biological men bring to women’s sports.

"This was never really an argument about sports. This was a much, much larger argument about a political argument, a cultural argument, and I think that those cultural winds have clearly shifted," the author said. "I think in retrospect we will look back on the COVID period as a period of profound cultural destabilization. I think we all went crazy."

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A transgender-inclusive bathroom. (iStock/AndreyPopov)

Gladwell suggested further that what really defeated the argument for transgender participation in women’s sports was not the high-profile cases of elite athletes, but rather parents of daughters grappling with these scenarios in their own lives.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Harper but did not immediately hear back.