2
Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
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I think what was surprising to me in the podcast was the statements of the man, Barr, who developed the new way of testing sex, that exclaimed his embarrassment of the use of the tests and that he believed them to be discriminatory. It led me to wonder why he chose to continue to work against what he claims are his beliefs in the practice he had developed and facilitated. I do hold space for growth and understanding to develop over time and to change our views based on learning etc. I think what it did for me was question my own assumptions about the man’s integrity once put on the hot seat about his practice. Something else that sparked my interest was the use of the women being grateful for this new way of testing being used to support the testing being used at all. Of course they were grateful. Nude parades should almost be considered sexual harassment, and the individual exams even more horrific, since you’re asking me. Other feelings that arose for me was sadness over the trauma the athletes experienced when they were told their sex disqualified them and how this changed every part of their lives. One stating it stole the best years of her life. This evoked a great deal of sadness in me. As a mother of an aspiring athlete I can’t help but feel sad knowing she’s likely to never advance beyond church league softball due to the inequalities that are still prominent in today’s sport culture.
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B) Timeline of History
Exercise 2: Notebook Prompt
What other significant case/milestone would you add to this timeline? Note it in your notebook along with a brief (one or two sentences) explanation of why you feel it is important.
| I think the dropping of the sex qualification card in 2009 should be added and the comeback of sex testing in 2009 as well. I feel it is important to note the wins in the 30 year battle against sex discrimination. I also feel it is important to note the fall backs and how they impact the narratives around sports today.
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C) Gender coding in Sports
Exercise 3: Notebook Prompt
Has the gendering of sport ever been a constraint on your involvement? How?
Or, if not, why do you think this is?
| Yes, it has. When I was very young, just started to take interest in sports my parents put me in a youth hockey school. My step loved hockey and I loved playing sports at school. I wanted to get into more outside of school and my parents were gracious enough to put me on the local house league team and put me in the skill building school prior to the start of the season. I would say I was 10 at the time. The couches who taught this course encouraged the boys from their AAA teams to come along to support and encourage all of the young new folks at a peer level. I had a young boy from the AAA team follow me around the rink each week. I would try to skate across the arena to avoid him and he would just continue to find me and follow me around. He would yell out to me “you suck”, “go home”, “girls belong in ballet” and would bump me over or push me around. I actually didn’t make it to the house league team. I didn’t even finish the skills course. I was bullied out by a boy. I asked my mom to not bring it up and I quietly exited, never to attempt to play on any sports team again. I did not realize at the time that this is gendering of sports and it not only was a constraint on my involvement but a complete barrier. I like all of the sports that are considered the “boys” sports.
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D) How is sport gendered in the popular imagination?
Exercise 4: Padlet/Notebook Prompt
While most sports are in fact unisex, gender coding remains pervasive, particularly at the professional level, although with a foundation established in youth competition. Participate in the poll below to share your views on how popular sports are gendered in the popular imagination. Also feel welcome to add or suggest sports that you feel strongly conform to the gender binary!
After you contribute to the padlet prompt, record your response in your notebook AND briefly discuss in two or three sentences how these responses and the polling figures in general confirm or contradict your assumptions about gender-coding and sports. Did anything surprise you?
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I will describe the instant response my brain gave to the votes.
My natural instinct to make these assumptions is based on all of the facts stated in the readings. We are naturally looking to gender sports based on their appearance, aggression, popularity and showmanship. I believe this is how they are viewed by the general public, however I believe that all sports are gender neutral and if we look outside of the gender boxes placed on them we are able to see some amazing athletes in these sports who are not aligned with the voted genders who perform in outstanding ways that confirm our votes are wrong. The gender bias that is held is very real, but its all fake and socially constructed.
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Section Two: Breaking it down
A) Title IX
Exercise 5: Notebook Prompt
In a longer version of the interview excerpted in the video above, Leah Thomas states “Trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten women’s sports as a whole because trans women are a very small minority of all athletes and the NCAA rules around trans women competing in women’s sports have been around for 10+ years and we haven’t seen any massive wave of trans women dominating”?
Do you agree with this statement? See also the image above suggesting that the issue may be overblown by politicians and influencers who don’t actually care that much about women’s sports.
Please share any thoughts you have in your Notebook by clicking on the audio button above or writing a few sentences.
| If trans women were threatening sports wouldn’t they be winning every single time? Wouldn’t Leah Thomas have come in first place and not tied for fifth place against Rylie Gains? Would Rylie Gains be such a strong advocate had she beaten Leah Thomas by a landslide that day? Or did she just become an advocate against transgendered folks being in women’s sports because she had to stand in 6th place when she felt she was more deserving than Leah? My thoughts are that politics should stay out of it entirely. Donald Trump, or even locally Michelle Ferrari are great examples that politicians aren’t individuals who are prepared by education and knowledge to make the decisions they make. They have simply won a popularity contest based on online content contributions, and varying “moral” beliefs that sit with one side or another in politics.
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B) Unfair Advantage?
Exercise 6: Notebook Prompt
What does the host and writer, Rose Eveleth, have to say on the issue of unfair advantage?
Can you think of other examples of unique biological or circumstantial advantages from which athletes have benefited enormously that have nothing to do with gender?
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Rose Eveleth believes not only that the unfair advantage is unfounded, but also harmful, unethical and discriminatory. She states that athletic advantages come in many forms beyond the testosterone levels that are in the hot seat. Other examples that she gives are related to financial ability to hire the right coaches, and have a high drive to push themselves hard to compete. Other factors have to do with oxygen in the blood cells, body sizes and shapes. It seems various mutations in our bodies will impact our advantage in sports that have nothing to do with testosterone. Michael Phelps is the ever popular example of this. Some athletes are viewed as heroes while others are viewed as cheaters. The only time it is required to remove an advantage is in the event of women’s sport and their testosterone levels are beyond the accepted level that is claimed a woman should have to be deemed a biological woman. The sport you participate in decides what type of advantages you want your body to have. It’s clear you look for different bodies between say swimming, versus football. Rose states that in order to get a clear understanding if there is a difference between DSD athletes and non DSD athletes that there should be studies comparing the two. However there are none. They are only interested in testing testosterone and using this to decide if a woman is a woman or not. They are also only interested in how a woman looks or how good she is at the sport. In the end that is what will decide who needs to undergo testing or not. Once you are picked for testing you then have to decide if you want to cope with the side effects of medications or quit the sport. This chapter has evoked a great deal of sadness in me. The claim to fair treatment for all athletes turns out to be incredibly unfair to many women.
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Again, let’s turn to Katie Barnes who points out that we tend to forget amidst all the debate that “sports, by design, are not fair” (235), that “the reality of sports is that we accept unfairness all the time” (235).
Do you agree? Why? In your experience, how fair are sports? Feel welcome to add a video response in the padlet and provide an example if you’re willing. Make sure you include a screenshot of your response in your notebook.
| My post:
I am in favor of her opinion due to many factors like the previously discussed disadvantages beyond the biological. If you have been born into a family that has enough money to begin sports at a very early age, that would be unfair to a child born into a family that does not have the money to participate in that sport. Beyond the money for the sport itself, there are training courses, specialized coaching, extra camps for training. All of these come with a wide financial advantage that many children will not have. Many star athletes begin long before puberty. That depends on the family’s financial status. That makes it unfair from the start. My response to a peer: I hadn’t even considered social status. I agree that the family you are born into or the people you might know would have a great deal of impact on access to sports or other elite areas economically speaking. I have a friend whose father was a famous artist. He had many children, one is in the NHL, one is a famous rock star, another a successful lawyer, one a successful model, and he himself is a successful artist and a councilman. I wonder who they might be if it did not start with a famous artist for a father.
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B) The Paris Olympics
Optional Response:
What does Robins mean when she argues that:
“The aims of transvestigating an Olympic athlete are not, in any meaningful sense, anything to do with sports, or fairness, or even with women (cis women, at least) as a social category. Rather, they have everything to do with transness, and the public expression of transfemininity.
For my money this has never been about sport.
What it has always been is an excuse to publicly relitigate the existence of trans women.”
Make a note in your Notebook.
| First I just want to thank you for including this extra piece of literature that was raw, authentic, true and finally looking at the real issue behind all of what we have been learning in this chapter. The attack is truly on trans-women. I believe that is what she means, it has nothing to do with sports at all but in fact the transphobic rhetoric of famous ass hats all over the world, including those who run sports.
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