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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| Something I learned from this episode was that the push for sex verification stemmed from deep-seated anxieties about women’s physical capabilities. The podcast highlights how policies disproportionately affect athletes from countries with fewer legal resources or scientific awareness about sex testing. Kenyan sprinter Maximila Imali’s case illustrates how DSD regulations create barriers for certain female athletes. While the IOC feels this is the best way to determine who gets to compete in what category, it is extremely dehumanizing and invasive. These points emphasize how sex verification in sports is more about controlling women’s bodies than ensuring fairness
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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.
| An Indian sprinter named Dutee Chand successfully challenged the IOC’s hyperandrogenism regulations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2015. The CAS ruling temporarily suspended the IOC’s regulations requiring female athletes with high natural testosterone levels to undergo treatment. This case was significant in recognizing that such policies were discriminatory, and it sparked broader discussions on how the Olympic system should treat athletes with intersex conditions or differences in sexual development. Instead of forcing them into dangerous surgeries or medications that hurt them later in life. Such as sterilizing them, or possible banishment from their country as many countries and sports organizations have historically imposed harsh penalties on athletes who do not meet prescribed gender norms. These events continue to shape the way sex verification testing and policies around intersex athletes are understood and contested within sports.
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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?
| As someone who grew up playing competitive sports from a very young age, I have often felt pressure from outside peers that girls’ sports were always second to boys. I would hear people pity my father, suggesting he’d be “stuck watching girls’ sports for the rest of his life.” This was especially frustrating because, in reality, he was the one who inspired all four of us to pursue sports and taught us the value of hard work. Despite being our biggest cheerleader, my dad often had to endure dismissive comments like, “Do they even get out of the bathroom in time for the game?” or “Do girls even play hockey?”. These remarks reflected a deeper societal bias that undermined the legitimacy and worth of women’s sports, even as we worked hard and thrived in them. Although, this never deterred me from playing sports, if anything it gave me the fire to play even harder and try new sports. Comments like this can deter some women, really any athletes, from ever playing again, such as if their parents agree that they shouldn’t play sports or they may feel pressures from society to focus on other aspects of their life.
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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?
| I think I was surprised a little bit by myself, I voted neutral for the majority of the sports. While reading the sports, both male and female athletes popped into my head. Additionally, the sports I have been involved in, such as figure skating, volleyball, rugby, soccer, and powerlifting I voted neutral, because in my mind, it is a female based sport but I do know that men excel in it as well. I was kind of surprised men were voted most in sports like hockey, basketball and powerlifting, when I thought that these were pretty neutral. Figure skating with females having the most votes surprised me, because the sport is often perceived as more glamorous and artistic, yet it also requires incredible athleticism, balance, and strength. The fact that women are so heavily represented in the voting for such a sport challenges some of the stereotypical assumptions about what sports are “appropriate” or “ideal” for women. Something that did not surprise me was football, as this has always been deemed a male-dominated sport, both in terms of participation and viewership. The deep-rooted cultural associations with masculinity and physicality often make it difficult for women to break through, despite the growing presence of female athletes in the sport.
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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.
| I do not agree with Leah Thomas’ statement that trans women pose no threat to women’s sports. Womens sports and spaces need to be protected, not only for the safety of the female athletes involved but the endless spots trans women are taking. The concept of inclusion cannot come above fairness, when the female category was created for this very thing not to happen. I think politicians and influencers speaking on this topic come across to many people as transphobic, when I highly disagree that this is a real issue that needs to be talked about more. I read Riley Gaines book, the female athlete that Leah Thomas competed against and her perspective was eye opening and shed light on the challenges and frustrations faced by cisgender female athletes. Gaines argues that the presence of trans women in women’s sports undermines the very purpose of the women’s category, which was designed to ensure a level playing field for those who may have been biologically disadvantaged in mixed-gender competition. Gaines also raises concerns about the potential long-term effects on the future of women’s sports, with trans women, who may have a physical advantage due to male puberty, taking away opportunities and scholarships that were historically reserved for women.
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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 benefitted enormously that have nothing to do with gender?
| Rose Eveleth explores the idea of unfair advantage primarily through the lens of policies regulating athletes with differences in sexual development. She critiques the way these rules, meant to ensure fairness, focus on regulating athletes’ bodies to conform to an idealized notion of what a female athlete should look like and should be. Her position reflects an understanding that all athletes have certain advantages, whether biological, circumstantial, or environmental, that impact their performance. In the case of DSD athletes, she challenges the assumption that their natural bodies give them an unfair edge, given the complexity of defining what constitutes an “advantage” in sports. Swimmers with longer limbs, like Michael Phelps, often have a significant advantage. Longer arms and legs allow for more efficient strokes and greater speed through the water. Athletes from East Africa are often noted for their superior endurance in long-distance running. Many of these athletes have genetic traits, such as a lighter body mass, which provide natural advantages in endurance events. Additionally, certain female athletes, particularly gymnasts, may possess a greater degree of natural flexibility, which gives them an advantage in routines that require extreme range of motion, balance, and agility. These natural ‘advantages’ have nothing to do with gender and simply are just their bodies and the way they have grown and developed.
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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.
| I both agree and disagree with this statement. On one hand, the core purpose of sports is to provide a competitive environment where athletes can perform on a level playing field. Ideally, athletes should compete against others of similar skill levels, and the role of referees and officials is to ensure that the rules are enforced fairly, helping maintain that level of fairness within the game. In this sense, sports are supposed to be about equality, equal rules, equal opportunities to compete, and equal respect for all athletes involved. However, I also recognize that sports are multi-faceted, and true fairness is often compromised in various ways. While referees can control the enforcement of rules, there are many factors outside of their control that impact fairness. For example, athletes come from different backgrounds with varying levels of access to resources, coaching, and facilities, which creates an uneven playing field from the start. In elite sports, some athletes may have financial support that allows them to train full-time, while others may have to juggle part-time jobs or schoolwork, limiting their ability to train and compete at the highest level. However, the goal should still be to create as many opportunities for equitable participation as possible and ensure that every athlete, regardless of background or inherent ability, has the chance to compete to the best of their potential. Throughout my experiences in sports, I believe sports to be fair, as long as the rules are applied equally to all players and everyone has the same opportunity to prove themselves. As I grew up in a small town with not a lot of opportunity to play competitively and get better, I was lucky enough to have parents that drove me into cities to get that experience.
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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.
| Robins argues that when people focus on “transvestigating” or questioning whether a trans woman athlete is truly a woman, it’s not really about fairness in sports or protecting cis women. Instead, it’s more about challenging and rejecting the exisence of trans women in society. The goal of these investigations isn’t to ensure fair competition in sports, but rather to attack trans women’s identities and their right to be recognized as women. Robins believes this is less about sports and more about using the sports world as an excuse to publicly question and undermine trans women’s legitimacy. It’s about trying to make trans women seem less valid as women in general, not about protecting women in sports. So, according to Robins, the real issue isn’t about fairness in competition, it’s about a larger societal struggle over accepting trans women and their right to exist as women.
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