In this episode, what surprised me the most is the basis of testosterone being dubbed as an “unfair advantage” given to female athletes only. If we are basing athletic ability on a correlational testosterone level, why doesn’t this apply to males? For example, if a male athlete who scores first place on the 100-metre dash has higher testosterone levels than he whom got second place, is this unfair too? Do all competing athletes have to have identical hormone levels to compete fairly? Do males who have higher estrogen levels need to be in their own category for sports, or competing with women?

Determining one’s participation in sports based on hormone levels is a perfect example of a slippery slope — if we over-analyse this aspect of sports participation, we risk unfairly disqualifying passionate individuals from competing in their passion. Something they’ve trained for their whole lives is thrown away due to something they cannot control, or if they’re given the chance to control it like Maxime, you must comply to potentially-harmful drug treatments with known and unknown side effects against all autonomy.

Lastly, I was surprised and disturbed to learn that Maxime was tested, against her choice, for “femininity” via bloodwork, invasive physical examination and other prior-undisclosed medical procedures. This is what determined her ineligibility to participate in women’s sports despite being biologically born female. However, a man would never be forced to undergo these invasive tests because “women are not a threat” in the realm of outperformance in men’s sports.

This is, to me, a very important moment in history to highlight, not because of what occurred but because of why. This policy was not created due to biological equity, but to promote a woke and modern-day libertarian agenda that disadvantaged many competitors in women’s sports categories. Additionally, it poses as a perfect example what we learned in chapter one regarding sports being used as a catalyst or entity for political advocacy or agenda.

Read more: https://www.realityslaststand.com/p/the-dystopian-history-of-sex-testing

Additionally, when I played field hockey, our uniforms (and the natural, worldwide expectation of female-field hockey uniforms) was a skort. Men’s field hockey, popular in India, has shorts for a uniform, but female bottoms for the same sport are always a skirt-resembling skort. This made me uncomfortable playing, because even though there were shorts built into the uniform, I still felt as though this was another expectation of sexualizing only female sports, and focusing on the uniform and the “look” rather than what we were actually comfortable playing in.

These notions reinforce gender stereotypes, harmful sexualization and expectations of sexiness, youthfulness and femininity when in reality, we are focused on the enjoyment of activity at hand and not the display of our bodies.

There were almost no surprises I encountered when responding to this poll. I chose female sports as being those not requiring immense strength but instead largely focused on performance. This indeed ended up being true and aligned with the Westernized metanarratives that infiltrate our daily lives in politics, social settings and sports alike.

I was slightly reassured to see some of these responses as being “neutral” when I thought the consensus would surely be “male”, however it would be interesting to see how the polls compare and vary by demographics such as age group, birth country and education level.

We have proven time and time again that significant physiological differences exist between trans women and cis women, even as proved by Joanne Harper, a trans woman herself. Regardless of whether these differences exist in numbers or quantity, they exist in their essence. If a form of doping in sports exists in the form of testosterone, how is this rule exempt when considering male-born trans female athletes?

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/16/editorial-obstacles-trans-womens-sports/

“We accept unfairness all the time”.

The truth is, this is correct. Life is not fair, sometimes certain people get born into peaceful countries, and sometimes they’re born into war. Sometimes a person may want to be a doctor but will be rejected from medical school due to competition, or where they come from. Sometimes people want to live a full life but die young of cancer.

Unfortunately, sports is not an exception to, but rather a reflection of, the pre-existing and oftentimes uncontrollable injustices that infiltrate society and those within it. We cannot create rules that cover every possibility for every situation, and whilst it may be true that men may have biological advantages over women in sports, targeting testosterone levels down to an acceptable “feminine” level is taking this ideology to the extreme.

In my experience, sports are seldom “fair”. I was always put in the back of the dance recital because I was tall. I’ve had friends get cut from volleyball tryouts because they’re much shorter than the other girls. I even remember being put in swim races with girls much older and more developed than I and being dominated. Are any of these things unfair, or are they just advantages that make somebodies better at sports than the average person? In my opinion, fairness (or lack thereof) is a part of every aspect of life, not just sports.

Reply:

I love your response regarding fairness vs human error. While it would be ideal to have a perfect world where we do achieve “fairness”, I believe this phenomenon is somewhat of a fairytale. Fairness is never going to be present in anything when we examine it on a microscopic level, therefore we can choose to fixate on these injustices/details or we can (as you said) focus on the integrity and enjoyment of the sport. Lastly, I appreciate how you highlighted the emotional impact of gender/sex dissection among females only in sports, and the toll that “clarifying gender” has on someone’s mindset and sense of autonomy. This feeling likely devalues accomplishment, passion and drive towards winning when it is reduced to biological (specifically hormonal) mutations rather than hard work and dedication.