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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
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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 would add the fact in 2015 the DSD rules were suspended because the court ruled that female athelets didn’t benefit or have any advantage just because of their testosterone levels.
To me, it seems like an important part in history, recognizing that these rules were challanged and the one who challanged it won. It shows you that these rules were and are still discriminatory and unfair. And it’s important to change them. We can’t talk about wanting to have a world where everyone is included but having conditions about that inclusion.
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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?
| Honestly I would say no. I’ve never had a teacher tell me I couldn’t participate in a sport because of my gender. In fact, a lot of my teacher’s encouraged me into sports when I was the one reluctant into playing. And for that, I’m glad.
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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?
| Honestly a lot of these responses confirmed what I assumed about gender coding and sports. Although a lot of these sports are unisex, society as a whole sees them as male dominated or female dominated sports. For example figuring skating. The poll said 100 % Female however, in the last few years we have seen great male figure skaters [my favourite being Yuzuru Hanyu].
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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.
| Honeslty I agree with Leah. As unfortunate as it may be, there really aren’t a lot of trans women competing in women sports. The issues surrounding trans women competeting are overblown. A good portion of why is because society tends to cling on to small details rather than focus on the bigger picture. They don’t actually care about women sports, they just want to make an example out of the select few.
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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 mentioned that people worry about unfair advantages when it comes to gender in sports but they don’t consider natural or even personal advantages that athelets have. As an example, Usain Bolt has a natural advantage because of his long legs and Simone Biles has been trained from a young child with amazing coaches and great support. These have nothing to do with gender but are advantages just the same. But no one really talks about it. And if they do, it’s more so praise for the athelets.
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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 agree with Katie when she says that sports are not fair by design. We see that sports have prided themselves in being fair, however, there are plently of things that can give athelets natural or situational advantages in these sports. As a specific example, Usain Bolt is very tall and has long legs, he can cover more ground compared to Andre De Grasse. The newer generation of NBA stars who have grown up with parents where were also in the NBA have a vast sea of advantage compared to others. Of course many of these athelets are very talented, no question there. But there are still advantages they have compared to others and thats just the truth.
Sports doesnt seem that fair to me. As mentioned, those who come from privilaged backgrounds have more opportunites to grow their strenghts and their skills compared to those who aren’t as privilaged. Sports do rely on skills, but it also depends on the opportunities you have.
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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 is saying that the real purpose behind investigating female athelets [determining if they really are women or not], isn’t based on the sport, is about regulating trans athelets and determining where they should be able to fit in society. It’s about targeting trans people and questioning if they really belong.
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