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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.
| One particular case that comes to mind when discussing gender tests in sports is the recent controversy in women’s boxing during the 2024 Paris Olympics, in which Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was accused of not being a biological female. This began when Khelif’s opponent, Angela Carini (representing Italy), quit less than a minute into the match, claiming she was in too much pain to continue. Khelif began to face harassment and bullying as people questioned the validity of her gender identity, with cruel remarks and demands of her disqualification from the Olympic games. Although Khelif was proved to be born a biological female, this situation highlights the ongoing issues that women in sports- whether they are cisgender or not- continue to face in today’s society, as one’s identity can be put into question when displaying natural physiological advantages. From an intersectional perspective, this can looked at as an instance of racism, as people saw a white woman lose to a person of colour who lacks Eurocentric features and immediately became accusatory. We can’t be certain that there would be a different outcome if both athletes were white, however, it’s important to acknowledge that Khelif faced many racist comments through this controversy.
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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?
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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?
| Although I’ve played many sports and tried many hobbies, I only really know horseback riding as a sport, as I did it for over a decade. That being said, something I’ve noticed in horseback riding is that although it is a female-dominated sport, we see a lot of males at the top levels of the sport, whereas in the lower levels, it’s pretty rare to see male equestrians. Many equestrians have also noticed a bias in judge-based competitions, where judges tend to favour male competitors over females. Considering there is no gender categories in this sport, we still see a lot of gender-based biases. Within the male equestrian community, there does tend to be a lot of queer men in the sport, even amongst the male equestrians I’ve known who identify as heterosexual, they often had a negative view of the sport, with complaints that it is a “girly” sport, or avoiding telling people they do horseback riding in fear as being seen as gay. This narrative perpetuates gender-coding in sports and harms not only the female equestrians but also those apart of the LGBTQ+ equestrian community as a whole. This phenomenon can be seen across most female-dominated sports as well, such as dance, gymnastics, cheer, etc.
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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 honestly find it somewhat appalling that trans women in sports are becoming such a large and controversial topic in today’s media. I do agree with the statement above, they are such a small percentage within sports and even just in general. When discussing transgender issues, many people with opposing views have this idea that the “woke left” and the LGBTQ+ community are turning people trans and believe its a huge phenomenon that trans people are taking over, but this is not the case. Because of the internet’s wide reach and huge variety of communities, people- in this case, trans people- are just able to express themselves more openly, and furthermore, the internet allows you to engage with people you otherwise might not come across in your day-to-day life, among many other factors. My point is, that trans people are not taking over the population, you are just seeing them more often, which I find relates to transgender people in sports. If gender testing were out of the equation, many trans athletes could participate in sports while passing as cis-gendered. Of course, it doesn’t matter if a person passes a made-up stereotype of what a “woman” or “man” should look like, but since we are seeing so much ruckus about it, we must consider all angles.
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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?
| Simone Biles, one of, if not the best gymnasts of our time is someone who has biological advantages in her sport. Her height (4’8”) allows her to rotate easily in the air, making difficult jumps and tricks easier than gymnasts who go through large growth spurts and have to adjust their routines as a result. Because she did not have to relearn her skills, or at least in a less significant way, she was able to learn while her colleagues would be left behind. |
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.
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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 essentially telling us that those who are involved in and promote the investigation and testing done to exclude transgender athletes (or what is deemed as transgender) from the Olympics have their own agenda that is not for the benefit of women, sports, or anything of the sort. The intention is to ostracize and unjustly target trans people as a whole, demonizing a marginalized group who have very little presence in the area of sports in the first place. There is a push for social norms that are trying to be made through gender testing, even harming those who identify as women and were born biologically female.
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