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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| In 1970, Debby Brill competed in the Commonwealth Games and won a gold medal. Before competing, she had to go through a process called sex testing, which would give them a “business” like a card that certified she was a female, also known as a certificate of feminity. The process involves a cheek swap followed by determining the person’s sex to allow them to participate in games with the card that verifies their feminity. I was shocked and had no idea that this was a thing. It also outlined in the podcast that sex testing was mandated from 1968-1999 for over 30 years. They were not allowed to compete without a certificate of feminity.
I was completely unaware of this testing that had to be done for females to participate in competing sports. A well-known sports competition had mandated this for over 30 years, and I was completely unaware of the significance of the certificate. If females did not bring the card, they were not able to compete |
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 a significant case to add to the timeline is Laurel Hubbard’s case in 2020. In 2020, at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Laurel Hubbard was the first transgender woman to participate in the Olympics for weightlifting. Her transition was several years before 2020, and in 2015, the Olympics allowed transgender individuals to compete in women’s events.
I feel this case is important to add because Laurel was the first transgender person to openly participate and spread awareness. After her competition, a new framework was mandated regarding transgender eligibility to compete, such as adding fairness and equity. Laurel competed and received lots of support, making history. |
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 I have mentioned several times, I love watching and playing hockey. When I first became interested in hockey, it was because my dad was always watching the Toronto Maple Leafs, and I thought it was so much fun to watch them play. Although many boys in my grade played hockey, I only watched the Leafs, a male hockey team. I thought hockey was only for men. Back when I was younger, there were barely any female hockey teams to play on, and I ended up playing a couple of games on a boy team and did not have any interest because I did not feel comfortable. Finally, some female leagues opened up but I find myself now thinking the gendering of sport impacted my involvement as I felt hesitant to join a team with all boys. Without many female team options, I questioned my involvement in hockey until some things changed.
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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?
Nothing was surprising when I answered the different polls on gendered sports. For example, the sport hockey, I believe it is heavily gendered to males because that is what perception I have grown up with by seeing it on television, not having access to any female hockey teams and more. I strongly believe that hockey has become a bit more neutral, but when I was growing up, it was strongly male-gendered, and I do believe people enjoy watching men’s NHL hockey rather than PWHL because most people have always watched and/or followed NHL teams just like how I do with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
A response that did surprise me was soccer. Unlike hockey where I play it and watch it constantly, I only played soccer for my elementary school’s team but never was interested enough to watch it. I had thought that it was more male-gendered just because of the few big soccer names I have heard of, like Messi and Ronaldo, growing up, but once I answered the padlet, it was voted more for neutral, which was shocking. Once I did research, I learned that women’s soccer is shown almost as much as men’s, which was surprising to me.
Overall, many of my assumptions were correct when it came to gendered sports just because of the different views and perceptions I grew up on and how society portrayed different sports and genders aswell.
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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.
| Although there is a small minority of trans women athletes, the NCAA rules should be more open to creating more inclusive policies, allowing all individuals to compete in the sports they want to. Everyone spends time working hard to train and compete in sports, and inclusivity should be prioritized. There should be no threat to women’s sports as a whole because sports should have new rules and policies that include all individuals without gender being problematic. Trans-inclusion should not be viewed as a problem. Instead, institutions should create equitable solutions; testing should not be done.
To make transgender individuals and sports become more educated and well known around society, more authoritative individuals, like politicians and influencers, should be more educated on sports and gender to advocate for rights that many individuals do not receive while competing in sports so society can have equality in sports |
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?
| In the podcast, Rose Eveleth explained the issue of unfair advantage by addressing many different studies and policies regarding individuals with differences in sexual development (DSD). It was noted that the unfair advantage is that women with DSD have an advantage over other women when competing in sports. Different sports rely on different muscles and body parts, where they come more at play than others. For example, having a long torso with short legs is beneficial for swimming. It was highlighted that there were 20 genetic factors that researchers identified as a correlation to athletic performance. Sports are not divided by blood and oxygen; it is divided by sex, so the advantages that are connected to sex are fair game. Rose outlined many different studies or policies that were done to diminish the unfair advantage of individuals with DSD, but it seemed to only create more barriers. One policy was they had to test how big the advantage was, and if it was too big, they were not able to participate, which showed that this test was creating more barriers and making the issue worse. Rose mainly talked about how there is no inclusivity and policies that accept individuals with DSD when it comes to participating in sports. She also outlined the many stigmas and stereotypes of DSD, such as they are male-bodied and too male to participate against other women. New policies and new rules need to be developed in order to create inclusivity for all individuals. Sports need to create new policies to incorporate all individuals to create inclusivity.
There are various other examples of unique biological advantages, such as Usain Bolt’s fast-twitch muscles and long legs, which help him maintain his fast speed. Fast-twitch muscles are present in both genders, showing that this unique biological advantage has nothing to do with gender. Another athlete is Micheal Phelps, who is known for swimming and has a long wingspan that helps them swim faster. |
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 and support the comment, “Sports, by design, are not fair. The reality of sports is that we accept unfairness all the time.” Sports attract individuals from all over who have unique biological advantages and come together to participate. I believe that when people sign up to participate in sports, they accept that everyone has different advantages that make sports unfair as we are not all designed and built the same. Sports all have the same rules and policies around the game that make the game fair, but all individuals come with different biological advantages, which makes playing sports unfair. Every individual comes from a different household with different lifestyles some can afford elite training or resources where others cannot, putting them at a disadvantage. Although they may have the same skills, the one with training may be able to move forward in elite sports.
In my personal experience, I have played soccer and hockey, where the rules of the game are fair, and everyone obeys them, but I learned that everyone has their own advantages that make them better at doing things within the game. I am tall and have longer arms, which helps when I play the defence position in hockey to cover more ice when defending the net. There are just many factors, such as biological advantage, that make physically playing the sport unfair. Overall, I am not saying sports are completely unfair. I believe they are fair in the rules they address and the policies that are aligned within each sport. However, when it comes to the individuals playing the sport, there is some unfairness that many people acknowledge due to biological advantages or many other differences, such as financial differences.
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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.
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