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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| Something that shocked me in this episode was the dehumanizing process of sex-testing for DSD athletes. Hearing Max tell the story of how she was sidelined and undressed by men, and tested, for reasons she had no idea what for. They did not treat her as a human, and instead viewed her as a specimen of biology, belittling her and making it seem that she is nothing more than a specimen with higher levels of testosterone. This really opened my eyes to the harsh realities that many athletes face. It made me think about how in men, you wouldn’t hear about a man having too high levels of testosterone the way we hear about it in women.
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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.
| We have been faced with the unfortunate reality of being on the wrong side of history, in my opinion. As we have seen in the last few weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, he has wasted no time signing executive orders, many of which on the topics of gender and specifically gender in sports. Donald Trump has announced he intends to sign an executive order titled “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports”. So unfortunately we need to add this to the timeline for the year 2025. An executive order that will change the history of thousands of transgender athletes in America, and the rest of the world.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-executive-order-banning-transgender-athletes-womens-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?
| While writing this response, I want to acknowledge the privilege that I have of being a cis-woman. Growing up gender in sports has not been a constraint on my involvement. I grew up playing sports that were accessible to me, I was very fortunate to play rep soccer, where I was with other girls my age. I was always an average player, good enough to go out and have fun but I knew that sports past highschool was not on the horizon for me and I was okay with that. I viewed gender in sports as the normal, there were boys teams and girls teams, it never bothered me at that level because I had access to the same things that they did, at the level I played it wasn’t an issue. Gender in sport impacted me on a minor level growing up, it was common practice for the boys to be outside at recess playing a game, at my school, I remember myself and some of the other girls having to beg to be included to play the game, simply being turned away because “it was a boys thing”, and the girls that did get to be included has to prove their athletic ability simply over a game at recess, supposedly for fun.
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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?
| My Padlet Responses:
Marital Arts: Male Boxing: Male Golf: Male Dance: Female Netball: Neutral Surfing: Neutral Figure skating: Neutral Tennis: Neutral Rugby: Neutral Swimming: Neutral Baseball: Male Cheerleading: Female Softball: Female Gymnastics: Neutral Hockey: Neutral Volleyball: Female Basketball: Neutral Powerlifting: Neutral Soccer: Female Football: Male The general responses from the class, confirm what I also feel about gender coding in sports. I was surprised to see that many of the sports I view as neutral were heavily gendered from the class. I also found that I was more likely to put neutral to sports where I am unfamiliar with how the public would see them as gender-coded, and was more inclined to vote a gendered approach from sports I am familiar with.
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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 agree with this statement. I believe that the topic of trans women in sports has recently come to light within the media and by politicians as a result of wanting power. I see this issue as men in power looking for ways in which they can control women, and with the rise of women in sports, they are starting to lose power over cis-gendered women and opt for minorities they can control such as transgender athletes. I am a firm believer that we still very much live within he patriarchy and this debate as high it goes, shows this on full display. The sporting world was very much created for men, when men in charge begin to lose the power they once had, they begin grasping for ways to try and get this power back.
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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 describes sports and athletes as having an acceptable amount of unfair advantages, which include circumstantial unfair advantages such as time and money, and biological advantages. Many of these advantages are celebrated except when it comes to gender, where instead it is policed.
As mentioned above a major factor of circumstantial unfair advantages is money. When it comes to becoming a professional athlete, many super stars boil it down to hard work, dedication, and talent, however in reality this is not the case. Many professional athletes, I’ll give NHL players as the example, come from well-off families where paying for private schools and coaching was not an issue. A great example is Connor McDavid, one of the highest skilled hockey players to take the ice since Wayne Gretzky. Accoridng to CBC news, he attended a private school which prioritized his hockey goals, which had an annual tuition of $15,000 to $27,000 per year. In this same article the author breaks down how 40% of all players to make the all-star game (one of the best-on-best tournaments) in 2020, all came from prestigious private schools growing up. Which re-inforces the notion that professional hockey players may not be the best-of-the-best, instead people who could afford to become the best (CBC News, 2020). One of the more obvious advantages in sports is, is a biological advantage of size. Height it’s self is not gender-specific where certain people are benefitted by their height. One of the most common examples is basketball. Both the WNBA and NBA are comprised of some of the tallest professional athletes on the planet, with an average height of a player in the WNBA is 6 feet tall, and the average height of an NBA player is 6 feet 6 inches tall (Mehta, 2023). With this being said, there is no whistle blower claiming that these athletes have an unfair advantage, it’s simply part of the game.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nhl-allstar-leafs-habs-canucks-sens-oilers-jets-flames-private-school-education-hockey-1.5437356 Mehta, N. Clustering NBA and WNBA Players. Universituy of Bekrley Sports Analytics (2023). https://sportsanalytics.studentorg.berkeley.edu/articles/cluster-nba-wnba.html#:~:text=Of%20course%2C%20the%20average%20WNBA,a%2010%20foot%20tall%20hoop. |
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 whole heartedly agree with Katie Barnes statement. The reality is, that sports just aren’t designs for everyone, especially at the professional level. I don’t think any sport is really fair, growing up sports pushed the limits of fairness, from athletic advantages, time, and money spent, to the officiating of sports none of it is truly and entirely fair. A great example of this comes as the NFL season wrapped up. Many people believe it was unfairly officiated to blame for the Kansas City Cheifs making it to the Super Bowl, which begs the question, if one person’s rule or calling can decide it, is this fair? I believe sports are purposely designed to be a little bit unfair, it keeps the games interesting and I don’t believe they would be the same if they truly believed in fairness. It can be argued that in fairness everyone is a winner, but in sports, this is not the case.
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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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