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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| What stood out to me about Maximila Imali’s choice to fight the regulations in court is the personal and political weight that decision carries. It’s a clear example of the larger systemic forces at play in the world of sports, where individual athletes like Imali are caught between their passion, identity, and a set of rules that many argue are based on outdated or discriminatory views about gender and biology. The fight to challenge these policies shows a lot of courage, as it involves not just standing up for oneself but also for future generations of athletes who may face the same barriers.
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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.
| 2009 – Caster Semenya’s Controversial Case
Caster Semenya’s case in 2009 is important because it highlighted the complexities of defining gender in sports and sparked global debates on fairness, privacy, and the ethics of sex verification. It challenged the world of athletics to confront how natural biological variations, like high testosterone levels, intersect with societal expectations of gender and competition. |
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?
| I haven’t experienced the gendering of sport as a personal constraint, but I can see how it could affect others. Gender norms can shape how people perceive their own abilities or interests, especially when certain sports are labeled as “for men” or “for women.” For example, if someone loves playing basketball but feels discouraged because it’s often considered a male-dominated sport, they might feel out of place or less motivated to pursue it.
However, for those who have the freedom to challenge these norms, it’s possible to be less constrained by them, particularly with the increasing visibility and support for women in traditionally male-dominated sports. If someone feels empowered to defy gender expectations, they may not view the gendering of sport as much of a barrier.
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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?
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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.
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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?
| They seem to focus on the complexity of determining what constitutes an “unfair” advantage in sports, especially when it comes to the intersection of gender, physiology, and competition. The debate often hinges on whether differences in biological traits, like those seen in DSD athletes, are truly an advantage or whether they are simply part of the wide range of human variation that is inherently present in all sports. She emphasizes the inconsistency in how the rules are applied to athletes, with gender-related physiological differences receiving more scrutiny than other natural variations that offer an edge in competition.
As for other examples of unique biological or circumstantial advantages unrelated to gender, there are some that come to mind. Firstly, is Usain Bolt. Bolt’s height and long stride length, combined with his fast-twitch muscle fibers, give him a distinct advantage in sprinting. His physical build, particularly his leg length, makes him one of the most efficient sprinters in history. Secondly, is The Williams Sisters (Serena and Venus). Their powerful physiques, combined with athleticism, speed, and agility, have been key factors in their success in tennis. While both have trained intensely, their unique combination of size, strength, and coordination offers an advantage that many competitors cannot easily replicate. |
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 Barnes’ point that “sports, by design, are not fair” and that we accept unfairness in sports all the time. Sports are built on competition, and competition inherently involves disparities, whether it’s genetics, resources, or opportunities. We often see advantages that some athletes have that others can’t easily replicate, and yet these disparities don’t disqualify them from competition.
For example, in professional sports, athletes with natural physical gifts, like Michael Phelps’ wingspan or Serena Williams’ strength, are celebrated. These athletes don’t face any penalties for their genetic advantages, even though it gives them an edge. Similarly, in youth sports, kids who have access to expensive coaching and high-quality training are more likely to excel, which creates an uneven playing field for those without the same resources. Even in situations where rules are put in place to minimize unfair advantages, such as weight classes in wrestling or drug testing in cycling, fairness is still subjective because athletes’ circumstances can never be fully equal. As much as we strive for fairness, sports will always involve an element of inequality, whether it’s due to luck, resources, or natural ability. This doesn’t mean that fairness shouldn’t be pursued in sports, but rather that we need to acknowledge that it is a complex issue with no simple solutions.
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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 making the argument that the intense scrutiny of trans women athletes in sports, especially the practice of “transvestigating,” or investigating and questioning the gender of trans women in elite athletics, is not genuinely about ensuring fairness in competition or protecting cis women’s rights in sports. Instead, it’s about targeting and questioning the existence and legitimacy of trans women themselves.
In her view, the debate surrounding trans women in sports is a thinly hidden excuse to engage in broader societal debates about trans identity, and particularly transfemininity (the expression of femininity by trans women). The focus on their participation in women’s sports is used as a way to create division and continue challenging the acceptance and rights of trans women in society, outside of any real concern for sports fairness. This argument suggests that the “concerns” about trans women in sports are not actually rooted in the principles of competition or fairness but are instead a vehicle for transphobic rhetoric that questions the legitimacy of trans women’s gender identity and public presence.
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