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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
Max Imali’s story really sticks with me. Her strength and perseverance are remarkable. Every time she made progress, breaking records, inspiring others, new rules would come up, pushing her back. It’s hard not to feel frustrated by how sports governing bodies have used their power to alienate her at every turn. It’s not just about competing; it’s about being told over and over that she doesn’t belong.
And it’s not just Max, there’s this long history of sports organisations discriminating against women who didn’t fit some narrow idea of femininity. From the bizarre “nude parades” to handing out “proof of femininity cards,” it’s all so dehumanising. What’s worse is that even the science they used wasn’t on their side. Dr Murray Barr, who came up with the Bar Body Test, spoke out against it being used to determine gender, saying chromosomes are just a “minor detail.” But that didn’t stop the powers that be from using it to exclude women.
What really gets me is the justification behind all of this. There are zero verified cases of men sneaking into women’s competitions to cheat. None. Yet this myth has fuelled decades of invasive, harmful policies. It makes you wonder—what’s the real motive here? Because it sure doesn’t seem to be about fairness. Or the fact that it was unethical and yet sports governing bodies did not care.
Max’s story isn’t just about sports; it’s about fighting back against a system that keeps moving the goalposts. Her refusal to give up, whether it’s in court or in her training, is so inspiring. It makes me think about how these same patterns of exclusion show up in other areas, too. How often do we see systems built to keep certain people out, no matter how qualified or talented they are?
What stands out the most for me is that Max isn’t just fighting for herself. She’s standing up for all the athletes who come after her. That takes a kind of courage and strength that’s hard to imagine. It makes me want to think more about how I can stand up for fairness and inclusion, even in small ways. Because if she can keep fighting against all of this, then surely we can, too.
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.
| Imane Khelif – the 2024 female boxer that was harrassed and bullied online.
though she isn’t trans, the mongering that this individual experienced shows that society itself hasn’t changed. It was almost a witch hunt where she again had to prove her gender. whats worse is that we live in a society where people don’t read the news stories, they see headlines. This has created mantality in reporting, to be fast not accurate. so the narrative of her being trans took over the Olympics.
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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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I haven’t directly experienced constraints in sports due to gendering—my male privilege shielded me from that. However, my ethnicity and skin colour have presented their own barriers, shaping my experiences in ways that made me keenly aware of systemic inequities. That being said, I’ve seen the effects of gendering in sports through my daughters’ experiences. We live in a small town where female hockey and soccer teams are often made up of players from multiple towns in the township, just to have enough participants. Yet, despite their commitment and effort, these teams are treated as an afterthought. Male leagues consistently get the better times for games, access to newer and better facilities, and attract more sponsorships and funding. Meanwhile, female teams are left with freezing rinks in old barns or soccer fields that are far from ideal. One striking example of this inequality is how little visibility female teams get. I didn’t even know we had a female baseball team in town until four players marched in last year’s holiday parade. Male leagues, on the other hand, are advertised everywhere—on billboards, in community centres, and on social media. The disparity is impossible to ignore. It’s frustrating because it sends a message to these young athletes: their passion, talent, and effort are less valued simply because they’re girls. Watching my daughters navigate this has made me realise how deeply embedded these inequities are, not just in sports but in how we, as a society, allocate attention and resources. It’s something we must continue to push back against, so all young athletes feel supported and valued, no matter their gender.
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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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Soccer, i was suprised by the responses. I assumed it would be seen as more neutral. yes you don’t see Professional soccer leagues as you do with the male ones. but i found growing up in Canada, Soccer throughout school (elementrary and secondary) was aimed at females. I enjoy womens soccer, I think it’s more violent and brutal than the male version. Soccer was one of the only sports offered to girls in school, it was soccer and track. where boys had baseball, hockey, track, soccer, rugby and football. at least at the schools I went too. Dancing, is another one i’m shocked about, because I assumed it was more neutral, but paddet showed most see it as female driven. but I see things like breakdancing and other non-traditional forms, that are mixed gender. perhaps more traditional onces like ball room could be seen as female led, but then i ask what about line dancing?
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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.
| Absolutely agree, and absolutely overblown.
historically we have seen this MANtallity of reusing people. think of the colour barrier in Baseball and Basketball. (yes perhaps they had valid reasons to be concern, we have dominated). but 510,000 athletes and less than 10 being trans, and the money, energy, time being spent to fight this is rediculous. But colional mantality is about othering others.
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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?
| webbed fingers and toes? i would imagine it creates advantage when swimming..
Shaq and Yao Ming – their hight, they toward over those that the every day people would think as tall.
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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.
| once again absolutely agree, until there is an unbiased governing body free of temptations opinions and thought, we are never going to get a fair trial.
at the same time we have to take in the intersectionality of those athlets, each have different motivational factors, were raised in different enviroments. How can an athlete who has gone to to the best, schools, acadamys and have had the best trainers, claim to have a disadvantage towards someone who has holes in their shoes, and didn’t know if they could afford to take part? where the priveledge player might have received training to help make them mentally, physcially, tough. but they might not of had the drive that someone who has had to fight for everying. sorry i think i went off topic… Sports is not fair. its extremely unfair all of the time…
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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.
obins is arguing that the scrutiny of trans athletes, often referred to as “transvestigation,” has little to do with genuine concerns about fairness in sports or the protection of cisgender women. Instead, it’s a socially sanctioned way to repeatedly question and delegitimize the existence of trans women in public life. This scrutiny isn’t about ensuring competitive integrity; it’s about controlling and policing trans identities, particularly transfemininity.
Building on Robins’ point, this issue is rooted in colonial and patriarchal beliefs that frame women as inherently weaker and in need of protection. Rather than empowering cis women by affirming their strength and capabilities, the current discourse positions them as victims—suggesting they can’t compete with trans women, who are often framed through a lens of “biological advantage.” This narrative doesn’t uplift cis women; it reinforces the same outdated stereotypes that feminism has long fought against, perpetuating the idea that women are fragile and inferior to men.
Instead of celebrating the diversity and resilience of all women—cis and trans alike—the conversation has become a tool to enforce rigid gender binaries. It weaponizes concerns about fairness to mask deeper societal discomfort with transness, particularly when trans women challenge the boundaries of traditional femininity. By doing so, it not only marginalizes trans women but also diminishes cis women, treating them as perpetual victims rather than as strong, capable athletes.
Ultimately, this isn’t a debate about sports. It’s about who is allowed to exist authentically in public spaces. The real issue isn’t whether trans athletes have an unfair advantage, but why society feels the need to constantly police gender in ways that uphold colonial, patriarchal, and transphobic systems. If we genuinely cared about fairness, we’d focus on systemic inequalities—like access to training, resources, and opportunities—rather than obsessing over who fits into narrowly defined gender categories.
