Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
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In Rose Evelyths podcast, I was surprised to learn that:
- Women had to prove their sex in sport and men did not
- How unethical and vulnerable they went about ‘checking’ that she was a woman to prove that she deserved her position within a sports team
- That although science had disproved the accuracy of gene testing, Sports communities refused to adapt
I learnt
- About XY women
- About naturally occuring high testosterone levels in women
- that women were kicked out’ve sports for no good reason
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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.
| The time line presented demonstrates a very black and white series of events as we evolved into a slightly more inclusive and accepting society. However, that does not highlight the scrutiny women experienced to get to achieve this. If I were to add milestones to this timeline id lived experiences such as the first women who had to walk naked in front of judges and face discrimination, and include dates such as when they discovered that genes are not an accurate source of determining gender or sex. Furthermore, women’s rallies or protests.
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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 grew up as a very active and ambitious kid. I did primarily gymnastics, but also skiing, taekwondo, swimming, and other leisurely sports. As time went on I ended up focusing sole on gymnastics partially because I loved it and had a talent for it but also because I felt that I fit the description the best as a petite effeminate young girl. As I got older, my perspectives and personality changed, and I started to resent the sport for the pressure to do elegant, soft , dainty routines. At one point I almost quit after my dance choreographer said that when I performed my slow, pianoesque routine, I looked like “a dog chasing its tail”. Eventually as gymnastics evolved, different music styles became popular and I was able to engage in routines that accentuated my power rather than being confined into an elegant and dainty standard of floor routine.
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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?
| Figure skating: Female
Rugby: Male
tennis: Neutral
swimming: Neutral
cheerleading: Female
baseball: Male
gymnastics: Neutral
hockey: Male
softball: Male
basketball: Male
powerlifting: Male
vollyball: neutral
soccer: Male
football: Male
I voted 8/14 male dominated gendered sports and 4/14 neutral. Therefore only 2/14 sports I felt were female represented. As a female who participates in sports regularly it does make me sad that although most sports are unisex they are predominantly male of neutrally represented, especially on television or live games.
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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 do agree with Leah Thomas’s statement that “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..”. . Additionally, she highlights that the NCAA has had rules in place for over a decade that govern the participation of trans women, and despite this, there has been no overwhelming surge of trans women dominating competitions. This correlated to the topic discussed that just because someone is Trans doesn’t mean they have superhuman abilities to compete in sports, although this is what politicians and influencers are portraying. I think there is also a large group of people that do not support LGBTQIA+ rights, and they have massive power to influence society. That doesn’t mean that this group of people actually know anything about sport, or have any other intention than to just be transphobic.
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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 talks about how Christine, Max and other Trans athletes had an “unfair advantage” in the eyes of society while running, and after the medication therapy that lowers these levels, they were not bale to perform to the same extent. She challenges what this means to “have an unfair advantage” and where the boundaries are. She goes on to talk about how it is multidimensional as sports are meant to highlight people with natural athletic advantage (amongst mental strength and opportunity). For example height, weight, BMI, muscle mass (ex: Michael phelps long wing span). Naturally, people with certain biological characteristic such as long wing spans, red blood cell mutations, or high testosterone, all have a form of advantage. So how did we distinguish the boundaries? and which biological mutations are acceptable and not?
It terms of the lab testosterone levels, it isn’t achievable to force someone into a category of a “normal” testosterone lab value. As a nursing student, all people have varying lab values and different baselines, and this concept is shocking to hear and understand.
Simone biles, gymnast and 11 time olympic medals is naturally very short (4,8″) and light (105 lbs). Her height and size allows her to compete extremely difficult skills with ease compared to her competitor’s.
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Exercise 7: Padlet/Notebook Prompt
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.
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.
