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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| What surprised me most when listening to this CBC podcast that hurt me to listen to is the aggressiveness of the medical procedures that are done to female athletes in the name of “protecting the sport”. You can hear the trauma and shaking in Max’s voice as she speaks about how she was undressed by a male doctor she didn’t know and has private parts touched without being told what they were doing or why. I also found it totally gross when they were talking about the “certificates of femininity”, that handed women a essentially a business card that says “I woman enough to play my sport”. This practice is absolutely disgusting and another example of the objectification of female body. If mens bodies are not tested for high testosterone and then told they cannot play, there should be no reason to justify doing this 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.
| I think a significant step forward in the world of athleticism pertaining to this timeline would be in 2021 when the international olympic committee released their framework for inclusion and non-discrimination for other sports organization which both a section for non-discrimination and no presumption of advantage. The non-discrimination section stated that “Eligibility criteria should not systemically exclude athletes based on their gender identity, sex variations, or physical appearance” and the no presumption of advantage section states “Athletes should not be excluded from competition based on perceived, alleged, or unverified unfair competitive advantage”.
I think this framework shows a growth and step forward in regard to athletes who exist outside the idealized perception of what a perfect woman or man athlete looks like. I especially like the no presumption of advantage section as they outline one cannot exclude an athlete from participating in a sport just because one thinks they might have an advantage. I think that guideline would have been especially helpful to athlete like Maximila Imali who was thought to have unfair advantage because of her bodies chromosomes
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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?
| I feel that gender coding in sports has absolutely played a role in my life growing up. My elementary school hosted a cross country race each year with different distance expectations for boys and girls. The girls were always expected to run a shorter length then the boys. I remember my grade 8 year when all the girls were expected to run 3.5 km while the boys were expected to run 5 km. Being younger I accepted this as having season behind because the adults in my life must have had a well thought out reason behind this that I just simply didn’t understand. Now being older and reflecting on this moment I cannot find any justification for having the girls run a shorter distance than the boys especially considering the distances were so short. They should either have everyone run 3.5 km or everyone run 5km |
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?
| Most of the responses I found predictable, which many of them catering to men as being to domineering gender perceived in that sport, however, their were a couple a responses that surprised with just the huge lack of women’s representation. Specifically for hockey I was shocked by the 0% on the poll of the women (at least at the time i’m doing it). Growing up I have always known as many girls as boys to play hockey which is why I said it was a neutral sport but I was shocked to see that others feels the sport has 0% women as being a women associated sport. I was also shocked to see the low representation of perceived women’s association with soccer. Every summer olympics I feel know more friends and family who keep up with the women’s soccer team then the mens especially with christine sinclair being the all-time leading goal scorer in international soccer. |
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 think the sudden “interest” in women’s sport is a very gross new interest by these politicians. Trans gender athletes being apart of the respective gender’s sports leagues has never seemed to be a problem until recently now with the government making it their problem. It only seems to be an issue when a trans-woman is winning/dominating in her respective league. The “issue” being tackled by these politicians seems to be less about protecting women’s sports and more about shaming women who exist outside the stereotypical/heteronormative “ideal” woman. I very much agree with Leah Thomas’ statement that trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten sports and the politicians all of the sudden getting involves are only doing so as another excuse to govern womens bodies |
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 discusses the tricky debated issue that is advantage in sport, adressign what has been considered one’s own natural advantage or who is a “natural born cheater”. Eveleth notes how most of the advantages within mens sports are fair game and not protored as we do not organize are sports based on advantage but by gender. This specifically looks to proctor women’s bodies, criticizing women athletes who perform well also might happen to be dsd athletes. The performances of dsd athletes seems to so closely associated with their sex functioning that those who are forced to perform with testosterone blockers are compared to “expecting a pull to produce after castration”.
While there are many men athletes who have shown to by far out exceed to their competition due to genetic abnormality like Micheal Phelps who has a long torso and shorts which is ideal for swimming or olympic skier who went on to win 7 medals as he has a blood condition that allows to him to reproduce red blood cells much faster than the average male. Even though these men are born with genetic advantage to their peers, their winnings are not framed as robbing others int their categories as women’s are. Another example of genetic advantage within sport could be sprinters who are born with faster sprint fibers allowing them to have faster explosive movements with more momentum compared to other athletes, however this does not seem to proctored genetic advantage as it is not an advantage that is specific to women
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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.
| I agree that sports are not fair, however, I think thats why we love sports, thats why we love athletes. We love to see people excel in their respective sport because of genetic advantage and how far it can take them. This is why is feels so odd to see sports committees stepping in to create rules dictating what advantage is too much of an advantage and what advantage is just being lucky. A personal example I can give regarding sports and their unfariness touching my life is how excelled at playing soccer because naturally carry and am able to build muscle, allowing me to perform repetitive sprinting throughout a soccer game. However, I SUCK at long distance running because my torso is much longer than my legs and a do not have a naturally lean build as long distance runners do. Sports is matter of utilizing your genetic variabilities to your advantage which is why it does not seem right to out of the blue begin calling certain advantages unfair but having some athletes such as micheal phelps who greatly supasses his competetors just genetic luck
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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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