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Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
I was surprised that….
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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.
| Manon Rhéaume (1992 – First Female to play in the NHL)
Manon Rhéaume made history as the first woman to play in an NHL game, breaking barriers in a sport long dominated by men. Her achievement challenged traditional gender roles in sports and opened the door for future female athletes to pursue their dreams in male-dominated fields. Rhéaume’s is important for sports inclusion because it showed that talent and dedication should define athletes, not their gender and even though female still don’t play in the NHL, her hard work has help guide us to making a female hockey league!
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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 have found that having gendering of sports has often limited opportunities, especially for women, by giving us less recognition within our sports and by pushing us into certain more “feminine” sports. For example, from my experiences growing up, I was a hockey player and had absolutely no interest in dance, cheer, or any of those sports that seem “more feminine”. This was not an issue for me or my family yet I had countless people around me saying I should not play a “male sport” like hockey because it will give me a “big masculine body” and that apparently I don’t want to be “built like a man” or “beaten up like a guy”. This never sat right with me especially as I got older because not only did I feel people were telling me I didn’t fit into my sport, but it began to become even more personal as I started getting judged for my body since in others eyes I wasn’t a small dancer or cheerleader. I can’t speak from experience but I have noticed that non-binary athletes also face challenges because of the strict male/female divide as explained in the podcast earlier. I think these mindsets and rules are more about societal expectations than actual differences in ability, and it often creates unfair barriers instead of reflecting athletes’ true potential.
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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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These are the results and my answers about each of the poles. I feel like this really represents how society has influenced us citizens into automatically thinking of a specific gender when connecting it to a specific sport. This is because we have this idea of what sports are more “female” or “male” and typically since that is what we know, that gender will likely dominate the sport. For example, we are told growing up that cheer and gymnastics are for girls and that more aggressive sports like hockey or football are for guys.
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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.
| In my opinion, I do agree with Leah and think it’s true that trans women in sports don’t make up a large enough percentage to cause major disruption to the results and competition. However, it’s also unfair that the NCAA seems more focused on looking inclusive for the sake of publicity rather than on actually creating a fair and inclusive playing field. This focus on inclusivity can overlook the years of hard work and sacrifice that cisgender women have put into their training. By prioritizing public image over fairness, the NCAA might unintentionally create an environment where women who have dedicated their lives to their sport feel overlooked or at a disadvantage. For example, when it came down to Leah and Riley tying for 5th place in their race, how did they decide on Leah actually being the one to win that position, from what we can see it seems to be that they chose Leah so that the NCAA looks inclusive. It’s a very challenging situation between inclusion and fairness and I think decisions should come down to the actual sport instead of how the media has presented the sport.
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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 explores the idea of “unfair advantage” in sports, looking at many factors that contribute to an athlete’s success, such as money, training, genetics, and body type. She highlights how some athletes with natural genetic advantages (like the Finnish skier Eero Mäntyranta) are celebrated, but when it comes to athletes with DSDs, like Caster Semenya, their natural testosterone levels are seen as unfair and regulated. Eveleth questions why some biological advantages are accepted while others, especially those linked to sex, are not. She views the research behind the testosterone regulations and suggests that these policies are more about society’s views on sex than actual evidence of unfair advantage.
Athletes can have advantages that aren’t related to gender, like being taller or having longer limbs (helpful in basketball or swimming), having better muscle fibers for speed, or using oxygen more efficiently for endurance. Access to better training and starting sports young can also give athletes a big advantage. Some people are naturally better at things like coordination or quick reactions, which can also help them succeed in sports. These factors show that sports aren’t always fair, as many advantages come from things athletes can’t control but at the end of the day that’s what makes people have strengths and weaknesses. If we all were at the same skill levels, we wouldn’t be able to have different levels of sports.
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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 with Katie Barnes’ point that sports, by design, are not fair. While rules and regulations are there to make sure play is even, some differences like genetics, access to resources, and socio-economic factors often create unfair advantages. For example, kids with more money can afford better coaching or travel teams, and at the professional level, issues like gender and race still impact opportunities and recognition. Even with when trying to create fairness, sports often reflect more social inequalities, making fairness less of a reality.
From my experience playing hockey, I knew of some players who were outstanding and were stronger than some of the players playing at the highest level. However, they lacked opportunities and the chance to go far in hockey because their family could not afford for them to play travel hockey because its very expensive to play. This shows how economics sets barriers which restrict people from having fair opportunities.
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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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