2
Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| I find It interesting that this issue about Transgender people competing in sports has been going on for so long. Of course I am aware that it has been a much larger problem in the last decade, but I never knew that it’s been a social issue, as early as 1968 and perhaps earlier. Im not really surprised about the fact that women were allowed to participate in all Olympic sports in 2012, because I know how women were treated in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s. women were told to stay at home and look after the house and children at that time so them not being allowed to participate in sports doesn’t surprise me at all. now that times have changed it’s almost expected to see women participating in all sports whether its integrated both sexes or separated.
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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.
| Mandatory Physical Inspections – The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now World Athletics) introduced mandatory physical examinations for female athletes, including visual inspections, to confirm gender eligibility. (1972)
Introduction of SRY Gene Testing: Advances in genetics enabled testing for the presence of the SRY gene, found on the Y chromosome, which plays a crucial role in male sexual development. (1985)
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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?
| Gendering in sports causes barriers that are noticed pretty easily. One example that came to mind was when men play against women in the same game. From my perspective, men tend to be less aggressive, or to a lesser degree because the opponent is a woman. that mindset comes from women being categorized in less physically demanding sports like Gymnastics, curling, tennis etc. This doesn’t exclude the fact that women aren’t as physically capable like men are, because of hormone levels, but I do think it would be unfair to women if men played at the same physicality as if they were playing against other men.
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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?
| Football – male
soccer – male power lifting – male basketball – male volleyball – female hockey – male gymnastics – female softball – female I think for all of these sports we can gender code them based off the most popular athlete that participates in them, even better would be who is in the Hall Of Fame for each respected sport. Football, soccer, power lifting, basketball and hockey are all sports where men are the most famous athletes that participate for example Tom Brady, Leonel Messi, Ed Coan, Kobe Bryant, Wayne Gretzky. For Volleyball, gymnastics and softball, I only know about Simone Biles, but I am aware that women’s volleyball and softball are shown on tv more often than the mens.
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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 when you take out the main advantage which is testosterone from men who transition into women, I feel like that makes the playing field much more equal. unfortunately, we heard that when this is done for adults, bone structure and muscle mass doesn’t change much compared to if this process was done at a younger age. that now becomes a ethical issue to allow people so young to make a decision that literally changes their life. I would agree that at the moment trans women competing in women’s sports isn’t a threat to women’s sports as a whole because trans women are still a much smaller population, but I do think that within the next decade this population will continue to grow, and we’ll see way more interviews just like the one we watched. I do think that once the trans women’s population grows large enough they’ll be able to start their own league just like we’ve seen the start to the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
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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?
| Because I play soccer I’m aware of some advantages that may help an individual more that others. The first is playing other sports along with your main sport which would be soccer for me. For example, track and field would be beneficial for sprinting form and breath control allowing you to run at a higher speed for a longer amount of time so that you can blast past a defender and not get tired. Another example I’ve seen to benefit an individuals game is by playing a smaller sized game called Futsal. this game is usually 5v5 in a much smaller court which usually promotes quicker, sharper and faster movements. these skills will translate onto the full sized field and make your game way easier. The Futsal game is also a cultural advantage as its originated in the favelas in Brazil which is why the Brazilian soccer team and its players have the reputation that they’re extremely technical
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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.
| In Favor –
In a perfect world where everything about sports like the referee and the calls he makes, the testing for men and women, trans men and trans women, the rule book and whatever else you can think of that isn’t fair would make sports less entertaining to watch. perhaps in some cases like Formula 1 where teams all have the same budget (cost cap) to spend to make the fastest race car is an exception because that makes winning harder for everyone. I think if sports were fair we would have less narratives like the ‘What if’s”, or Underdog stories. we would lose the entertainment of having world class athletes like Ronaldo or Messi. Imagine if every player on a team had the same quality because they play professionally and are entitled to the same training facilities. I think everything would be worse if sports were ‘fair’.
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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.
| I think that any professional athlete doesn’t care whether they’re playing against a trans man or woman. From what I see when these issues come up a large majority of athletes don’t care about who they’re playing against because now that becomes a mental block which absolutely affects the individual’s game. the best game you have is when you don’t think so I do agree that these investigations on trans men and women athletes is just a social problem that comes from the fans, medial and the council for whatever sport is involved.
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