2
Section One: The Fundamentals
A) History and Context
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
| This case is very interesting as it clearly represents the injustice surrounding sports and gender expression. Athletics Kenya appears to have violated Imali’s bodily autonomy by stating she must take drugs to compete. Furthermore, they discriminate based on gender and circumstances beyond her control, as she is not capable of regulating her testosterone level aside from hormonal therapy. To claim that she should not be allowed to compete on the grounds of a trivial physiological factor is incredibly unethical, especially considering that some people are simply born with an athletic advantage, sometimes having nothing to do with gender. For example, a Welsh sprinter named Colin Jackson was born with the genetic advantage of having a proportionally large amount of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are used to generate powerful muscle contractions for a short period of time (Ransford, 2015). Like Imali, Jackson’s genetics encoded for a physiological trait which would go on to give him an advantage over other sprinters he may compete with. The difference is that this factor is not related to sex/ gender, and thus not regulated by athletic organizations. This shows that athletic committees are not actually concerned with athletes’ genetic advantages but rather are using these advantages as a way to perpetuate the notion of a gender binary and discriminate against those who do not conform to this idea.
Ransford, Marc. “Study: Former Sprinter Has Cheetah-like Muscle Makeup.” Ball State University, BSU, 24 July 2015, www.bsu.edu/news/press-center/archives/2015/7/study-former-sprinter-has-cheetah-like-muscle-makeup.
|
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.
2 milestones:
I chose 2 milestones because I think it is important to highlight how women’s involvement in the Olympics has only occurred very recently in history. 125 years may seem like a long time ago, but considering the Olympics’ ancient origins, this date is quite recent; over 2500 years after the first Olympics! https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/the-first-women-olympians
|
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 personally do not feel that gendering in sport has impacted my ability to be involved. This is likely because I am a cis man and therefore am never questioned in terms of what my competition group should be. For women, trans, and gender non-binary people this may not be the case, as people are often suspicious whether a more feminine person is competing in the women’s group to have “easier competition”. For many, this accusation, and the whole idea of being forced to conform to a gender binary may be a major hurdle in their ability to compete in and enjoy different sports.
|
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?
  
The results of these polls generally confirmed my beliefs about society’s gender-coding in sports. Despite recent movements promoting inclusivity in sports, many people still believe that there are sports associated male athletes and those more closely associated with female athletes. Sports such as figure skating and softball polled much higher with female athletes than males, while traditionally male sports like hockey and baseball are still thought of as being predominantly male.
|
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 generally agree with the statement that trans women competing in sport is a non-issue, given that trans athletes make up less than 1% of NCAA competitors and there is no apparent instance of a trans athlete being unbeatable. The “issue” of trans women in sports is usually perpetuated on the premise that allowing this minority to compete creates an unfair advantage over cis women. If those who feel this way were really concerned about women’s sports, they would be doing much more to promote and include female athletes, which is almost never the case. For example, President Trump’s recent executive order banning trans athletes from competing in female sports categories on the grounds that “I do not believe biological boys should be allowed to compete with girls in sports”. If the president was actually concerned with the legitimacy of women’s sports, one would expect policy decisions which promote inclusivity and funding for all female athletes, rather than taking a cheap shot at marginalized group to appeal to his fan base.
Ortiz, Erik. “After Years of Debate, Trump Upends Transgender Sports Landscape with the Stroke of a Pen.” NBCNews.Com, NBC Universal News Group, 14 Feb. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/trump-upends-transgender-sports-landscape-stroke-pen-rcna192056.
|
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 introduces the idea that there are many examples of athletes which have natural genetic mutations resulting in a physiological advantage in their given sport. Such a case was seen with a Finnish olympic skier who had a genetic condition resulting in red blood cells being produced at a much higher rate than the average man. This would have caused the skier to have a much greater aerobic capacity, and as a result the Olympian won 7 medals for Finland. This goes to show that sports are inherently unfair in that everyone is born with their own unique genetics and should not be penalized for circumstances beyond their control.
Victor Wembanyama, a French NBA player, has had a very successful career to date, partially owing to his height advantage. Per Wikipedia, Wembanyama is 7 feet 3 inches tall with a wingspan of roughly 8 feet, giving him a clear advantage over many competitors on the court. Again, this is another example of a physiological factor not related to gender in which an individual ranks above the majority of their competitors.
|
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.
Full Text: I tend to agree with Barnes that by design sports played at an elite level are unfair based on both biological and organizational factors. In this module, we have discussed many of the biological factors that can grant individuals a natural advantage over their competitors. For example, basketball players over 7 feet tall, endurance runners with abnormally high hemoglobin/ hematocrit levels, or bodybuilders with myostatin inhibitors who have an insanely high muscle-to-fat ratio. These factors all give an athlete an unfair advantage, however, I do not think penalizing athletes for their abnormal physiology is fair either given that they certainly did not choose how their body develops, just as how being trans is not a choice. In addition to these biological factors, the organizational structure of elite sports is not inherently fair, as many teams have financial advantages over others. In the major North American sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) some teams, such as the LA Dodgers, have the financial flexibility to recruit elite players at a much higher frequency than poorer teams. By utilizing monetary assets and assembling a dream team, certain franchises can become almost unbeatable while small market teams struggle to compete. In addition to this, blatant cheating is not uncommon in these major sports leagues such as the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal and the New England Patriots’ “Deflate-gate”. Both these instances are examples of an entire team intentionally sabotaging their opponent and deceiving their fans for the sake of athletic success. Due to the regularity of these scandals, and the naturally occurring abnormalities seen in many athletes’ biology, I believe it is safe to conclude that sports are by nature unfair. Comment on an additional post:
Full text: I agree and disagree with some of the points you are making here. While it is true that sports leagues do try to control unfairness in sports, they are not always successful in doing so. Even with doping, many times athletes can get away with using PEDs for years before they are caught (as seen with many MLB players in the 1990s). Attempts to control the use of these banned substances are important to level the playing field, however, we must accept that participating in sports will inevitably lead to some unfair advantages beyond our control.
|
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.
| In this article, Robins points out that the 2024 Olympic games were full of controversy including the Canadian soccer team scandal, E. Coli levels in the Seine, and as always, trans athlete’s right to compete. With this quote, I believe Robins is arguing that the focus on trans people in sports by celebrities like JK Rowling, and Elon Musk, is simply an excuse to be transphobic and an opportunity to voice genuine concern over fairness in sports. These far-right public figures are so threatened by trans people, that they accuse cis athletes such as Khelif of being trans, despite the fact that no trans-female athletes were allowed to compete in Paris (Robins, 2024). |
