Gender, Sports, and Regulating Bodies Flashcards
(5 cards)
The fairness rhetoric for discriminating against trans*/intersex athletes, and why it is flawed.
The idea that one’s biological sex gives them an inherent and unfair advantage in sports. This is usually backed up with evidence that men are, on average, physically superior to women in sports. This argument is flawed because sports have never been a fair, level playing field. There have always been athletes with unfair physical advantages, but these athletes are celebrated.
The function of sex testing in sports
Sex testing is used to ensure that males and females are segregated in sport. It is justified by saying that it is protecting women from masquerading men and trans women.
Who is routinely subject to sex testing, and why are men not targeted?
Women are the primary target of sex-testing. The reason for this is because it was another way for men to justify unfettered access to the bodies of women. It helps to maintain the power relations between men and women. Additionally, there was no real fear that a woman would masquerade as a man, since it is believed that a woman could never compete with male athletes.
How does sport sex testing maintain other forms of domination?
It helps to maintain Eurocentric notions of femininity. The women targeted are those who are the most muscular/manly. Since they don’t conform to the “norms” of femininity, they must have their sex “confirmed”. There are also racist underpinnings, since intersex individuals are presumed to come from the Global South.
Protectionist discourses and sport sex testing
Men wanted to “protect” women (the inferior sex) from trans women and intersex people. Sport sex testing helps this by trying to find women who do not fit the norm of femininity and testing them to “confirm” their sex.
