Legacies of Orthodox Gender Ideology: Sex Testing in Olympics PDF

Legacies of an Orthodox Gender Ideology: Sex Testing In Olympics  Sex and Gender Sex is a biological identity that is divided into the main categories of male or female. Gender is a social concept referring to the entire array of social patterns, behaviours, and be...

Legacies of an Orthodox Gender Ideology: Sex Testing In Olympics  Sex and Gender Sex is a biological identity that is divided into the main categories of male or female. Gender is a social concept referring to the entire array of social patterns, behaviours, and beliefs categorizing men and women. Exists along a continuum of masculinity and femininity.  Gender ideology... interrelated ideas and beliefs widely used to define masculinity and femininity, identify people in terms of sex and sexuality, evaluate forms of sexual expression, and organize social relationships Orthodox gender ideology = ideas and beliefs associated with an inflexible two-sex, or binary, approach system of classifying all humans into two non-overlapping categories. Using the word orthodox means that this is a traditional ideology that many people have internalized as “unchanging truth” and often linked to their religious beliefs or an overall sense of essential reality Gender ideology resists change, but it can and does change as other parts of culture and society change Gender ideology in many societies is based on a two-category classification system that Assumes two mutually exclusive sex categories: heterosexual male and heterosexual female Presents these categories in terms of difference—as “opposites”—across physiological, psychological, and social dimensions Leaves no space for those who do not clearly fit into one of the two categories Infers the subordination of women to men when it comes to power and access to power  Sex testing: a legacy of the two-sex system Sport organizations (& public toilets) remains a way to enforced sex segregation in society This creates problems because objective male-female distinctions cannot be made across all humans by using chromosomes, hormones, or secondary sex characteristics— all of which overlap among males and females. These problems have forced sports organizations to use a succession of invalid tests to make sure women athletes are females that fit their definitions. Caster Semenya is one of the latest victims of this approach. Vox: The Problem with Sex Testing in Sports https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiCftTLUzCI&t=1s Gender Verification and Sex Testing Women athletes ONLY! Early examples of sex testing was physical inspection or gynecological examination of female athletes Subjected to a nude parade in front of a panel of doctors The IOC instituted mandatory sex testing in women’s sport in 1968 until 2000. the Barr body chromosomal test Barr body test and buccal smear & DNA tests Chromosomal makeup 1968-1991 XY complete androgen insensitivity Testosterone levels Would be detected as male under the buccal smear, despite the fact that these individuals would be classified as female based on the appearance of their external genitalia DNA Tests 1991-1999 To locate SRY gene on the Y chromosome End of Mandatory Testing Concluded that blanket sex testing is arbitrary and discriminatory While the IOC discontinued mandatory sex testing in the 2000 Olympic Games, they continued to retain the right to test athletes in cases deemed ‘‘suspicious,’’ whereby the gender identity of an athlete was called into question  Who is Suspicious? This binary, particularly in the global North, is informed and shaped by dominant (i.e., white, middle class, heteronormative) notions of masculinity and femininity. the linkage between athleticism and masculinity is based upon the co-constitution of gender and race. Female Masculinity – has emerged as an aesthetic marker of the bodies suspected to be unfairly enhanced either by steroids or biological disorders.  Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif 2024 Gold Medal Olympian After her defeat of Italian Boxer instantly rumours and accusations about her sex and gender. Khelif said after winning gold: “I am fully qualified to take part in this competition – I am a woman. I was born a woman, I’ve lived as a woman and I’ve competed as a woman. There’s no doubt that there are enemies of success and that gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.” Contentious questions and answers about sex World Athletics (formerly IAAF) defined femaleness in different ways until they came up with a testosterone-based definition that excluded Semenya and other women whose bodies naturally produce testosterone outside the range produced by most women. This physical condition is hyperandrogenism—that is, when women have naturally elevated androgens Having this condition meant that a woman was “too masculine” to compete in certain women’s events—it would destroy fairness according to World Athletics  What is fair? Why is a man called a super-athlete when he has more testosterone than his male competitors, whereas a woman is told she is ineligible and called deviant, that is, outside the normal range of acceptance? Why are men’s bodies not policed, whereas women’s bodies are policed to the point of measuring glandular production inside the body? Why has Michael Phelps, winner of many more medals than Caster Semenya, not been excluded from certain swimming events due to his “off the charts” physical characteristics? The World Athletics approach to sex testing was Invalid Ethnocentric Discriminatory Unfair to women Psychologically harmful Based only on testosterone level Anti-inclusion Based on a double standard  What is the current approach? In November 2021 The IOC released a framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non- Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex variation. Aims to support International Federations in the development of policies in relationship to the participation of transgender athletes and or athletes with sex variation that are sport- specific, evidence based and rights protecting. 1. Inclusion 2. Prevention of harm 3. Non-Discrimination 4. Fairness 5. No presumption of advantage 6. Evidence-based approach 7. Primacy of Health and Bodily Autonomy 8. Stake-holder-centered approach 9. Right to Privacy  Mainstream sports reaffirm orthodox gender ideology Because gender is not fixed in biology, sports are key sites for maintaining ideas and beliefs about male-female differences Sports, especially media sports, celebrate traditional masculinity and the “natural power and emotional fortitude” of males “Sport talk” and sport images often glorify a heroic manhood based on being a warrior This socially reproduces gender inequities in major spheres of social life Sex-tests for women have long been used to maintain the two-sex classification system and exclude women whose appearance does not appear to be “feminine.” Female athletic bodies from certain regions (African countries or Eastern European countries) of the world disproportionately have their sex questioned, while others do not elicit such surveillance Discussion Question: 1. How are sex and gender co-constructed in sport? Is there a way to break these dichotomies? 2. Can sports be re-organized in a different classification system?