Trans women participation in sport: a commentary on the conservatism of gender critical feminism

Abstract

Since the update of the Stockholm consensus in 2015, the policy direction had been to allow trans and non-binary women to participate as women athletes, after satisfying certain restrictions. More recently, a reversal in policy direction towards the exclusion of trans* athletes from women's competitive sports has occurred. This policy reversal has been driven by a number of authors who openly support a gender critical feminist position. This brief commentary looks at three pillars of the gender critical position, and argues that each of these three pillars will produce conservative outcomes in women's sport that will do nothing to challenge the dominance of men, nor prevent the ongoing subordination of both women and trans* athletes.

Trans Women and/in Sport: Exploring Sport Feminisms to Understand Exclusions

“…It is the application of queer theory to the body (Sykes, 2011) that illustrates the ways the sexed body is produced through dominant ideas surrounding the binaries that uphold sex-gender-sexuality, and its compulsory order (Butler, 1993). The sports' body must fit the sports' binary otherwise it is open to surveillance, scrutiny, exclusion and made abject as well as object of 'abnormality'.…”

“…This finding is analysed through a focus on the socio-cultural construction of gender and sexuality, specifically lesbianism. Claiming a post-structuralist feminist approach and drawing on the work of Judith Butler (1990 and, Caudwell deconstructs the production of eligible gender and sexuality in western contexts, specifically in football. Through this deconstruction of the knowledge produced to legitimise heteronormative configurations, and the alignment of gender and sexuality, Caudwell moves to include sex (sexed body) as also socially and culturally constructed; this challenged the feminist notion of the sex-gender distinction evidenced in the work of Scraton et al, (1999).…”

The Participation of Trans Women in Competitive Fencing and Implications on Fairness: A Physiological Perspective Narrative Review

“…Consultation of all groups involved, including cis female athletes, is needed, to establish fair and inclusive policy decisions. The new IOC Framework [ 16 , 19 ] has received some criticism, suggesting that the human rights of transgender athletes have been placed above those of cis female athletes [ 119 ], even though neither trans women nor cis female athletes is the most dominant group in terms of participation rates and managerial roles in many sports [ 120 ]. Cis female Olympians have expressed frustration that the IOC did not consult cis female athletes prior to the policy changes, suggesting to these athletes that the inclusion of trans athletes was prioritised over fair competition [ 119 ].…”