Major sports competitions do not test participants in male events to see if they are “really” men. So why do they do it with women?
I mean, I know why they say they test women. There’s a silly panic that men are disguising themselves as women to win medals. Back in the day this was a dastardly “Communist” plan by the Soviet Union and the East Germans.
In fact, as I just discovered from this book review in The Nation, allegations about men passing as women in sports goes back even farther and has ties to Nazi Germany.
This started way before transphobia became the cause du jour and is rooted in the idea that men are so much more physically able than women that any random guy can beat world-class women athletes. You know, all those guys who are sure they could score a point or two off Serena Williams.
Funny that the women they seem to disqualify in these events are people assigned female at birth and raised as girls. Apparently some women have uncommon chromosome patterns or higher testosterone levels and some self-appointed authorities have decided they can’t possibly be women.
It’s a control mechanism, just like anti-abortion and anti-contraception laws. Or like asking women who have been raped what they were wearing and what they did to provoke the rape.
It’s a rule presented as an effort to “protect” women from men that instead victimizes women.
They don’t test men for manliness because they assume that the only person who can beat a man is another man. They test for steroids and drugs, but not sex or gender.
Of course, people assigned male at birth are just as likely as people assigned female at birth to have an unusual chromosome mix. There are the guys who are “xyy,” as an example.
If I recall correctly, men with an extra “y” chromosome are supposed to be violent and dangerous. I suspect that’s not particularly true, but I remember it being a big thing when it was first discovered.
You’d think the big sports organizations would want to protect “normal” men from “super masculine” ones who might be dangerous.
And gee, what if some intersex person does win a male event? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing? Shouldn’t they try to prevent that?
(I’m pretty sure it already happened, just as I’m pretty sure some “xyy” men have both won and lost at the Olympics.)
The testing of women is rooted in three bad ideas:
- Women are inferior to men.
- Sports organizations are qualified to decide who’s a woman.
- Good men must protect frail women from bad men.
This post came about due to all the controversy around the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, though I’ve been thinking about the issue for years. The allegations against Khelif are reprehensible and rooted in actions by a boxing organization so corrupt that they’re not allowed to have anything to do with the Olympics.
All I know about Khelif is what I read, but that includes the fact that she was assigned female at birth and raised as a girl in a country that is not noted for progressive attitudes toward women. Obviously she’s not trans, which shouldn’t even be an issue, but is because of ongoing transphobia. I have no idea about her chromosomes or testosterone levels, and, more to the point, neither do the people who are making allegations about her.
The one difference between me and the people making wild accusations against her is that I don’t care about her chromosomes or testosterone levels. One thing I know, from following the similar controversy over the runner Caster Semenya, is that some women have higher testosterone levels than most women while still having lower levels than most men.
That difference is enough to get them banned from competing as women, which doesn’t seem fair to me.
(I don’t have any problem with trans women competing either, but while that’s a related issue, it’s not the one we’re dealing with here.)
The reason all this is an issue is that neither sex nor gender can be easily divided into a binary, but humans still try to stuff everybody into limited categories. Pretty much every world-class athlete has some extraordinary talent, one that’s likely enhanced by their genetic makeup. They are not average people when it comes to their sport.
The other reason it’s an issue is because some people remain convinced that women are inferior. That’s why I reject the idea that those who call themselves “terfs” are feminists of any kind, much less “radical” feminists. There is nothing feminist about the idea that “real” women must be protected from men because they are incapable of protecting themselves.
I’m pretty sure women can take care of themselves if the misogynists will just get out of the damn way.
Sex-testing at sports competitions is not only doing a great deal of harm to participants, it’s perpetuating myths about the inferiority of women. So, for that matter, are attacks on trans women, which assume that someone assigned male at birth transitioning to female must be superior to a woman and therefore a danger.
Now there are dangerous men out there, no question. Most of them are dangerous to other men as well as to women. We do need ways of protecting ourselves against violent people. But there are other dangers as well.
At the moment, I’m inclined to think the most dangerous men are those who claim the power to decide both who’s a woman and what she gets to do in the world.