Skip to main content

Take Gender out of Sports


After winning the world title for the 800 meters, South African Caster Semenya will have to submit to gender testing before she can safely keep her gold medal. Her detractors think she is either a man or an intersexed person. If she can't prove she is a biological woman, she loses her medal. The case assumes rigid gender boundaries that nature doesn't actually provide, and it highlights for me why we shouldn't have gender-based sports at all. I'll be brief.

You probably think that we know that the average is woman is slower than the average man, which in turn would justify the fairness of separating men and women for at least some sports competitions. We don't actually know that. Any claim about average men and women would have to be based on a random sampling of men and women from all over the world. Most of our tests of these sorts of things come from studies that examine only men and women from the US or from European countries. To be sure, researchers in South American, African and Asian countries have conducted similar tests with their own populations, but without a large worldwide study, we cannot make claims about average men and average women.

Undoubtedly, any such claims would then have to grapple with the enormous variation amongst men and amongst women (including trans men and trans women), as well as the variation of intersexed persons.

Furthermore, and this is key, any legitimate claims about male and female averages has to come from a study where conditions are such that all other things are equal so that gender is the only true variable. That isn't possible. Before any research subjects show up for such a study, they have lived in cultural conditions of tremendous inequality that include unequal educations, differing cultural expectations, women's over-representation amongst the poor, rampant physical and sexual violence against women, and highly segregated jobs. The degree and type of gender disparity is also different in every society around the world.

So, since we can't prove that men and women are incapable of having the same achievements, I argue that we can't justify segregating sports. That would be one small step towards equalizing the conditions of women and men.

Read: Judith Lorber, Paradoxes of Gender or start with this selection.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching Tools

I've added two new teaching tools to my regime this semester. 1. Skitch . Skitch is both a desktop application that lets you capture images easily, and a website that allows for easy image sharing . I'll use it this semester to capture images that we can discuss in class, and to take pictures of the blackboard at the end of class (to capture interesting brainstorming sessions). I can upload the pic via email, straight from my phone, and the students will have access right away. I can use the image capture software to circle parts of the reading, charts, graphs, etc. and bring those to the surface for discussion. 2. Slideshare . This program allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations to the Web. I uploaded all of my slides for the semester to one page where they can be accessed from any computer. It allows me to worry less about carrying the slides on a USB drive or having to upload them to the course Blackboard page, which sometimes doesn't open. It also makes fo...
4 comments
Read more

Board Recruitment Resources in Philadelphia and Beyond

http://dustinkidd.blogspot.com 1. Business on Board : A function of the Arts and Business Council. Provides training to prospective board members and connects them with local arts organizations. 2. Philadelphia's Young Nonprofit Leaders : Provides training and resources for staff and volunteers, including board members, for local nonprofits. "Young" is broadly defined. 3. Blue Avocado : An online magazine about non-profit boards. 4. Board Cafe Archives : The predecessor to Blue Avocado. Has a nice section on recruitment and diversity. Here's a good one . 5. BoardnetUSA : A board recruitment and placement website. Like Monster.com for boards. 6. VolunteerMatch : Similar function to BoardNet. 7. Bridgestar : Connects corporate employees to nonprofit service. 8. Eide Bailley : Non-profit toolbox. Includes a nice short article about board service. 9. BoardSource : Recruitment and Orientation resources. More resources throughout the site. 10. Wharton Nonprofit Board...
2 comments
Read more

Clutter

I hate clutter. Let's get rid of it. Pick a spot in your house or office or even computer that you want to de-clutter. Let's say we're de-cluttering a drawer in a home-office. Take out everything and put it all in one pile. Pick up each thing one at time and ask yourself why you have this thing. If you're going to keep it, you have to know why you have it . You should be able to name the purpose the object has and know when it will meet that purpose. The purpose of a yellow highlighter is obvious, but if you never highlight things, then it will never meet that purpose. It's clutter. This stapler and its little box of staples work like new. I've had them for years, I never use them. They have to go. Do you want them? Start a new pile of the things that have no clear purpose. If you are rigorous in surveying your stuff, this pile should get big quickly. Everything in this pile is going to go; we just have to figure out where it goes. Now, you're ...
2 comments
Read more