Article Review #1 Men in Sports

Devan Marry

WGST 202

TR 9:30

Professor Currans

Men in Sport

Article Review #1

Sullivan, Claire F. "Gender Verification and Gender Policies in Elite Sport: Eligibility and “Fair Play”." Journal of Sport and Social Issues 35.4 (2011): 400-19. Print.

In the article “Gender Verification and Gender Policies in Elite Sport: Eligibility and ‘Fair Play’”, Sullivan talks about how the sports world is labeled by having only two specific sex categories in sports.  Sullivan sees that there are many different types of people in the world. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) have been using gender testing to determine if the individual will compete in the men’s division or the women’s division. There is much confusion all around the world on the sex or gender of these athletes throughout competition. Her main point would be that the members of the other sex categories would like to be able to participate in their own sect of the games. The governing bodies are giving more and more attention to the diversity of sex and trying to incorporate the needs of these athletes. This article elaborates more on the history and if these sex tests are seen as “fair”.

To support her claims she went and looked into the IOC and the IAAF books to view what their documentation says about these sex tests and why they are administered. She found that the IOC says that the reason these are being administered is to encourage ethics in sport by claiming there needs to be a set and precise gender role. Sullivan says it is not in their power to try and tell every individual who is trying to compete at the Olympic or World level, if they can or cannot based on the fact that they may be transsexual etc. Also the IOC goes on to say that these restrictions are to promote the “spirit of fair play” and install this into our youth learning to play the sports. Sullivan sees this as contradictory and that if it was fair, all types of people would be able to participate in these games regardless.

Later on, Sullivan shows how the fair play concept dates all the way back to the times of Ancient Greece and the first Olympic games. Saying that the athletes never looked into the rules and regulations of competing, but instead just did what they were told by the authoritative figures. We see now that things have changed drastically and that the rules and regulations need to change with the times. In fact, several gender policies have begun or already have been reviewed and analyzed by the LGBT community. These policies belonged to the IOC, The IAAF, and the United States Golf Association and many others. The “advantage thesis” leaves out female, intersex, and transsexual athletes’ and they are then excluded from the rules because they were formed back in Ancient Greece thousands of years ago. Following the principle of “fair play,” most international sports federations separate categories based on sex and they very rarely make exceptions for the athletes described above.

The governing sports bodies have been trying to find the most precise and effective way of finding procedures that determine the sex of an individual trying to compete in the women’s events. The procedures will change the individual to have a vagina, uterus, or fallopian tubes. Or they may also be the removal of seminal vesicles, testes, penis or scrotum. They can also use the procedures and then lean towards the hormonal aspect of the individual and prescribe estrogen accordingly. Once again Sullivan sees this as a violation to the person’s wishes and well-being. The bylaws and regulations of these governing bodies are trying to change the athletes, instead of changing the rules to allow these athletes to compete the way they are.

This article relates to my blog topic because of the way that it was pertaining to the male dominance in sport and how the ideas and framework of the IOC’s beliefs and rules are based off of the ancient Olympic views which need to be changed. It shows how the male dominance in sport is beginning to even out across the board and that they need to be more accepting of individuals. This relates to the article we read by Susan Stryker called Transgender History. Stryker along with Sullivan look at the histories of the transgender people and how they have been prosecuted and looked down upon in different societies, one is in our school, work, etc. communities and the other is in the sports community. They both go on to say how these sex operations that are being done on transgender individuals are so they may conform to a certain social, gender class instead of being transgender and leaving it at that. This article expanded my knowledge because I had no idea that the IOC and other major sports committees and associations were not allowing these athletes to take place in their events unless they were given a sex change to a certain gender or sexual class. I find this unfair and that they should look more into each individual instead of trying to clump all athletes into two distinct gender groups.