Localization of sex testing: Transnational knowledge production of sex

IF 1.9 3区社会学 Q2 WOMENS STUDIES

Womens Studies International Forum Pub Date : 2025-05-06 DOI:10.1016/j.wsif.2025.103078

Jinsun Yang

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Abstract

This paper examines the introduction of international sex testing in South Korea’s women’s football league during the 2013-2014 season. The implementation of sex testing by global sports governing bodies has ignited intense debate among the public and experts regarding its objectives, criteria, legitimacy, and practices. Feminist scholarship has highlighted the imperialistic nature of sex testing, which disproportionately targets women of color while reinforcing Western ideals of femininity and body standards worldwide. However, there has been limited attention given to its local impacts. Through textual and media analysis, including formal documents from the sex testing debate in South Korea, 84 news videos, radio clips, and 2,042 online comments, this paper investigates how international sex testing is introduced into South Korea and contributes to the production of transnational knowledge about sex and gender policing. The term "localization of sex testing" is coined to describe how global discourses on sex testing permeate local contexts, particularly through the hierarchical relationship between global sports governing bodies and domestic leagues. The term also sheds light on the phenomenon where a female athlete’s body becomes a battleground between global gender policing and local understandings of sex. Finally, the concept of localization of sex testing reveals how Eurocentric gender norms, racism, and imperialism, the foundational forces of international sex testing, are reconfigured and reproduced within domestic cultures through the sex testing debate at the local level.

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性别检测的本地化：性别的跨国知识生产

本文考察了2013-2014赛季韩国女足联赛引入国际性别检测的情况。全球体育管理机构实施性别检测引发了公众和专家对其目标、标准、合法性和做法的激烈争论。女权主义学者强调了性别测试的帝国主义本质，它不成比例地针对有色人种女性，同时在世界范围内强化了西方对女性气质和身体标准的理想。然而，人们对其地方性影响的关注有限。通过文本和媒体分析，包括韩国性别测试辩论的正式文件、84个新闻视频、广播片段和2042个在线评论，本文调查了国际性别测试如何被引入韩国，并有助于产生关于性别和性别警务的跨国知识。“性别检测的本地化”一词是用来描述关于性别检测的全球话语如何渗透到当地环境中，特别是通过全球体育管理机构和国内联赛之间的等级关系。这个词还揭示了一种现象，即女运动员的身体成为全球性别监管和当地性别理解之间的战场。最后，性别测试本土化的概念揭示了以欧洲为中心的性别规范、种族主义和帝国主义（国际性别测试的基础力量）如何通过地方层面的性别测试辩论在国内文化中被重新配置和复制。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Womens Studies International Forum WOMENS STUDIES-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

7.10%

发文量

审稿时长

79 days

期刊介绍： Women"s Studies International Forum (formerly Women"s Studies International Quarterly, established in 1978) is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women"s studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate. The journal seeks to critique and reconceptualize existing knowledge, to examine and re-evaluate the manner in which knowledge is produced and distributed, and to assess the implications this has for women"s lives.