Who counts as a woman? A critical discourse analysis of petitions against the participation of transgender athletes in women's sport

IF 2.5 3区教育学 Q2 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM

International Review for the Sociology of Sport Pub Date : 2023-08-13 DOI:10.1177/10126902231194570

H. Jakubowska

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Abstract

This article aims to analyze the organizational anti-trans discourse on the presence of transgender athletes in women's sport. To achieve this, the petitions published from 2019 to 2022 on the websites of three US organizations (Save Women's Sports, Independent Council on Women's Sports, and the Women's Sports Policy Working Group) were analyzed. The analysis addressed the research questions of how this discourse defines trans women and trans bodies and reproduces the indispensability of sex segregation in sport competitions. The research revealed that the petitions’ authors identified trans athletes as biological males who have an advantage over cis women. The organizations demand that the protection of women's sport from trans women's participation and women's rights be based on the sex (assigned at birth) category. The article emphasizes that members and allies of these organizations perceive biomedical science as providing objective arguments for the sex dichotomy and the exclusion of trans women from sport competitions. At the same time, the petitions’ authors ignore sociocultural factors that influence the perception of gender dichotomy and athletic performance.

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谁算女人？反对跨性别运动员参与女子体育请愿的批判性话语分析

本文旨在分析关于跨性别运动员在女子运动中存在的组织反跨性别话语。为了实现这一点，分析了2019年至2022年在三个美国组织（拯救妇女体育组织、妇女体育独立委员会和妇女体育政策工作组）网站上发布的请愿书。该分析解决了研究问题，即这一话语如何定义跨性别女性和跨性别身体，并再现了体育比赛中性别隔离的必要性。研究表明，请愿书的作者将跨性别运动员认定为生理上的男性，他们比顺式女性更有优势。这些组织要求保护妇女的体育运动不受跨性别妇女的参与，并根据性别（出生时分配的）类别保护妇女的权利。文章强调，这些组织的成员和盟友认为生物医学科学为性别二分法和将跨性别女性排除在体育比赛之外提供了客观的论据。与此同时，请愿书的作者忽视了影响性别二分法和运动表现的社会文化因素。

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

International Review for the Sociology of Sport Multiple-

CiteScore

5.90

自引率

13.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Review for the Sociology of Sport is a peer reviewed academic journal that is indexed on ISI. Eight issues are now published each year. The main purpose of the IRSS is to disseminate research and scholarship on sport throughout the international academic community. The journal publishes research articles of varying lengths, from standard length research papers to shorter reports and commentary, as well as book and media reviews. The International Review for the Sociology of Sport is not restricted to any theoretical or methodological perspective and brings together contributions from anthropology, cultural studies, geography, gender studies, media studies, history, political economy, semiotics, sociology, as well as interdisciplinary research.