Abstract
This chapter assists instructors who hope to approach class discussions related to gender and sex with a deeper analysis of not just the construction of gender, but of sex as well. Using examples from international athletics, such as the cases of South African track runner Caster Semenya and Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, and issues arising from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines on female athletes and hyperandrogenism, this chapter discusses the rigid enforcement of the biological sex binary in women’s sports and the ways in which human bodies often defy binary sex classification. A discussion of athletes whose bodies disrupt accepted sex categories allows students an opportunity to think critically about biological “facts,” the use of science to justify gender conformity, and the ways in which the notion of a fixed sex binary limits the full range of human physical and social expression.
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Notes
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Recently in the United States, there have been some attempts to soften such boundaries, mostly at the high school level, the goal being to relieve stress experienced by transgender people and others whose identities or bodies do not conform to binary gender or sex. These attempts have provoked tremendous anxiety and fear from other community members – particularly that boys or men will try to compete in girls’ and women’s sports in an effort to gain a physical advantage or displace girls and women in line for college scholarships.
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McRae, S. (2016). Sex and Gender in International Sports: Athletes and the Social Construction of Sex. In: Haltinner, K., Pilgeram, R. (eds) Teaching Gender and Sex in Contemporary America. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30364-2_1
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