Trans women and equity in sport
In some respects, it is very easy for me to defend trans women playing sport as I play fairly low-level hockey for a nationally recognised team. It goes without saying that I defend trans women’s right to play sport, indeed I was probably one of the low-key first trans women to play sport at the university level in 2000 and as such I have had to deal with being a “first” on numerous occasions. I say this to set my stall, namely the fact that while it may seem obvious that biology will trump all things the fact is that I can count on one hand successful international level trans athletes of all genders and that the biological arguments only hold water if one ignores equity, intersectional identity, and that most female athletes who reach the top international standards have done so off the back of decades of training. That is to say that by simply reducing sports to biological essentialism you are reducing women down to their biological components and ignore all that goes into being an athlete at any level.
Unless one plays competitive sport, you do not really have a handle on just how much training, time, and money goes into getting to an elite level. The amount of work requires sacrifices from an early age, and the innate skills and techniques for each sport are not easily picked up. Yes, granted, biology does play a factor in all sports, but without skill and technique it is impossible to advance to a high level. In reality all elite sports people have an edge, be it physique, skills, techniques, or mental capacity. One simply does not get that by switching genders and rocking up to beat down your competition.
There is much to chew over biology. What maketh a man, and what maketh a woman. Ill defined boxes that represent every person from 5’ African tribes folk to 6’ Dutch. All have their place in the world, yet you do not hear gender critical theorists bemoaning the fact that most world champion long distance runners are from the horn of Africa or that most elite level basketball players are over 6’. Indeed, all sports have been tailored to a certain biology at the highest level, to the point where there is no intrinsic level playing field. One could even say that sport is deliberately exclusionary because certain biological factors will make you inherently better at a particular sport.
Why, then, point the finger at trans women? Why not point the finger at those from higher altitudes who have bigger lung capacities? Why not single out all the private school children whose parents hot housed them to play elite sport from an early age? Is it because it is far easier to pick a handful of outliers who may, on a good day, achieve a good result if fair winds blow? Or is it simply easier to ignore the intrinsic biases built within sport that favour the rich, exploit the poor, and entrench inequality within those nations who can fund athletes to an elite level?
If equity of opportunity is really the reason trans women are targeted, then start with the elite governing bodies. Look where the money and power sit, and see that the equity they so cherish was never there to begin with. Yes, a trans woman may have a slight biological edge, but is she is not funded or trained from a young age she is highly unlikely to get anywhere near elite level. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but one only has to look at elite sport to see how successful trans athletes really are.
Power dynamics within elite sport exploit young people for the benefit of the old, young bodies inherently broken on the wheel of chasing an elusive gold or championship. Sexual abuse, drug taking, harsh training and more highlight where the true power really lies. What is fair about exploiting the young and often under privileged in football? What is reasonable about pinning a young person’s future career on being able to gain a sports scholarship to an elite university? Biology is an escape from futures past, be it poverty or entrenching privilege. Glory brings all the rewards, failure obscurity. Yet, it is the trans women who are the threat.
I adore sport in its many shades and hues. I have played cricket, rugby, and ran cross-country for my school, and play hocky for all my universities and my current club. My passion is in the play, saving the shot, getting my team pumped up for the next push forward. I am highly competitive and continually strive to perfect my skills and techniques. Yet, I am someway below the elite level I see on a weekly basis at my club. Those women train hard, play hard, and are on a level brought about through probably a decade of training and coaching. They deserve all the success they earn. Yes, biology does play a part, but so does dedication, parental support, opportunities, and often private schooling. Things that many children do not have access to. Where is the level playing field for them?
In the end the arguments about biology obscure so much else about sport. If we want true equity, then so much more needs to change that it would probably render sports obsolete as a competitive environment reduced to pure biological components. If all sports are biological essentialism, then it would become all the poorer. Equity is as much providing opportunity and breaking down barriers as it is about setting a level playing field, and if those who argue against trans women were really that serious then they would start with sport’s levers of power and equity of opportunity long before they pointed the finger at the handful of trans women who happen to gain a modicum of success.
