Last month, the Supreme Court ruled not to extend Title IX protections to trans girls. They based their decision on a universally agreed upon principle: the biological distinction between men and women. They also espoused on the virtues of women’s sports: “Women and girls should be allowed to compete for those life changing opportunities on an equal playing field.” The decision was authored by one of our greatest feminists, Brett Kavanaugh.
Trans folks have largely responded by drawing attention to the ruling’s legal implications or focusing on the rhetorical, ‘culture war.’ I don’t want to dismiss these crucial elements, but I do want to refocus. Women’s sports have long been a useful arena for the (re)definition of biological sex. While it’s true that it gives TV news a great excuse to call trans women ‘biological men,’ the issues at play are much more complicated than talking heads and op-eds.
The history of women’s sports is the history of female as a scientific category. Since the modern Olympics began, there have been accusations of ‘gender fraud.’ Officials would often make comments upon the ‘borderline cases’ of female athletes’ bodies. Emerging theories about biological sex – from hormones to chromosomes – found a useful laboratory in international women’s sports. The physical inspection of women’s bodies by male sporting officials was commonplace.
Black athletes bore the brunt of this misogynistic investigation. With the emergence of the internet runner Caster Semenya’s ‘biological sex’ was the subject of speculation and racist abuse by everyone from newspapers to her direct competitors. At the recent Paris Olympics Imane Khelif was accused of being a man by, amongst others, JK Rowling. Rowling said that she didn’t object because she thought Khelif was trans, but because she saw a (black) “man” punching a (white) woman.
All that being said, right now this is about trans women. Trans girls, trans kids. Schools all over the country require kids to play sports in some form. With this ruling (trans) girls will be forced to play with boys. The Court seems to think that maybe these girls can ‘sweat the pansy out,’ a classic refrain from their ilk. They won’t. These men’s definition of women will, as it often has, result in sexual assault, harassment, and death.
Trans women are not the first group of women to be targeted for our inherent maleness, and we won’t be the last either. Any inquiry into the lineage of these transmisogynistic issues reveals, in the most literal possible sense, that trans women are women. From here we can begin to find a new feminist consciousness. The idea of biological difference at all, when seen through our new lens, is nothing more than a border well worth crossing before its ultimate abolition.
Lily Pando hasn’t played a sport since she was seven. She’s been too busy writing! You can find her in the lab cooking up Feminism 2. More like this and unlike this at lilypando.com
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