PGCC Human Sexuality Discussion

Please provide an aside or constructive feedback to the following two Topics. Do you agree with the analysis presented? Why? Do you have some additional thoughts on the topic? Share them. When providing your feedback present the logic behind it.

Topic 1

In competitive and professional sports, should participants be grouped according to biological sex or gender identity? Is it ever necessary for sports to categorize participants based on sex and gender?

In competitive and professional sports, I believe participants should be grouped according to biological sex and/or gender identity.

According to writer Patrick Shin, it is common in modern sports that athletic competition transcends human social difference; within the arena of competitive sport, a person’s performance is the only thing that should matter.  But at the same time, in many sports, participants are placed into separate classes that are prevented from mixing in competition. Adult males do not compete against young boys in weightlifting contests; high school varsity teams generally play against other varsity teams; boxing matches do not pit heavyweights against lightweights (Shin, 2018).

The Journal of Sports, Science, and Medicine stated “Sex is a major factor influencing best performances and world records”.  The article goes on to share results of a study of the difference between men and women’s best performances through the analysis of 82 quantifiable events since the beginning of the Olympic era. For each event in swimming, athletics, track cycling, weightlifting and speed skating the gender gap is fitted to compare male and female records. It is also studied the best performance of the top 10 performers in each gender for swimming and athletics.  The top ten performers’ analysis revealed a gender gap trend with a stabilization in 1982 at 11.7%.  The results suggested that women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men (Journal of Sports Science, and Medicine 2010).

In 2021, people now have the ability to have gender reassignment surgery where one can look just like a male or female even though they were born with a different gender identity.  Although a person can change their physical appearance, they may still retain the makeup and characteristics of their original identity.  As a result, I believe that participants should be grouped according to biological sex in order for each person to have a fair chance at winning in competitive sports.

References

Shin, P. (2018) Sex and Gender Segregation in competitive sport: Internal and External Normative Perspectives. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/

Journal of Sports Science & Medicine 2010 Jun; 9(2): 214–223.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3761733/

Topic 2

1. Main Post: In competitive and professional sports, should participants be grouped according to biological sex or gender identity? Is it ever necessary for sports to categorize participants based on sex and gender? 

Whether participants of competitive and professional sports should be grouped by biological sex and/or gender identity is a controversial subject. Segregation that exists in professional and competitive sports settings exists in order to have fair competition. However, how sex and gender are understood now has changed from the past. Sex “refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females, including both primary sex characteristics (the reproductive system) and secondary characteristics such as height and muscularity” (Lehmiller, 2017). Gender “refers to our set of expectations about what makes someone masculine or feminine” (Lehmiller, 2017). Men are thought to be at a physical advantage concerning muscle mass and athletic ability (Muller, 2016). In fact, it is high-performing women who are scrutinized to prove their sex. The issue is not clear cut though, as was the case of Caster Semenya who is a South African two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 800-meter run (Pape & Pielke, 2019). Semenya was scrutinized for her talent and her appearance was deemed “insufficiently feminine” (Pape & Pielke, 2019). Semenya is an intersex woman, assigned female at birth that has XY chromosomes and naturally occurring elevated testosterone levels (Pape & Pielke, 2019). She and other women like her have been told to lower their naturally occurring testosterone levels through medication or surgery to continue competing. Semenya is a good example of how determining who is male or female is complex. While I maintain that some sports should be grouped into female and male biological sex categories, there must be more flexibility in these categorizations to remain inclusive and aware of sex as a spectrum.