What’s just happened?

Despite the desperate need for inclusion and striving towards a gender equal society, many female athletes are still subjected to intense ‘sex testing’ prior to competing. This violation of an individual’s rights has led to the mental and physical decline of female athletes as well as economic hardship.1

What does this mean?

The concept of ‘sex testing’ or ‘gender verification testing’ originated in the early 20th century.2 Sports organisations tend to work with two genders, male and female. Meaning if someone fell in the category of transgender or intersex, they would have to assign themselves to male or female.3 They, alongside others, would then be subjected to testing which provided sporting organisations with an ‘objective judgement’ on whether the individual was eligible to compete in their chosen category.4

Over time, these judgements have changed in correspondence to cultural, social and national prejudices.5 However, sex testing is still a tense topic for feminists and human rights activists as it violates the human rights of female athletes, particularly in the Global South.6

Sex testing can be degrading, humiliating and discriminatory. In the report titled “They’re chasing us away from sport”, there are over a dozen female athletes from the Global South who have shared how they were affected by the regulations.7 In an article posted by Human Rights Watch, it was said that the regulations tend to target women within track and field and force them to undergo medical intervention or be eliminated from competing.8 If they refuse testing, their medals which were previously awarded, can be stripped from them.9

Athletes from the Global South, such as Dutee Chand from India and Caster Semenya from South Africa are just two of the women who have been ‘disproportionally harmed’ by sex testing.10

French female athletes wrote an open letter to Sebastian Coe, Thomas Bach and sports ministers around the world portraying their disgust of this regulation.11

“These women are human beings and high-level athletes like us. We share with them the same passion for sport and its values. Their health and their future are in danger. The image of the sport is once again dirty. Human rights and human dignity are flouted.”

Still the practice continues.

Sex testing was initially brought in with the intention of making sporting activities fair.12 However, the impact of it was far from that. Women who are seen as more masculine, i.e., have a broader physique or a faster pace than the ‘norm’ are put through medical examinations to judge their femininity.13 Arguably, their bodies are scrutinised based on racial stereotypes and an arbitrary definition of femininity.14

Despite there being no scientific consensus that women from the Global South with higher testosterone levels have an athletic advantage, they are still put under intense medical observations and life altering surgeries to ‘fix’ this ‘fault'.15

The irony behind the intention lies where male athletes, with high testosterone levels, are not subjected to the same demeaning regulations as female athletes.

France’s minister of sports, Roxana Maracineanu, stated:

“we have women who compete who are stronger than other women, we have men who compete who are stronger than other men, it is the principle of sport and the best wins. I do not understand from a sporting point of view, why in categories of men, men like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and others have the opportunity to dominate their category, and why in a women’s category, women do not have the right to dominate in their category”.16

A member of Yale’s Global Health and Justice Initiative, Katrina Karkazis also said:

“These regulations are damaging because the underlying assumptions are inherently sexist, that women athletes are always inferior to men athletes, so we must police women’s sports in order to protect women. This policing does nothing to protect women; it only serves to harm them.”

Written by Ammarah Kabir

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References:

[1] 'End Abusive Sex Testing for Women Athletes' (Human Rights Watch, 2020) <https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/04/end-abusive-sex-testing-women-athletes>

[2] Louis Elsas et al, 'Gender Verification of Female Athletes' (2000) 2 Genetics Medicine <https://www.nature.com/articles/gim2000258.pdf?origin=ppub#:~:text=The%20International%20Olympic%20Committee%20(IOC,competing%20in%20female%2Donly%20events.>

[3] Vanessa Heggie, 'Testing Sex and Gender in Sports; Reinventing, Reimagining And Reconstructing Histories' (2010) 34 Endeavour <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160932710000670?via%3Dihub>

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

[7] '“They’re Chasing Us Away from Sport”' (Human Rights Watch, 2020) <https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/12/04/theyre-chasing-us-away-sport/human-rights-violations-sex-testing-elite-women>

[8] Ibid

[9] Ruth Padawer, 'The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes' (Nytimes.com, 2016) <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/magazine/the-humiliating-practice-of-sex-testing-female-athletes.html>

[10] Ibid

[11] Mike Rowbottom, 'IAAF Strongly Denies Latest Charge Over Operations on DSD Athletes As French Sports Minister Investigates' (Insidethegames.biz, 2019) <https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1085915/iaaf-dsd-operations>

[12] Ibid

[13] Ibid

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Ibid

Disclaimer: This article (and any information accessed through links in this article) is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.