Challenging the Binary

Gender, Fraud, and the Complexities of Categorization in Elite Sports

Bibliographic Data

ID23629459
AuthorsDennis Krämer (0000-0001-7833-4068), Cleo Schyvinck (0000-0002-1945-9300)
Year2024
Pages347-366
Publication date2024-02-09
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueSexualitäten und Geschlechter (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherTranscript Verlag (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.14361/9783839468975-014
OpenAlexW4392300714
ISBN9783839468975
LanguageDE
References cited33

The organization of elite sport is based on the principle that athletes come in two genders: male or female. To ensure disjunctive segregation and prevent participation in the wrong category, all athletes, including intersex/DSD, non-binary, and transgender individuals, are assigned to one of these categories. Since the 1930s, sports governing bodies have relied on medico-scientific criteria and various measuring instruments to assess whether an athlete is eligible to compete in the female category. In recent years, this procedure has become a political issue and source of conflict for intersex/DSD and transgender athletes as well as human rights activists. Athletes and activists argue that within the system of elite sport, intersex/DSD and transgender athletes are treated as illegitimate competitors, gender frauds, a threat to women’s sports, and an issue in need of medical fixing. In this paper, we use the example of professional athletics to show how gender and fraud are linked and how the binary distinction is secured through medical practices. We demonstrate that the criteria used to differentiate between women’s and men’s sports discriminate other genders and raise various social concerns.

Arithmetic · Binary number · Computer Science · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Mathematics · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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