Dr Vanessa Heggie: historica - Senior Lecturer in the History of Science and Medicine – university of

Birmingham

Most international sports organisations work on the premise that human beings come in one of two
genders: male or female. Consequently, all athletes, including intersex and transgender individuals,
must be assigned to compete in one or other category.

The changing nature of these judgements reflects a great deal about our cultural, social and national
prejudices, while the matter of testing itself has become a site of conflict for
feminists and human rights activists.

because of the sensitive nature of this subject, histories of sex testing are difficult to write and
research; this has led to the repetition of inaccurate information and false assertions about gender
fraud.

Lindsay park Pieper:

because of the sensitive nature of this subject, histories of sex testing are difficult to write and
research; this has lead to the repetition of inaccurate information and false assertions about gender
fraud.

When women from the People’s Republic of China dominated the international sports scene in the
1990s, many in the geographic-West again doubted the authenticity of the achievements and
called for a return to gender verification.

Through these three phases of sex testing/gender verification, the IAAF and
the IOC reaffirmed a binary notion of sex and privileged white, Western gender norms.

Along with these doping-related misgivings, many also expressed doubt regarding the validity of the
Chinese runners’ sex/gender.

(IAAF) contemporaneous decision to abolish gender verification in track and field. In

1992,

Yet, 16 world-class athletes immediately called for the IAAF to reintroduce

gender verification in all ‘high stakes’ events, those which awarded medals or monetary
prizes, thereby promoting Western notions of biology, gender and race.

his essay illustrates the political and racialised sex/gender concerns medical
practitioners professed and sport authorities embraced.

For more than three decades, the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
utilised conservative medical judgments – influenced by a Eurocentric belief in natural,
dimorphic sex/gender difference – to sanction a policy of sex/gender conformity.

outlined a specific category of ‘woman’ for sport. which required female athletes to demonstrate
conventional ‘Western’ femininity. reaffirmed a binary notion of sex and privileged white.

The Colonial/Modern Gender System

he institutionalisation of dichotomous gender and sexuality –

along with the introduction of racial classifications – were tools of European colonisation
that continued to organise social relations into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
colonial/modern gender system is an invention of segmented duality
that has posed ‘categorical, dichotomous, hierarchical logic as central to modern, colonial,
capitalist thinking about race, gender, and sexuality.

dark: colonised

light: Western rulers

A need for labour, coupled with fears of the natives’ sexualities, allowed colonisers to view
indigenous peoples as inferior, anomalous and animalistic. By establishing these racial and gendered
norms.

much of the scholarship on the topic does

not consider the intersections of race, gender and sexuality. Instead, many scholars focus
on the significance of the Cold War context in the establishment of sex/gender controls.

This paper suggests medical practitioners and sport authorities alike

embraced the colonial/modern gender system and enacted such ideologies in elite
competition.

the very notion of intersex was initially viewed as a ‘problem’ to European

colonisers, and later Western medical practitioners utilised scientific practice to maintain
this culturally derived status quo. She explained that doctors proved unable to escape the
ideologies and anxieties of the larger society.

European medical texts similarly suggested that malformed or ambiguous genitalia were
common among women of African descent.

physicians fixated on such malformations ‘as if to suggest that monstrosity . . . and blackness went
hand in hand.

Bartman’s breasts, genitals and buttocks served as a visual anomaly against which white, Western
European onlookers could contrast. 17 Doctors and scientists alike inscribed cultural notions of sex/
gender and race onto female patients – and later onto female athletes – in the name of medical
advancement.

his essay draws a contextual and conceptual distinction between the ‘Cold-War-West’ and the
‘geographic-West’, and the ‘Cold-War-East’ and the ‘geographic-East’. The Cold-War-West and the
Cold-War-East refer to the group of countries that aligned culturally, ideologically and politically
following the conclusion of World War II. The geographic-West and the geographic-East refer to the
group of countries that affiliated culturally and geographically following the collapse of the Cold War.
Although arising in different time periods and locations, Western norms of femininity and race
underlined sex/gender anxieties throughout the Olympic movement. The International Journal of the
History of Sport 1559.

the two embraced divergent opinions about the use and presentation of female athletes in
international competition. For the Western-dominated IOC, many women from the Cold-
War-East did not resemble femininity as prescribed by the West.18 Whereas the Western bloc
demanded petite, graceful athletes, the Eastern bloc encouraged strength and muscularity.

Eastern European women were held up as objects worthy of ridicule and contempt.

the less talented U.S. team

within the Cold-War-West, white women and women of colour were
treated contrastingly. While women in general have historically experienced ridicule for
their involvement in sport, black women in particular have faced hostile contempt in the
West for not displaying white femininity.

the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the divisions between the Cold-
War-East and Cold-War-West somewhat dissipated.

Chinese female athletes emerged in the 1990s as the new ‘other’ in sport against which
Western femininity was constructed.

US runner Helen Stephens finished first in the

100-metre race and set a world record that stood for more than 19 years. Because few
believed a white woman could run at such a fast pace, many questioned her biology and
claimed she was a man.

in 1952 – and the country’s immediate medal successes – sparked alarm. 29 The
most distressing fact from the US perspective was its Cold War counterpart’s reliance on
women for first-place finishes. Female athleticism in the USA remained bounded by ideals
of submissiveness and grace, consequently pushing women’s sport into a secondary
position of inconsequence, which greatly diminished the possibility for Olympic success.

any woman who opted to

participate in track and field frequently faced stigmatisation as an ‘amazon’ or a ‘muscle
moll’. Due to this racial and classed castigation – along with a belief in a more active
ideal of femininity – black female athletes excelled in athletics.

While these athletes helped dismantle certain racial prejudices, their triumphs
simultaneously reinforced stereotypes of black women as less feminine than white women.

Cold-War-Western doctors discussed how to best maintain a dimorphic divide in sport.

The Abandonment of Gender Verification in Sport

Without her ‘fem’ card, she had to repeat the
chromosomal check-up. This time, however, she failed. With the negative results, and at
the request of her team doctor, Patin ̃o claimed injury and remained on the sidelines. The
following year, the team physician again ordered Patin ̃o to excuse herself from
competition. ‘I was told to feign an injury and to withdraw from racing quietly, graciously,
and permanently’, she said. ‘I refused’

With Patin ̃o’s publicity, authorities in the Cold-War-West started to

question the necessity and acceptability of the Olympic femininity tests.

gender verification ‘not only inaccurate but also discriminatory’

de la Chapelle also suggested that sport authorities return to visual inspections

to exclude ‘abnormal’ females – those with larger-than-average muscularity – resultantly
reifying normative notions of both biology and gender

to abandon chromosomal testing

finalised its new gender verification policy mere months before the
commencement of the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. To replace chromosomal
control,

Several
team doctors complained that the protocol was not fully explained; difficulties with
administration, culture and language only exacerbated the confusion.

US cross-country phenom Lynn Jennings cried when her world record fell and spitefully
commentated that ‘something is wrong, and it is tragic for sport’ CHINESE BROKE IT.

consequently degrading
female athleticism and simultaneously ‘othering’ the Chinese women.

to construct the victorious Chinese athletes as fraudulent and unnatural.

Moreover,
although no Chinese women failed the compulsory drug test, journalists voiced suspicions
of steroid abuse as a tactic to protect the rightful claimants to athletic victories – white,
feminine, geographically-Western women. Finally, the doping accusations allowed many
to liken the Chinese athletes to those of the Eastern Bloc who had raised gender anxieties in
the early stages of the Cold War. After Wang Junxia broke her own 3000 metres world
record by six seconds, for example, British Olympic Athletics’ Team Manager Joan Allison
disparagingly commented, ‘I walked away from the sport once because I was so
disillusioned about the drugs being taken by the Eastern bloc competitors. I just throw my
hands up and say: “Here we go Again”’
1930: ideological sports are very visible

sports is a multifaced thing that wields power in itself

mega sportsevents are moments where everything becomes very global and in the spotlights.

athletes became celebrities (it started somewhere in the 1930)

athletes are actors in politics. (political field).

sports is where body politics are being done.

Started in 1930 and has been expanding ever since.

Add athletes in word web.

Ideas that are expressed: gender identities – testosterone levels -

saw black trackrunners as less feminine and more masculine.

Females have to be graceful, submissive and petite

Actors: semenja (south Africa) – Olympics and there testing – family – IFFA – media – documentary
makers.

Important events/moment: gold medal on the Olympics, doping/cheating accusations – gender test
to look if she was female – birth card is female - media makes it world news.

Deconstruct media into personal journalists

ideology also entails gender

sport is the visible side of gender – where gender politics are being done and discussed.

Masculine (men) are better at sport than women (feminine)

Zie PPT