The Indispensable History of 'Sex Testing' in Sports [View all]

[LostOne4Ever]

The Indispensable History of 'Sex Testing' in Sports
Waters keeps the book focused on the 1930s, with the history told in such a way that it's crystal clear how it's relevant today. The moral panic over trans people in sports continues not to be about sports.
Tucker Lieberman
14 May 2024
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Skepticism of athletes' sex at the 1936 Olympics
The Other Olympians is an early history of how sports officials in the 1930s began verifying the sex of athletes. It focuses on the 1936 Olympic Games hosted in Berlin while Hitler was in power.

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The anti-trans purpose of sex testing
If we took literally the accusation of Cis Man in Disguise, cis men athletes would be the villains of that tale. But that’s a superficial understanding. The trope isn’t meant to be taken literally (especially as it’s based on something that doesn't happen). And indeed, no one does take it literally.

The trope is meant to be used transphobically. In the 1930s, as Waters shows in great detail, sports officials—especially those who were Nazi sympathizers—wanted everyone to worry about trans men and intersex athletes. The possibility of a trans woman athlete doesn't seem to have occurred to them. Today, when someone recites the Cis Man in Disguise trope to us, they want us to superimpose that fictional narrative onto the reality of trans women.

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More at link:

https://genderidentitytoday.com/other-olympians/