The “average woman”, gender testing and the white gaze: racialized notions of gender in elite sport

Imane Khelif.

In the Norwegian journal for gender research we find a very interesting article by professor Mari Haugaa Engh on how ideas about gender, race and the body are expressed in so-called gender testing in international elite sports.

Her research is highly relevant now that transphobic activists have been harassing a cisgender Algerian boxer for being a man in the Olympics. (More on the Imane Khelif story here.)

You can read a Google translation of Haugaa Engh’s article here.

The South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya has been forced to take testosterone-reducing medication in order to compete internationally.

1. Since the 1990s, standardized testing of all female athletes has been replaced by selective testing based on suspicion.
2. The IAAF can investigate any female athlete considered “suspicious” or “eligible” based on specific criteria, including testosterone levels and “material androgenizing effect.”
3. Visual evaluations of masculinization play a significant role in identifying suspicious athletes, perpetuating historical practices.
4. Racialized women from the post-colonial South have been disproportionately identified as suspicious and potentially deviant.
5. The systematization of gender testing coincided with changes in participation patterns and achievements, particularly as non-European and non-white athletes began to challenge white dominance in athletics.
6. The IAAF’s list of indicators for masculinization includes subjective and relative criteria, some of which are common among female athletes due to elite-level training.
7. The ideal “hetero-sexy fit” body for female athletes is based on normative whiteness and privileges the white female body.
8. Historical and colonial notions about race have influenced perceptions of which bodies are considered questionable in terms of gender.
9. There is a long scientific tradition of viewing black, especially African, female bodies as fundamentally different and more masculine than white Western female bodies.
10. Mari Haugaa Engh debates whether the historical white imperialist gaze on black and African female bodies persists in current sports regulations through coded language.

Mari Haugaa Engh argues that the yardstick for women’s sports participation is rooted in a figure — the “average woman” — against which all sportswomen’s bodies, achievements and appearance are measured:

“I therefore believe that the debate about “scientific” gender that has followed in the wake of Caster Semenya’s success and exclusion should not only be read as an expression of sports’ belief in the two-gender system, but also as an expression of how notions of gender in themselves are often racialized. By sticking to “average women” as the starting point and benchmark for femininity in elite sports, the practice of gender testing illustrates the colonializing and normalizing power of the white gaze.”

Mari Haugaa Engh discusses the evolution and current state of gender testing in women’s sports, particularly focusing on the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) regulations. Key points include:

Let us add that this is very relevant to the debate on transgender athlete. The Imane Khelif story (top photo), where an Algerian cis woman of color has been accused of being transgender and therefore a “man” that beats up women, shows us that cultural stereotypes of a “proper female body” and “proper female behavior” not only invalidate trans women, they also ruin the lives of cis (non-transgender) women.

See also: Unrepentant fear of trans bodies

Originally published at https://trans-express.lgbt on August 6, 2024.