Fair Play: Drugs and Doping; also equipment issues (started Murray's book)
Fair Play: Competitive Categories; including paralympics, gender categories, rules about trans and intersex participation
Enhanced Athletes
Presentation Topics: MMA, Cheerleading, Violence in Hockey, Sports During Pandemic, Equestrian, Nascar
no questions on final, but hopefully these presentations helped you see how you can use the tools we've developed in this course to address a wide variety of questions about sport
Monday--you will be able to ask clarificatory questions
Also, we will do some reviewing--e.g. we will review Murray's book
May need to discuss the last presentation (depending on what happens today)
Will look at the poll results on trans and intersex athletes
Will poll you on some further issues about online classes
Ch. 8: Privacy Issues
Murray's View: Prohibitionism--doping is bad for sport
Counterargument: even if doping is bad for sport, the invasion of privacy is problematic, and possibly even worse than doping
How does testing work? (Murray)
during competition
in some sports, year-around
whereabouts rules--have to say where you'll be one hour per day
testing is also outside that time frame
"observed voiding"
Murray's view: most athletes don't mind
How does testing work at SMU?
several students explained in their RRs
NCAA testing vs. SMU testing; different penalties involved
each of those students did mind to some degree
Ch. 9: Transhumanism
Prohibitionism (Murray)--performance enhancing drugs and technologies should be banned when they subvert or undermine the meanings and values that are important in sport: talent, dedication, and courage
Physiological View (Foddy & Savulescu)--drugs and technologies should be allowed but only when they enable a person to move within the healthy, human range
EPO OK if it let's people move within the normal range, but shouldn't increase hematocrit beyond 50%
Beta-blockers not allowed (because a fearless competitor isn't human!)
Transhumanism/Posthumanism (Andy Miah, discussed by Murray; see video below)--the more spectacular the performance, the better; no problem with achieving better than human performance
Watch up to 38:38 or to the end--if you're listening, not watching, the sound in the background is the Sochi Olympics (2014)
Notes based on the lecture:
Performance Enhancing Drugs that could have a "transhuman" effect
The usual PEDS, such as EPO, when they create a super-high hematocrit, outside the human range
Marijuana
Placebo pill, so athlete believes they have extra ability
Other performance enhancing technologies that could have a "transhuman" effect
Genetic screening--who should be a sprinter and who should be an endurance athlete?
Next time: presentation on sports during the pandemic, finish discussing McKinnon, discuss final a bit
Clarifications
Intersex vs. Trans athletes: they're not the same! (see post for 4.17)
Caster Semenya (left) is intersex, not trans
Rachel McKinnon (right) is trans, not intersex
Arguments for testosterone limits: they're not all the same!
1. Equal opportunity argument: Intersex women like Caster Semenya should be recognized as women, but they are to some degree male-bodied, not female-bodied. There should be equal opportunity for women who are "female-bodied". To protect equal opportunity for female-bodied women, Semenya should have to lower testosterone. Same with trans women. (Coleman)
2. Talent argument. Talent should be a primary factor determining outcomes, but high testosterone in intersex and trans athletes affects outcomes and isn't talent. (Murray, also some of this in Coleman)
3. Fairness argument--when Caster Semenya or Rachel McKinnon compete in races against biologically typical females, there's an "uneven playing field." The intersex and trans women have "equipment" that others don't have. They may still have testes but at least have the byproducts of having had testes in the past.
Rachel McKinnon responds
Four arguments for testosterone limits or outright exclusion, plus McKinnon's replies.
1. Intersex and trans women may be women, but they're male, or male-bodied, or biologically male. RM's reply:
legally (in many places) and within sport, intersex and trans women are women and female (no difference).
if you're female you're female-bodied!
What would Coleman say?
2. They have too many performance advantages. RM's reply:
wouldn't matter, if true; but tends to be exaggerated (p. 8)
"The practice of sport is a human right" according to the IOC.
performance advantage of being taller is permitted; no reason to treat performance advantage of higher testosterone any differently
What would Coleman or Murray say?
3. But the whole point of gender segregating sport is that men are "stronger and faster" (p. 8). RM's reply:
gender segregation is just due to sexism, not performance differences
If it's due to sexism, should we end it? What would happen to competitors like Semenya and McKinnon if there were no gender segregation?
4. It's unfair for intersex and trans women to compete against other women. RM's reply:
Testing or excluding is discriminatory--it's treating intersex and trans people differently.
Discrimination is sometimes acceptable but only when it's (1) "in service of a worthy social goal" and (2) "necessary for the promotion of the worthy social goal" and (3) "effective at promoting the worthy social goal" and (4) the good accomplished is "proportional to the harm" done to the people discriminated against. (all quotes on p. 6).
RM: treating them differently doesn't pass the four-fold test
Suppose Coleman were applying this test. What would she say about each clause?
Different positions on gender segregation will lead to different positions on the eligibility of intersex women.
Jane English's view
Every person, regardless of gender, should have access to the basic benefits of sport (exercise, health, character, teamwork, etc.)
Women as a group and men as a group should have equal access to the scarce benefits of sport (prizes, glory, fame, scholarships, etc.)
How? by integrating a few sports, inventing new sports...
but primarily by gender segregating sport ...
and giving equal resources to women's sports
Why is equal access important? English: because equal access to sport contributes to the self-respect of all women; women need to see other women succeed in all walks of life
Other rationales for the gender segregation of sport
today's readings
###
Rules for Intersex Athletes: 2011-2019
2009: Caster Semenya, South Africa, wins world championship in 800 meters
2011: International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decides that if challenged, any athlete competing in a women's event (a) must be legally female and (b) testosterone level must be below 10 nmol/L unless athlete is insensitive to testosterone
can reduce testosterone with contraceptive pill or surgical removal of internal testes
Fertilitypedia
2012: Semenya wins Olympic gold medal in women's 800 meters (presumably met 2011 standard)
2014: Indian runner Dutee Chand dropped from several competitions due to "hyperandrogenism" (high testosterone in a female).
athletes competing in a women's event must have testosterone under 5 nmol/L (unless athlete is insensitive to testosterone)
only for middle distance (400 meters to a mile) running events,
must sustain lower level for 6 months prior to competition (chemically or surgically)
affects international competition only
alternatively these athletes can compete in men's events
"in no way intended as any kind of judgment on, or questioning of, the sex or the gender identity of any athlete" (a question of eligibility, not gender)
2019: After another challenge, IAAF upholds 2018 policy.
clarifications here: limit on testosterone only applies to intersex women who are both XY and legally women (e.g. Caster Semenya)
Question: should Caster Semenya and other XY women have to reduce their testosterone to 5 nmol/L in order to compete in women's events? Positions:
They should be included unconditionally (Rachel McKinnon, Friday)
Yes, this is a reasonable limit (today's readings: Murray, Coleman)
No, they should be excluded altogether
What if English were alive to discuss?
Winners in women's events should send an empowering message to women--"You can do anything!"
Does Caster Semenya make women feel like they can do anything?
Doriane Lambelet Coleman
Discusses female disadvantages and performance differences, concludes: "The result of this differential is the performance gap between males and females that justifies the existence of a women's category in competitive sport." (p. 2)
Why must women have access to the basic and scarce benefits of sport? For the benefit of biologically female athletes themselves. (compare English)
Why not use gender-identity to decide who's eligible for women's events?
What does she say about the silver and bronze winners at the 2016 Olympics?
The "Missy Franklin" Objection (that Coleman tries to rebut)
Missy Franklin is 6'2" with a 6'4" wingspan, which helped her become a gold medalist in women's swimming; that's perfectly legitimate.
Semenya's high testosterone is an analogous advantage in a woman. THEREFORE,
Semenya's high testosterone is perfectly legitimate and she shouldn't have to reduce it to participate in women's events.
Coleman's reply, p. 10
Murray's Talent Argument
Murray, p. 100
Sports should be governed in such a way that outcomes are largely determined by talent, dedication, and courage.
If sports were gender-integrated, winners would be mostly male, making maleness in effect a talent.
But maleness is not a talent. THEREFORE
Sports should not be gender integrated, but rather gender segregated.
Gender segregation requires limiting women's events to people with testosterone in the female range. THEREFORE
There should be testosterone limits (he discusses 10 nmol/L)
What about fairness?
Not the main focus on Murray or Coleman. We will discuss next time.
Next presentation is on Monday 4.27. That's Team 3--Sports During the Pandemic.
After that, Team 5 and 6 both present on Wednesday 4.29.
Please respond to the emails I sent to Teams 5 and 6.
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Jane English
published in 1978, a few years after Title IX
she died in a mountain climbing accident the same year
so no reply to critics
Background assumptions
she assumes female athletic disadvantage: "There are physiological differences between the sexes that are relevant to sports performance." (p. 355)
women are underrepresented in sport at all levels
What is equal opportunity for women in sport? What would it entail? Her answer:
All individuals, regardless of gender, should have equal chances to acquire the basic benefits of sport, which are: teamwork, character, health, self-respect, fun.
Women as a group and men as a group should have the same chance to acquire the scarce benefits of sport, which are: prizes, records, wins, fame, income, etc.
Note: she is not saying this is the right approach to equal opportunity in all areas of life.
How to achieve equal access to the basic benefits of sport for all individuals, regardless of gender?
She doesn't say much about this.
Perhaps what she has in mind is PE for everyone in K-12.
How to achieve equal access to the scarce benefits of sports for women as a group? Three-step recipe.
Gender-integrate those sports in which abilities are not very different--"dressage, riflery and car racing" (p. 357). Flick Haigh article.
A. Gender-segregate most sports; after all, if they were integrated, most women would be excluded. As a result, women as a group would suffer loss of self-respect. B. Give equal treatment to women's sports.
Develop new sports in which women are better than men, so that women can be "best" and not just "best woman"; this would enhance self-respect in women as a group even more than segregated sports.
balance beam
synchronized swimming
long distance swimming
###
Pam Sailors' Response (2014)
She's the author of the article on cheerleading that said it's not a sport
We read her article on climbing, in which she differentiated summitteers and mountaineers.
Her objections
Objection 1--No evidence that sports have any impact on self-respect for the women as a group (as opposed to female athletes)
Objection 2--Segregating by gender doesn't enhance self-respect
Objection 3--New sports won't help, because people don't want to watch them, have less respect for them.
###
DISCUSSION
Discuss the three questions below about English's 3-step recipe for achieving equal access to the scarce benefits of sport for women as a group.
Discuss for 10 minutes. Pick a spokesperson to tell the whole class the group's thoughts on these three questions.
Step one. Do you agree that some sports should be gender-integrated? Is race-car driving such a sport, as Flick Haigh says?
Step two. Do you agree that gender segregation of sport is necessary for the self-respect of women as a group? Or do you sympathize with Pam Sailors' skepticism about this? Another issue: are there better reasons for gender segregating sport than English gives?
Step three. Do you agree that it's important for women to be "best" at certain sports, and that new sports should be developed for this purpose? Or do you sympathize with Pam Sailors' skepticism about this?
###
The rest of Sailors' points
Objection 4--Automatically segregating by gender takes away a woman's choice to compete directly against men if that's her preference.
Objection 5--English doesn't consider the option of making team sports co-ed (aside from a few).
Objection 6--Women should have segregated sport as an option but should have other options.
Objection 7--English is assuming a gender binary instead of a continuum. This creates problems for athletes like Caster Semenya (intersex woman) and also for people who consider themselves nonbinary and not men or women. (NEXT TIME)
What should we do? Move to mixed competition where possible, taking into account:
individual vs. team sports
direct (football) vs. indirect (golf) competition
contact vs. non-contact
professional vs. amateur
She's arguing for mixed competition especially in amateur, non-contact, indirectly competitive team sports.
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...
An institution is in compliance with the three-part test if it meets any one of the following parts of the test: (1) The number of male and female athletes is substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments; or (2) The institution has a history and continuing practice of expanding participation opportunities responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex; or (3) The institution is fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.
Mostly implemented in a gender segregated way-- men's teams vs. women's teams
Our question (Monday): Should sports be gender segregated?
Monday's authors ask: Is gender segregation good for women?
Policing the boundary between men's and women's sports
20th century: as women enter sport, there's a fear of male impostors who might try to enter the women's category (because easier to qualify and win)
1940s: female competitors had to have gender certificates
1966: sex verification process used "nude parades" in front of physicians and genital exams
1967: changed to chromosomal testing. XX chromosomes required to compete in women's sports.
1985: Martinez-Patino case. Intersex Spanish hurdler, expelled, lost medals. Later reinstated.
1990s: if athlete is challenged, then chromosome and hormone testing, plus pelvic exam and psych evaluation
Most recent decisions (2019): next Wednesday
Our questions
Should we avoid these problems by ending gender segregation?
If we should keep gender segregation, who should be allowed to compete in the protected women's category? What screening process should be used?
Caster Semenya, South Africa (intersex)
Trans athletes
Rachel McKinnon (Veronica Ivy) Masters cycling gold medalist (2018, 2019) philosophy professor, Charleston College
Intersex background
Being intersex is being born with a mix of male and female biological characteristics
Must be medically diagnosed
You can be intersex and not know it--especially in a developing country
Intersex and trans are different things
Common estimate is 17 in 1000 (1.7%); others estimate far fewer (e.g. 1 in 2000); depends what is counted as an intersex condition
