Feminist politics and sport: Towards a queer, trans-inclusive, and gender-just future?

Abstract

On the eve of the Olympic Games, scheduled to start in Paris on July 26th 2024, an equal and inclusive vision of gender is far from being realized within sporting institutions. From the marked over-representation of cisgender men in governance and coaching roles, to pervasive gender-based violence impacting people of all genders, to struggles over discriminatory and cis-normative definitions of the "female athlete," many sport settings continue to be sites of harm and exclusion. Such phenomena reflect the continued configuration of sport as a stronghold for cis-hetero-normative (and racialized, Global North) gender ideology, with consequences for communities well beyond the sporting field. Feminist actors have been key to how sporting bodies have imagined a gender equal and just future, from shaping Title IX legislation in the United States, to influencing when and under what conditions women have been provided with Olympic competition opportunities. To advance their cause, (white, Global North) feminist actors have very often relied on an essentialist notion of womanhood that obscures inequalities amongst women and reduces "the" female body to an imagined biological and universal essence. Other feminist actors have countered that such an approach merely reinforces the dominant position of men and masculinity and contributes to limiting how––and which––women can occupy space, be celebrated, and be safe in sport settings (Adjepong 2017; Bekker et al. 2023; Karkazis et al. 2012; Travers 2008, 2022). This panel intervenes at this critical moment to provide diverse feminist perspectives on the role of power, knowledge, mobilization, and ideology in maintaining relations of harm and exclusion in sport. Panelists will address how gender serves as an intersectional axis of difference-making and power that currently harms many people who seek out the joys of sport, while also reflecting on how sport can move towards a queer, trans-inclusive, and gender-just future.

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