I read today that Loughborough has recruited 5 PhD students to research the gender binary in sport. Could be fine, you may think. But look at the advert.
"One of the most influential, powerful and visible institutions upholding the gender binary is sport – where participation is predominantly segregated by biological sex, rooted in the widely-held beliefs about fairness and the biological advantages associated with being male. Such beliefs are over-simplistic, legitimise discrimination, and hinder the sports participation of transgender (intersex, trans, non-binary) individuals. With the rapidly growing societal visibility of transgender people, there is an unprecedented need to address areas where discrimination may arise."
Combining the above statement with other research which suggests 'most policies unfairly alienate transgender competitors based mainly on an unsubstantiated assumption that transgender females possess an unfair sporting advantage.'
NB this is Bethany Jones who recently said that women could just try harder in sports if they didn't want to be beaten by men
There is now a push against testosterone testing in women's sports for trans women, and also to scrap sex categories in sport altogether.
If this happens, then it is essentially saying there is no relevant physical difference between males and females. What could this mean for wider life outside of sport?
Could sport be paving the way to undermining sex-based differences in the same way as self -ID?
What if the research does find that there are no differences? What are we to make of that?
www.researchgate.net/profile/Bethany_Jones5