You might enjoy the replies to what I am sure Sport England thought was an innocuous tweet

Seconding periods and boobs as reasons why we stop sports.

Thirding it. Imagine two hypothetical children, a boy and a girl*:

The boy hits puberty. Suddenly he's stronger and faster. He may find it exhilarating to test his new limits. He's pumped full of testosterone, making him more aggressive and less risk averse. He may enjoy team sports more as a result. If he finds it difficult to manage his newfound anger and aggression, a sympathetic teacher may encourage him to channel it into physical activity. (Maybe one of our resident male contributors can also confirm whether or not heavy exercise and tiring oneself out can reduce the number of unwanted erections?)

The girl hits puberty. Suddenly she's getting attention from boys and grown men. She may feel self-conscious in her PE kit. Her breasts hurt when she runs and bounce when she jumps, and they hurt even more at certain times of the month. Her hips widen; she has to relearn efficient techniques for moving about. Her period causes her cramps and if she's unlucky, serious pain. It may be infrequent or unpredictable for the first few years. She may bleed through her PE clothes in front of boys or bullies. She may be allowed to skip PE class, but if she's forced to take part anyway, she'll probably start resenting her PE teachers. If she can't use tampons (out of TSS risk, sexual trauma, cultural reasons or an abnormally narrow vaginal passage) then her swimming career is over before it's started. Even then, there's no guarantee she won't bleed around a tampon or need to change one in the middle of an important race.

*Obviously, the boy and the girl are not real, nor reflective of a universal experience. Some boys hate sport and / or never develop the aggression required for certain games, like rugby. Some girls get luckier in their new physiques and are able to train their way to the Olympics. It's just meant as an illustration of how biology can encourage sport in one sex while discouraging it in the other.

I've misremembered that. It's single-sex toilets from eight and "suitable" changing rooms from 11. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parent-first-approach-at-the-core-of-new-guidance-on-gender-questioning-children

Given the number of girls going through puberty below 11, I think that changing rooms should be required from eight as well.

And it all detracts from what we should be discussing which is that girls are much less active than boys and the less affluent are hugely less active than their wealthy counterparts particularly non white children.
That's awful.

@Changeandagoodrest You have it completely the wrong way around. We play sport with our sex-based BODIES. Not a gender 'identity' in our head. Sex impacts sport. An 'identity' does not.

That would have been 1991, I'm sure there were no such rules back then. These were the days of creepy pe teachers that would check you were wet when you came out of the shower.

I'm sure we didn't have single sex changing at lower middle school (years 4&5) but I'm an old git.

When did the single sex from 8 years rule come in, anyone know?

I took up running as an adult and stopped when I was cat-called by White Van Man one night. He didn't ask my gender identity first.

Seconding periods and boobs as reasons why we stop sports.

Moved to middle school and was forced to change into my pe kit aged 9 in a class with boys. That was the first year I felt it wasn't worth it.

That's illegal. You should have had single-sex changing from eight onwards.

CheeseChamp · Today 00:04

I was sporty in primary school. Fast runner, liked to play cricket, dance classes. Moved to middle school and was forced to change into my pe kit aged 9 in a class with boys. That was the first year I felt it wasn't worth it.

Hell's Bells! When was that? I'd have beaten a path the head with steam coming out of my ears.

wiltonian · Yesterday 16:15

Actually, can someone tweet that at them, I can't for work reasons...

I've done it for you (us) just now.

Gender is such a crap non specific word, for the reasons outlined above.

Different people use it to refer to different concepts.

Women and girls are oppressed because of their sex - otherwise how would society otherwise know which stereotypes to subject us to?It's not coincidence that only women and girls are subjected to female sex stereotypes.

Girls are objectified and sexualised because of their sex. That's a thing that teenage girls have to cope with that teenage boys don't. Because of their sex.

Gender is the socially constructed set of expectations and values applied to someone because of their sex

Worth highlighting.

Having to relearn your swimming stroke technique after puberty because your pelvis is a little wider....

Anyhoo...
Gender 1 = synonym for sex
Gender 2 = gender stereotypes - expectations of behaviour, based on your sex;
Gender 3 = gender presentation (clothes, hair, etc)
Gender 4 = gender identity.

Changeandagoodrest is conflating 2 and 4.

Which is to say that I agree it's a combination of sex and gender that means girls are less likely to be active, but that essentially it comes to the same thing because only girls are fully socialised as girls.

Even if you look only at gender, i.e. the system of socialising the sexes into different roles and placing different expectations upon them, boys who identify as transgender can only be subjected to female socialisation if the person fully believes that they are female.

Otherwise they are treated as non-conforming males, which is quite different. They will never be treated as female by the majority of people in their lives, who will be aware of their sex.

It maybe, it may not. Sounds like it’s something which should be accurately researched rather than guessed. It’s another example of trans peoples health not being full researched and supported through lack of accurate data.

Physicality of periods is a huge issue. Even for me, and I am one of those awful, smug women who was blessed with what I call PE Teacher Periods. I call them that because they were pain-free and every 28 days. I hit 18 before I ever experienced menstrual cramps. Now I have, I am full of respect for the girls who had cramps all the way through their school years. I can't imagine coping with that at school.

So as far as a menstrual cycle goes, I hit the jackpot. But over my teens, I still found my period inconvenient. The crowning incident was the month my period not only came a day early for the first time - meaning I hadn't put a preparatory pad in - but also arrived in the most embarrassing way possible: I flooded right through white sports kit during a group class, and didn't realise. It was the first flood I'd ever experienced; I didn't even know that could happen!

My shorts looked like a Japanese flag, and the male teacher was too embarrassed to mention it. He sent for a female colleague to approach me if I was alright! And that was the first I knew that my entire front was bright red with blood.

The amazing thing is that this was a voluntary out-of-school activity and I went back the week after without being forced, because I loved it that much. I imagine a lot of girls wouldn't have done, and frankly I wouldn't blame them.

These days, the uniform shorts are black, which is a most welcome change. It only took a few decades for someone to question the value of white shorts as a tradition for a sport that allegedly wanted female members.

All pre period, too! It wasn't a gender thing, it was a sexual development and puberty thing.

It was. And the gender aspect, according to the transactactivist definition wouldn't have made any difference. If you had identified as a boy, you would still feel the same.

But 'Gender' in the feminist definition IS involved.

If it was just about sexual development, boys would be experiencing the exact same thing. It's not intrinsically about that.

It's because girls, when they develop, realise that there is something of objectification going on for them. They're not particularly encouraged to be strong, powerful, sweaty, competitive. They're looked at, leered over, judged. Even if it's minor, it all seeps in subliminally.

There's no inherent reason for human girls to feel more self-conscious than human boys. But they do. Because of society's reaction to them.

That's the 'gender' part. The expectations imposed upon men and women.

I was sporty in primary school. Fast runner, liked to play cricket, dance classes.

Moved to middle school and was forced to change into my pe kit aged 9 in a class with boys. That was the first year I felt it wasn't worth it.

Swimming was excruciating for me. From that age I became deeply afraid of getting changed with other girls or having them see my body.

Age 10 we did sports only with other girls. What is this talk of girls doing football mixed with boys? Does that happen now?? We got to play volleyball, netball and hockey, tennis and field sports in summer. Loved the sports, did not like the changing and enforced communal showers, with developing breasts, hair, and not being a cool girl (cool girls were sporty and pretty mean) it was made very clear that sport was not for me. By other girls. So that's not a gender stereotype issue is it.

When I was diagnosed with a bone condition that got me out of pe forever I was unbelievably happy. That was the end of sports for me.

All pre period, too! It wasn't a gender thing, it was a sexual development and puberty thing.

You can't be for real.

The reality of the pain, inconvenience, energy slumps, mood variance, and, y'know, general presence of blood is the reality of how periods affect girls and women in sports. Not the stigma.

Boobs. Boobs were the problem for me, and for DD with sport.

For me, I had what passed for a sports bra at the time but didn't find it comfortable. And even with the best bra, having boobs and having to confine them isn't nearly as comfortable as not having them. I remember feeling that needing a bra stage as a serious loss of freedom to move as I wanted. I still hate bras. They're itchy, sweaty, confining, and I can't run comfortably without one. And did I mention itchy?

DD was doing gymnastics and got increasingly self-conscious about wearing a leotard, but also self conscious about wearing shorts and t-shirts when everyone else was wearing leotards - so then she just stopped.

Just to add to my post, obviously, girls do have physical issues which prevent them being sporty all the time, like periods and pregnancy and breastfeeding.

But just to ram home exactly how gender (societal expectations), is the means by which girls are disadvantaged.

In the USA, women's and girls' sport gets something like one percent of the funding that boys and men's sport does.

That's not arbitrary. It's because of their sex. But gender is the means.

You've nearly got it. They are targeted because of their sex. And 'gender' is the way it's done.

There's no reason why girls shouldn't participate in sports identically to boys. But society stereotypes and expectations prevent them (gender).

It's because of their sex they are targeted.

And 'gender' is what's used to do it.

trans ideology doesn't allow for this, though.

Men who have a female 'gender' are excelling at sports (in the women's division, obviously.).

Gender isn't stopping them. Because it's their sex counts when it's actually about physical advantage.

Most people don't have a gender. The idea that we do is just an obfuscation pushed by hate organisations such as stonewall. Everyone has a sex though. Either male or female. we're told there are over 100 genders and if that were true, which of those 100 are more or less likely to play sports?

Gender stereotypes such as 'it's unattractive to be sweaty' or 'it's unfeminine to be competitive' plus sexist poor provision for girls' and women's sport are the main reasons why so few girls and women participate in sport. There is zero physical reason why women shouldn't take part in sport. The old stuff about not being active while menstruating is another example.

Our reproductive biology impacts significantly on our sporting abilities and inclinations.
Painful periods interrupt competition and training. The menstrual cycle affects not only mood but physicality (as is now recognised in elite training, where programmes are built around it). Many keen young female athletes give up when suddenly performance drops off at a crucial time, or (in more than one case I’ve encountered as a coach) the pain of undiagnosed endometriosis makes it impossible to commit to team or individual sports.

I don’t doubt that sexist stereotyping exists to some degree, and it’s true that participation in competitive sport and possibly other activity drops off in girls from their early teens, but I very much doubt that there’s a genuine causal link.