In a move critics call “policing femininity,” recent rule changes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body of track and field, state that for a woman to compete, her testosterone must not exceed the male threshold.
If it does, she must have surgery or receive hormone therapy prescribed by an expert IAAF medical panel and submit to regular monitoring. So far, at least a handful of athletes — the figure is confidential — have been prescribed treatment, but their numbers could increase. Last month, the International Olympic Committee began the approval process to adopt similar rules for the Games.
Olympics Struggle with ‘Policing Femininity”
I confess that I can’t think my way out of this catch-22:
1. Females have their own separate sports games, because it isn’t fair to compete against males due to our ability to stack on more muscle mass and recover faster (from the article).
2. If a female can stack on more muscle mass and recover faster than a male, she needs to undergo hormone treatment, because it isn’t fair to compete against females who cannot.
3. This is because the females and males compete within their respective sexes, because women cannot stack as much muscle mass and recover as fast as males.
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So just to clarify, we are all cool with the idea of allowing the Olympics to define females now, and define them in a manner lesser to males in terms of performance? I’m not being willfully ignorant here - I understand the motivations/decision-making at a macro level that led to this. But there’s a saying about the road to Hell, and the material involved in its construction.
