A field of her own: Bioessentialism and the creation of “female-specific science” in sport

• In Event: 40451 - Hormones, Biology, and Embodied and Reproductive Justice

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the burgeoning scientific social movement of Female Athlete Health (FAH) as a site for the generation of binary sex essentialist claims about athletic bodies. In characterizing FAH as a “separate and specific” paradigm, we show how it reflects practices of sex segregation on the playing field: advocates claim that women and girls are best served by a separate, scientific field of their own and by a search for the alleged biological specificities of their experiences of injury, health, and performance. Via an analysis of FAH research programs across four countries and published literature by principal figures in the field, we show how advocates of FAH draw on the same discursive frames that have been wielded to justify pervasive sex segregation in sport: that it is necessary to ensure the empowerment and success of women athletes, that there exists a distinct and coherent category of “female” athletes with shared biological characteristics, and that women’s experiences in sport are rooted in that biology. Omitted from the paradigm is an intersectional and gendered critique of how structural sexism in sport shapes embodied experiences, with particular penalties for minoritized groups. The case of FAH presents a rich example of how mobilization, gender ideology, and scientific research paradigms collide, with consequences for what can be known about the social bases of health and embodied variation.

Authors

• Madeleine Pape, University of Lausanne

• Sheree Bekker

• Marina DiMarco

• Katherine Lee

• Sarah Richardson, Harvard University