“Which Bodies Are Allowed?”: Transgender Athletes and the Social Production of Gendered Sporting Spaces

• In Event: Gender and Place

Abstract

While recent debates about transgender athletes in the United States have focused on questions of “fairness” in sport and biological difference, less attention has been paid to how these debates reflect competitive sport’s continued reliance on a rigid sex/gender binary. This paper calls attention to the role of gender-segregated athletic facilities–particularly locker rooms and bathrooms–and the ways in which they function as socially-produced places that inform trans athletes’ experiences of belonging and exclusion. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 transgender college athletes, I explore the following questions: In what ways do beliefs about the sex/gender binary inform how gendered places in sport are socially produced and maintained? How do transgender athletes navigate belonging and exclusion within these gendered athletic places?

In this paper, I distinguish between space–the material and architectural organization of athletic facilities–and place, the meanings and power relations attached to them through everyday practice (McDowell 1999). I also draw upon Nirmal Puwar’s (2004) concept of the “space invader” to explain how bodies perceived as “out of place” become hypervisible within settings structured around dominant identities, and access to space does not always translate into inclusion. Preliminary findings indicate that these athletes used three key strategies to navigate gender-segregated athletic facilities: avoidance, negotiation within existing spaces, and acceptance of marginal or unequal accommodations. Across these strategies, these trans athletes understood their presence as conditional and made decisions that would minimize discomfort for others. Through self-regulation, negotiation, and informal social interactions, these athletic facilities functioned as gendered sporting places. By shifting attention away from debates about “fairness,” this study reframes transgender participation in sport as a question of place-making, negotiation, and belonging, calling attention to the ongoing reproduction of the sex/gender binary within sport and beyond.

Author

• Alexander Perry, University at Albany, SUNY