Banning (Fe)male Athletes

What’s the Recent Development?

The International Olympic Commission and the International Association of Athletics Federations have agreed on new guidelines that stipulate female athletes may not be eligible to compete as women if they have natural testosterone levels in the male range. “The regulations cover female athletes with hyperandrogenism, a condition in which the body produces higher than normal levels of hormones called androgens, particularly testosterone.” The condition produces bulky muscle buildup which could give female athletes an unfair advantages over their more slender competitors. 

What’s the Big Idea?

Language is a product of humans’ advanced intellect; nature a spectrum along which an astounding variety of things exist. The distinctions we apply to nature seem to hold true up to a point. Scientists, for example, have long struggled over a definition of life. Now, we are faced with defining what constitutes a woman and a man. While self-definition is often seen as the freest and fairest way to define one’s self, what happens where there is a lot on the line to be won or lost, like a life spent seeking a career in sports?