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Originating in 7th century BC it was not until the modern games of Paris in 1900 that women first participated in the Olympic Games

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"Can you imagine your seven-year-old being taunted and called a freak for his size?"

"What if he was told that he was no longer allowed to play his favourite sport because – through no fault of his own – he might hurt the other children?"

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Can you imagine your seven-year-old being taunted and called a freak for his size?

What if he was told that he was no longer allowed to play his favourite sport because - through no fault of his own - he might hurt the other children?

Seven-year-old Samoan Rugby League player Vaka Tuitupou stands head and shoulders above his teammates - literally. None of the other kids reach beyond his armpits.

Weighing in at 100 kilograms, the Sydney school boy has been told he is too big to play on his local under eights rugby team.
Listen: On the latest episode of This Glorious Mess, Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo discuss whether Vaka should be allowed to play with his peers.
Vaka's story went viral recently when his father shared a video of his son's talents. In the short clip, Vaka is seen tearing through the other players, who try to tackle him but are casually brushed aside. Even five opponents hanging off his limbs can't stop him from dominating.

The video was shared throughout the country, with commenters criticising him for being too big to play with his peers. They said the boy was a danger to his opponents and it wouldn't be fair to play.

But since then, his coach has responded, calling the seven-year-old 'a gentle giant.' He said Vaka is only allowed to play five half games a year to make it fair on the other kids.

Then, on August 3rd, it was reported Vaka had been removed from the team indefinitely.

The controversial match-up of a Samoan boy playing against children half his size has sparked a debate: should children's sports be organised by age or size?

It's a question that has divided parents across the country.

A parent's first thought when their son announces he wants to sign up for the rugby team is usually to make a mental shopping list to buy every piece of protective clothing they can muster. From a cup to a helmet, and every piece of padding in between.

Because to see a Jonathon Thurston-sized child running full speed towards their darling seven-year-old would strike fear in their hearts.

This is a contact sport. He could crush them!

On This Glorious Mess, Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo both agreed he should probably be playing up with the nine year olds.

"I think it's quite a violent sport," said Holly.

And plenty of people agree with them.

But not everyone holds the belief that Vaka should play with the big kids.

One woman took to Facebook to share her disappointment in the way the young athlete has been treated.

"NO NO!! This little boy should be allowed to play! He is not out to hurt anyone and the fact is he'll make a wonderful adult player," she wrote.

And that's exactly what we've got to remember - despite his size, Vaka is still just a little boy on the inside. This is children's sport, and everyone should get a fair crack.

No child should be made to feel like they have to hold back or stifle their talents and abilities. To tell Vaka he can only play a half game is just as bad as the other kids missing out because the Gentle Giant is hogging the ball.

Vaka's size is a blessing. He should be allowed to play, to succeed and to shine for his unique skills. He should not be taught that his height and strength is a curse.

It's not about winning (although with Vaka on their team, the Eagles are certainly doing so) it's about getting active with mates, learning a new skill and practising good sportsmanship. If the Sydney school boy was moved up to play with the older boys, he would miss out on the opportunity to play with his peers. Instead, it would become all about competing, which at seven is pretty damn sad.

We've got our entire lives to be told what we can and can't do.

Let the boy play.
Do you think Vaka should be allowed to play with age group? For the answers to more hairy parenting dilemmas, listen to the full episode of This Glorious Mess here: You can subscribe to the show at apple.co/mamamia.

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The 100kg seven-year-old deemed "too big" to play rugby.

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Can you imagine your seven-year-old being taunted and called a freak for his size? What if he was told that he was no longer allowed to play his favourite sport because - through no fault of his own - he might hurt the other children?

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A modern battle has commenced  challenging the norm of a two sex dominated sporting industry

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A modern battle has commenced  challenging the norm of a two sex dominated sporting industry

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Podcast: Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender

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Podcast: Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender

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Verification Processes

"Preventing men from competing in women’s sports in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage."

"Resulted in the exclusion of intersex and transgender athletes."

"They don’t fit neatly into the classical categories of male and female."

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By Dana Boebinger, Rachel Hanebutt, Brittany Mayweather, and Michael Ruiz
Produced by Michelle Frank

Dana: Hello, and welcome to Sit'N Listen: a production of Science in the News. We're a graduate-student run organization at Harvard University that catalyzes discussion between scientists and other experts and enthusiasts. I'm Dana Boebinger, and I'm a third year graduate student in auditory neuroscience at Harvard, studying how the brain processes complex sounds like speech and music. I would never claim to be an expert on sports, but I a proud feminist who once upon a time played on soccer and basketball teams, so here I am!

Brittany: I'm Brittany Mayweather and I'm a third year graduate student in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology department at Harvard. My research involves investigating the biology of the aging brain, and I also grew up playing sports. I'm fascinated by how much gender really does influence so many aspects of athletics, and I'm excited to talk about that today!

Michael: I'm Mike Ruiz, a first year graduate student in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard. I'm currently studying the evolution of human joints and joint disease with specific attention to the biomechanics of cartilage, and I'm also broadly interested in studying the effects of human movement with respect to developmental biology.

Rachel: And I'm Rachel Hanebutt, a graduate of the Mind, Brain and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who is currently studying Civic Media and Engagement, particularly in regards to sexual health and sex education. I am also a huge Celtics fan, so combining the topics of sports and gender is incredibly interesting to me.

For this episode, we're doing something special - a live recording in collaboration with Academic Ventures of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Harvard's collection of historical scientific instruments. This podcast is recorded in association with the Radcliffe Institute's spring conference, "Game Changers: Sports, Gender, and Society" which will take place on April 7, 2017. You can find out more about the event on their website, radcliffe.harvard.edu. Before we go too much deeper into the episode, we'd like to take a moment to thank Kristen Osborne of the Radcliffe Institute and Jean-François (Jon Fran-SWAH) of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments for their support in this collaboration and for providing the space for this live event.

Today's episode will be in two parts: The first part is concerned with figuring out who should compete in men's and women's sports, and the second part is about sexism in sports. (short pause) Let's get started with talking a little bit about the history of segregation in sports, in relation to gender.
History of women in sports and sex segregation
Dana: Sex segregation in sports is as old as sports themselves. For example, in Ancient Greece, where strict gender roles were the norm, adult women were forbidden from participating in the Olympic Games, and could even be sentenced to death for watching men compete.

Instead, women competed in something called the Games of Hera . In the 2nd century BC, Greek writer Pausanias described these games as having occurred since "ancient times," so scholars think they could be nearly as old as the Olympics themselves. The Games of Hera were held every four years, likely immediately before the Olympic Games, and featured three foot races for unmarried girls and women of different ages, some scholars say ranging in age from 6 to 18. The Games of Hera took place in the same stadium as the men's events, but the race course was shortened by 1/6th - corresponding to the fact that women's strides are shorter by about that amount.

As this example shows, throughout history, society's beliefs about the differences between the sexes - as well as their scientific understanding of these differences - have had huge implications for women's involvement in sports as well as the reasons and methods for segregating the sexes during competition.

In recent history, we've come to and expect gender integration in almost every aspect of life - in the workplace, in universities, and now we're even entertaining the idea of non-gender specific bathrooms. But the notion of sex segregation in sports is still going strong.

Michael: Thats a great point Dana. I think part of the reason sex segregation has stuck around for so long in sports is because there are biological differences between men and women that can affect athletic performance. One of the most important - and most famous - differences is the amount of testosterone. Testosterone is a steroid hormone, which means that it's a special kind of molecule that circulates throughout the body. As our listeners probably know, men tend to have higher testosterone levels than women. Testosterone affects all kinds of things - for one thing, it's part of the reason that males and females develop differently. But more directly relevant to athletics, higher levels of testosterone can also increase muscle size and make humans and animals more aggressive. And of course, things like culture and upbringing can also affect muscle size, athletic performance, and aggression, regardless of testosterone.

Brittany: You said that men tend to have higher testosterone levels than women - how big is the difference? Does that actually explain differences in athletic performance?
Blurring the boundaries between men and women
Rachel: And beyond the blurry boundaries in testosterone levels, there are also people who fall in between the two sexes in other ways. Some people with a Y chromosome will develop hormonally and anatomically as female. Other people have anatomical features associated with both men and women.

Sadly, we don't have time to delve into this topic in too much more detail here. But for those of you interested, you can listen back to our podcast on sex, gender, and science, where we discuss this topic more deeply.

I do think that these uncertainties in differentiating between men and women does illustrate just how hard it can be to draw a clear boundary between men and women in athletic competitions.

Dana: And we haven't even started talking about transgender athletes yet.

Rachel: No, we haven't! But even though it's so hard to find a good way of drawing a bright line between men and women, there's still been an overwhelming push towards keeping men and women's sports separated. And in order to do that, various athletic agencies and sports governing bodies have developed "verification processes" for determining whether an athlete is, in fact, male or female.

Dana: Historically at least, that had a lot to do with preventing men from competing in women's sports in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

Rachel: I think that's still the case today. But in our research, we couldn't find any cases where men had intentionally tried to compete in women's sports to gain a competitive advantage. Mostly, it seems that these verification processes have resulted in the exclusion of intersex and transgender athletes.

Dana: Yeah, in almost all documented cases of men competing as women, they've been doing so inadvertently, and often because they don't fit neatly into the classical categories of male and female.

One example of this is the story of German high jumper Dora Ratjen, whose experience was one of the motivations for international sports governing bodies to begin gender verification testing. In 1918, Dora Ratjen was born intersex and raised as a girl, and competed as a girl in sports. But around puberty, Ratjen began to realize that he was different - and even suspected that he wasn't entirely female. But due to the stigma surrounding such issues, he was too embarrassed to tell anyone about his suspicions. In the meantime, Ratjen became quite a decorated athlete, culminating with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, in which Ratjen placed 4th in the women's high jump.

In 1938, a few days after breaking the women's high jump world record, Ratjen was taking a train and was stopped by a policeman who had been told there was a "man dressed as a woman" on the train who might be a British spy. Despite providing ID, the policeman refused to believe Ratjen was female. To avoid a physical examination on the spot, Ratjen confessed that he suspected he was indeed a man. Ratjen was arrested on suspicion of fraud and stripped of all his awards. After a physical examination by a doctor, Ratjen was sent to a sports sanatorium for further testing (although we couldn't find anything that explained exactly which tests Ratjen was subjected to). The results of these tests, though, showed that Ratjen was indeed a man. However, investigators determined that fraud could not have occurred in Ratjen's case, because he didn't even know he was a man, and had no intention to reap financial reward. Due to sensational stories in the media (including a widely-circulated 1966 Time magazine story), there was suspicion over whether the Nazis had forced Ratjen to compete as a woman. However, letters between the Nazis about the Ratjen case contain no evidence of a plot.

Regardless, this confirmed the fear that men might be parading as female athletes. Soon after this, and a handful of other scandals came to light, many international sports governing bodies began conducting mandatory gender verification tests. At first, these tests consisted of visual (or even manual) inspections of athletes' naked bodies, as well as requiring female athletes to bring "femininity certificates" provided by a physician to verify their sex.

In 1968, these quote "naked parades" were mercifully banned by the International Olympic Committee. At this point, scientists understood more about genetics and the technology behind genetic testing had improved, so mandatory chromosome testing became the norm. Can you explain more about that, Mike?

Mike: Sure. At its most basic level, chromosome testing is based on the presence or absence of the Y chromosome. In mammals, the presence of two X chromosomes (XX) indicates the individual is a genetic female and the presence of one X and one Y chromosome (XY) indicates the individual is a genetic male. But of course, as I mentioned before, sexual differentiation is a lot more complicated than just having a Y chromosome or not. And in rare cases, it's even possible to have a Y chromosome and present as biologically female in every other way.

In other cases, a deficiency of sex hormones in the uterus can cause infants that are genetic XY-boys to be mistaken for infant girls. When the "baby girl" reaches puberty, the mistaken girl develops a penis and testes. Anyone who's read the novel will be familiar with a variant of this condition.

So there can be pretty wide disconnects between genetic sex and other aspects of biological sex. So for the purposes of determining athletic advantage, sex chromosome testing falls pretty far short.

Dana: Yeah, that's a really important caveat. In fact, in 1986 Spanish hurdler Maria Patiño was banned from the Spanish Olympic team for failing her sex verification test because she had a Y chromosome. However, she fought for 3 years to have this ruling overturned because it turns out that she also had a genetic condition that caused her to develop as female and be unresponsive to testosterone - therefore conferring no physical advantage.

Because chromosomal testing can only tell you about an athlete's genetic sex, and ignores other important factors, mandatory genetic testing was determined to be unreliable and officially stopped by the International Amateur Athletics Federation in 1992 and the International Olympic Committee in 1996. However, these organizations could still evaluate individual athletes if there was any question regarding gender identity.

Dana: More recent sex verification tests have focused on testosterone. For the 2012 Olympic Games, officials implemented a hormone test that disqualified athletes from women's events if they have testosterone levels in the normal male range, which is 7 to 30 nanomoles per liter in the blood, since the top range for women is just below 3 nanomoles per liter.

Rachel: Interesting. Mike, you mentioned earlier that testosterone is a major player in determining differences between men and women. How does testosterone actually affect athletic performance? Do you think it makes sense to use testosterone levels as a boundary between men and women, especially in sports?

Mike: Well, the most dramatic differences between the sexes are the result of testosterone. The presence or absence of the hormones testosterone and dihydrotestosterone or as I like to call it "super testosterone" determine anatomical sex. Prior to the seventh week of fetal development the gonads are undifferentiated - they're neither male nor female. Left alone, the fetus will continue on a path to develop into a female - one could say that humans are females by default. But after that seventh week of fetal development, in males hormones are called into action by the Y-chromosome, and the fetus will start to develop as male. So early on in life there is evidence that these hormones are important. But what about when we get older and want to play sports?

Well, there is a second stage in life when hormones become really important. One of the more critical periods in life-biologically speaking-is puberty. We become sexually mature, muscles grow, women and men develop the "tools" to reproduce and ensure the survival of their species by having babies. These resources or tools are heavily regulated by sex hormones like testosterone in men and estrogen in women. I think the detection of these hormones may have been an easy way for sports organizations to distinguish male versus female because for quite some time it was accepted that men produce more testosterone than women and women produce more estrogen than men, so if you just did a blood test, you can usually tell who is what. But given that we are now able to more clearly observe the variation in sex hormones in humans we see now that previous hormone detection tests did not give us a clear picture of the boundary between males and females.

As for whether testosterone affects athletic performance, that's a tough one. Yes and no is my answer. As a biomechanist, by training, I can say with some confidence that I think that certain mechanical advantages, like having larger bones and a wider body frame to support more muscle, are the largest determinant of athletic success. The other answer is that testosterone largely affects things like muscle mass and the body's ability to store fat. Bodybuilding is the best example of this, in bodybuilding men consistently have higher testosterone levels and more muscle mass, women do not have nearly the same amount of testosterone as males in this sport. Therefore, a women can achieve less muscle mass in relation to her male competitors. Also, females typically have higher fat percentages than men because it is stored differently, which translates into the finished product that one sees onstage with less muscle mass.

Rachel: Using testosterone levels as a way of distinguishing between men and women is also super problematic for transgender and intersex athletes, especially.

In the past few years, there have been a few high-profile cases where women's natural testosterone levels have caused their participation in athletic events to be contested. Female South African Distance Runner Caster Semenya (Caster Semeenya) had three times the testosterone as most women. Semenya also has internal testes instead of ovaries, which has fueled media speculations that she is not quote "fully female" end quote. Worries that athletes like Semenya have an unfair advantage due to their elevated testosterone levels have also caused some female athletes to undergo surgery to remove internal testes and other factors that might contribute to high testosterone levels. Athletes from rural areas in developing countries are especially susceptible to requirements for these kinds of highly invasive surgeries, as they may not have another career to turn to if they can no longer participate in professional athletics.

Another female runner, Dutee Chand (Dootee Channd), also faced backlash for her unusually high testosterone levels. As we highlighted in a previous SITN Listen podcast, Chand was publicly chastised and banned at one point for wanting to quote "remain who I am" end quote by refusing to undergo surgery.

These might seem like isolated cases, but athletes are actually more likely to have intersex features than the general population, so developing rules that allow intersex athletes to compete in high-profile competitions is important.

Brittany: There is an upside to Dutee's story, though. After she was banned from competitions based on her elevated testosterone levels, she filed a challenge of the International Association of Athletics Federations' rule capping women's allowable testosterone levels. In 2015, the rule was suspended because a panel of judges couldn't find enough scientific evidence that elevated testosterone provided an undue competitive advantage. So I guess that also partly answers our earlier question about how much of a difference testosterone actually makes. It'll be interesting to see what future scientific studies have to say on the matter.

Dana: Yeah. And these same controversies regarding testosterone levels have influenced the regulations concerning the participation of openly transgender athletes in professional sports. The first rules that first allowed MTF transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics were enacted in 2004 , but with some rather invasive requirements. All transgender athletes were required to have completed gender reassignment surgery, MTF athletes had to be legally recognized as female and to have undergone at least 2 years of hormone therapy, and FTM athletes had to prove they were receiving testosterone injections.

However, in 2015, the International Olympic Committee decided that gender reassignment surgery was no longer a requirement . Transwomen athletes would be allowed to compete in women's competitions as long as their testosterone levels were below 10 nanomoles per liter for a year prior to the competition, and no restrictions are in place for trans athletes identifying as men. So 2016 was the first Olympics when these updated regulations were put into play, but no openly transgender athletes have yet taken advantage of these new rules.

Rachel: It's great to see that there's progress being made in allowing transgender athletes to compete. And as these issues become more publicized, and more openly transgender athletes come forward, we're also learning more about how sex transitions affect athletic performance. A recent documentary titled, No League of Their Own , focuses on transgender athletes and the public's fear of their competitive advantage, particularly those that transition from male to female. Joanna Harper, a medical physicist, trans athlete, and advisor to the International Olympic Committee, notes that many people expected transgender athletes to have such a competitive advantage that they would "take over" the Olympics after the regulatory changes allowed them to compete in the 2004 Olympics. And yet, this supposed "takeover" hasn't happened.

Joanna is also the only researcher to publish a peer-reviewed article about trans athletes. In this study, published in 2015, she found that collectively, the male-to-female transgender athletes studied quote "got much slower after their gender transitions and put up nearly identical age-graded scores as men and as women, meaning they were equally - but no more - competitive in their new gender category," end quote. Of course, researchers still need to conduct more studies before we can say for sure, but these findings indicate that trans athletes truly don't have any undue competitive advantage after making their transitions. But unfortunately, a lot of people still believe that trans athletes transition just to dominate in sports.

Brittany: Well, it sounds like none of the testing methods people have devised for drawing boundaries between male and female athletes work all that well, or at least not in all cases. So where does that leave us? It seems like the best option for now is for athletic regulators to approach everything on a case-by-case basis. How can we reconcile this with how we currently segregate sports?

Mike: In my opinion, the sexes don't need to be segregated at the elite level depending on the sport. I know that's a bold statement but please allow me to clarify a bit. Men and women are typically segregated because of perceived disparities in strength and power. Strength and power in part comes from our muscles ability to do work, to generate force. Part of that strength comes from surface area, bigger muscles equals bigger force. When a female athlete begins training at the elite level, she is disrupting the traditional energetics model. The evolutionary energetic model says that a considerable amount of female energy consumption is devoted to reproductive effort, when that model is disrupted a woman's mechanical power can become comparable to her male counterparts. In fact, in 2015 Katie Ledecky beat Ryan Lochte's 1500 meter olympic qualifying time from 2004. Does this mean that men's and women's swimming should be combined immediately? Not necessarily. Female speed records in running and swimming are consistently 10 percent slower than men's. However, when you factor out the larger muscle mass in men and compare muscular strength relative to cross-sectional area of muscle, the strength of male and female athletes is nearly equal. Which suggests that in athletics strength and power is largely a direct effect of the training for the sport in addition to the size of the muscle. So the sexes do not need to be separate because of strength.

Also, I want to bring up that elite athletes have sport-specific body types for their events. This is important to note because some sporting events are clearly designed around the gender of the individual. For example, in gymnastics men do not compete on the balance beam. Women typically have a lower center of gravity and a wide pelvis which provides the extraordinary balance necessary to perform acrobatics on a thin slice of wood.

Similarly, women don't compete on still rings, but men do. Traditionally, men's gymnastics has been about highlighting the physical power of men, so the still rings event is about highlighting the incredible upper body strength of men. Without oversimplifying, we might think of these sports as being designed around the physical bodies of athletes, which in our current sports regulations, tend to fall along gendered lines.

Rachel: That's an important idea to think about, Mike, and on the other hand, there are some instances in which non-physical reasons have been supplied for holding separate competitions for men and women. Chess, for instance, has historically has featured gender-segregated tournaments. And many video gaming leagues and eSports have also made the decision to hold gender-segregated competitions. Leagues say that this separation doesn't have anything to do with differences in ability between genders. Instead, corporations such as MindSports International have explained this decision as a concerted effort to encourage smaller demographic populations-like women-to grow. According to Matt Weber, the director of operations at eSports organization Team Liquid, quote "Gaming competition is an insanely male-dominated world and it's hilariously daunting and unforgiving to women for a variety of reasons, both socially and game wise," end quote. Female-only leagues that remove these social barriers and foster community between players might indeed help encourage women to participate in historically male-dominated spheres.

But I worry that this is only a short-term solution. Esports and gaming communities are notorious for their sexism. The 2014 Gamergate campaign immediate comes to mind, which was a sexist harassment campaign against female game developers such as Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu and media critics like Anita Sarkeesian. Some might say that eSports is one of the last areas of society to catch up in regards to inclusion of women and really, non-white male populations, into their player base.

I'm skeptical that women and other minority groups can ever be truly integrated into the mainstream gaming community if they always-or even usually-compete separately.

Equalizing monetary investments for women and men's soccer goes beyond just differences in player wages. Male and female players are also treated differently in regard to playing conditions. Men and women often practice and play in different facilities. And while men typically play on grass, women's teams are often forced to use fields covered in astroturf , which can worsen play and lead to a higher rate of injuries compared to regular grass. Replacing artificial fields with real grass, however, will be a costly investment and so far many leagues have been unwilling to spend the money on their female teams.

Refusing to fairly compensate female athletes for their efforts and neglecting to invest money into female sports facilities harms more than just the players directly involved-it sends a message to all female players that investing in the capabilities of women isn't worth it.

Dana: I'm also struck by the fact that many of the highest-paid and best-publicized sports (like football and basketball) are ones that tend to prioritize more masculine talents (like strength). After all, women stereotypically do have advantages that would be important for some sports, like balance, gracefulness, cooperation, and multi-tasking. But these advantages are not typically recognized as being as important for sports as brute strength. So I wonder if that discrepancy also contributes to ideas that investing in female athletes isn't worth it, or that women's skills are less valuable.

Mike: And I think a big part of that is media coverage - changing how we as a culture view women in sports will come down, in large part, to how we address the ways media can improve their coverage and portrayal of female athletes.

Brittany: Cheryl Cooky and colleagues at Purdue University conducted a series of studies looking at how ESPN SportsCenter broadcasts have covered women's sports over the past 25 years. While overt sexist comments are no longer commonplace, there still remains a large gap in the quantity and quality of women's sports coverage. A vast majority of recap coverage goes to professional and college football, men's basketball, and baseball. One study found only 2% of coverage was dedicated to women's sports, with preference instead shown sometimes to even out of season men's sports or quirky side-stories about mascots or stadium upgrades.

When women are mentioned in news stories the tendency to view them as sexualized objects has been replaced with the tendency to highlight women athletes in their roles as mothers or other non-sports related attributes. This was perhaps most evident during the recent Olympics.

Rachel: Yeah, I think we all saw some pretty egregious media coverage during the Olympics this summer. For example, Andy Murray, winner of two singles tennis gold medals, was congratulated for being the quote "First person to ever win two gold medals in tennis," end quote by a newscaster who obviously didn't know that both Serena and Venus Williams have achieved twice this feat. Similarly, equating women's achievements to those of more popular men revealed even more sexism. USA Gymnast Simone Biles was referred to as the "Michael Jordan of Gymnastics," and female swimmer, Katie Ledecky's personal record-breaking gold medal apparently couldn't hold up against Michael Phelps' silver, as Phelps took bigger headlines in newspapers the morning after. But none of these semantic fails holds a candle to Corey Cogdell, a female trapshooter whose identity was boiled down to "Wife of a Bears Lineman," and Hungarian swimmer, Katinka Housszu who, even when her identity is known, has to deal with her gold medal success being directly attributed to her husband and swimming coach, who was referred to as quote "the man responsible," end quote for her success.

Brittany: I agree! And I think first we need improvements in the availability of opportunities at the collegiate level. In 1972, the US department of education passed Title IX, which was the first piece of legislation to make illegal sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. This included college athletic departments.

Over the past few decades women have definitely made great strides through Title IX. Before the law, there was only one girl playing varsity sports for every 27 guys . Now, that ratio is 1 to 3. Nearly five times more women compete in college sports today than before the law. Yet despite these gains inequalities still persist. For example, women make up over half of the student body but still receive only about a third of the overall athletic operating budgets and a third of the dollars spent to recruit new athletes. And Title IX continues to face controversy from those who perceive it as advantaging women at the direct expense of existing men's sports teams.
TOXIC MASCULINITY AND REGULATION (of aggression)
We've talked about a lot of cringe-worthy things so far, including sexist failures to acknowledge women's achievements and policy-heavy methods for dealing with gender inequalities in sports. Not to mention that we haven't even talked about the presence of femininity in today's sports culture, including emerging athletic activities like zumba that target women and trends like athleisure, or the wearing of athletic clothing, yoga pants in particular, in non-sports environments.

And sadly, what we have been able to discuss is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ways society has shown a permanent spotlight on men, focusing on male actions, and male bodies.

This focus is best illustrated by the ways in which male athletes who commit crimes are known first by their sport, and then by their injustice. The next 5 or so minutes of this podcast will discuss issues of sexual traumas that might be triggering or uncomfortable to some listeners, so we wanted to warn you in advance. (short pause)

One aspect of male athletes' media fame that does not always get attention in the media is the focus on aggression within the context of athletics, which has a particularly gendered focus. High profile cases like that of Broc Turner and football players at Baylor have recently shined a light on sexual assault cases, leaving colleges to grapple with how to formulate policies and practices to prevent sexual assault. So let's cut straight to the chase - ho w do athletics affect our perceptions of what it means to be male or female? And why does it feel like almost every day I'm reading another article in the news about members of sports teams being involved in sexual assault cases?

Dana: There is some research on that, especially as it pertains to masculinity. The term "toxic masculinity" describes our culturally-constructed conception of "manliness," which is exemplified by being violent, unemotional, sexually aggressive, etc., and it's a big problem in sports. Many people argue that the culture of hypermasculinity that is prevalent in many all-male team sports encourages and normalizes misogynistic and homophobic attitudes. Eric Anderson (a professor of sports, masculinity, and sexuality at University of Winchester) has said that "Boys and men are thought to adopt socionegative views about women in order to become part of the ingroup and to establish their masculine worth among peers." And this can have worrying consequences. In a multi-year study from the mid-1990s, researchers Crosset, Benedict, and McDonald found that although male student-athletes made up 3.3 percent of student populations, they made up 19 percent of reported sexual assault perpetrators .

Rachel: Adding to that, Dana, research by Laura Finley, an assistant professor of sociology and criminology at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida, says that this problem is getting worse, as research shows that athletes are disproportionately represented in sexual assault cases, reportedly committing ⅓ of sexual assault crimes - over and above that of non-athlete peers. This would mean that athletes are committing sexual assault at rates almost six times higher than their peers. Finley attributes this disproportionate representation to athletes in "power and performance sports" who turn up over and over again as perpetrators. Those sports are football, high-level basketball, hockey, wrestling and boxing. So is there something about these sports that differentiate them from other sports?

Rachel: It's also important to keep in mind that athletics and our perceptions of athletics also affect our ideas of sport and its function in our society. I think it's easy to conflate sport as a means of expressing aggression or acting aggressively with sexual aggression as it exists in our current culture. Sport is not necessarily the problem, per se, but as demonstrated in this podcast, sport provides us with a space to critically think about toxic masculinity and aggression.
Conclusion: social justice + inclusion in athletics
Dana: Agreed. All throughout history, sports have been a microcosm of the current society, in which gender roles are both created and reinforced. Over the past century or so, as women have made strides towards equality, this has been reflected in their increased participation in sports.

Brittany: Equal opportunities for all people in sports goes beyond fairness and extends into equal access to the lifelong benefits afforded by athletic participation. Dr. Stevenson at the Wharton School of business researched how Title IX legislation as a whole, including components outside of just sports participation, has impacted girl's lives. She found that changes set in motion by Title IX contributed to a 20% increase in college attendance and 40% rise in employment for 25-34 year old women. And an economics professor at U-Illinois found girls' athletic participation caused by Title IX was associated with a 7% lower risk of obesity 20-25 years later .

Dana: And perhaps if this trend continues and female, transgender, and intersex athletes are afforded more equitable treatment in sports, this will be reflected in greater equality in other arenas of life. After all, playing sports (whether competitively or just for fun), leads to lifelong health benefits, as well as fostering development of leadership skills, improving cooperation, and boosting self-esteem.

So maybe this is a good optimistic way to end our reflections about sports and gender...

Mike: Well, that's certainly the hope! And that's it for this episode! Soon, SITN Listen will be back with more. Tune in to upcoming episodes in space exploration, the effects of climate change on urban planning, and more. In the meantime, we want to hear your thoughts on sports and gender, and your suggestions for the podcast.

E-mail us at sitnpodcast@gmail.com or tweet @SITNBoston. If you liked today's show, definitely subscribe on iTunes and leave us a review. We're really grateful for any feedback we get and positive reviews will help others find our podcast. The SITN blog and this episode's show notes can be found at our website http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/

Until next time...
Works Consulted
Nelson, R. J. (2011). Sex Determination and Differentiation in: An introduction to behavioral endocrinology (89-142).

Vandenbergh, J. G. (2003). Prenatal hormone exposure and sexual variation. American Scientist , (3), 218-225.

Cooky C. et al (2015). A Quarter Century of excluding women sports in televised news and highlight shows. Communication & Sport 3 (3), 261-287.

Flake, C.R. et al (2012). Advantage men: The sex pay gap in professional tennis. International Rev. For The Sociology of Sport 48 (3), 366-376.

Rowland (2012). Decision making in intercollegiate athletics: One institution's journey to maintain Title IX compliance. Dissertation, Georgia State University.

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Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender - Science in the News

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By Dana Boebinger, Rachel Hanebutt, Brittany Mayweather, and Michael Ruiz Produced by Michelle Frank Dana: Hello, and welcome to Sit'N Listen: a production of Science in the News. We're a graduate-student run organization at Harvard University that catalyzes discussion between scientists and other experts and enthusiasts.

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Hannah Mouncey knocked back from playing AFLW

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Hannah Mouncey knocked back from playing AFLW

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"The AFL based its decision on the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, which states athletes can be discriminated against based on their sex “if strength, stamina or physique is relevant”."

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THE AFL has blocked transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey from participating in the AFLW's 2018 season.

Lee Gaskin, a reporter working for the AFL in South Australia, revealed the game's governing body deemed Mouncey's "physical disparity is significant and would give unreasonable advantage".

Despite being denied for 2018, there is a chance Mouncey will be accepted for the 2019 season.

Mouncey previously represented Australia as a male in European handball.

Footy journalist Sam McClure said the AFL based its decision on the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act, which states athletes can be discriminated against based on their sex "if strength, stamina or physique is relevant".

Mouncey has released a statement saying she accepted the decision.

"While I am disappointed with the AFL's decision regarding my participation in the AFLW draft, I accept the league's decision and thank them for the genuine way in which they approached my situation," she said.

"Despite not being able to take part in the draft, I note that while I am not able to compete in the AFLW this season, the AFL has given me the all clear to play for Ainslie next year in the AFL Canberra competition for which I am very grateful and look forward to doing in 2018, before hopefully being able to nominate for next year's draft.

"I will be making no further comment at this time."

Mouncey also wished the girls good luck for the draft tomorrow in a tweet.

AFL General Manager, Inclusion and Social Policy, Tanya Hosch thanked the 27-year-old for her understanding.

"Hannah's passion for football is undeniable, and I want to thank her and her team for their constructive participation in the decision-making process," she said in an AFL media release.

"It was important to involve the right stakeholders to review all the information and data available. Every case will be decided on its own merits along with the individual circumstances of each future nominee," Hosch says.

"We acknowledge Hannah's openness and co-operation. She has contributed to a process which will substantially inform the development of the AFL's transgender policy and procedure for future players at the elite level."

"The AFL has made very strong commitments to equality and inclusion at all levels of the game. We recognise that participating in sport has physical, psychological and social benefits and we are committed to making Australian football on every level welcoming to all in our community."
'IT COULD GET QUITE MESSY'
A leading Australian media lawyer says the AFL is in danger of being accused of discrimination for the polarising decision to deny Mouncey a spot in the league.

The 190cm, 100kg ruck played eight games for Ainslie in Canberra's women's competition this season and kicked 17 goals - but AFLW clubs are still unsure if they will be able to recruit her through the AFLW draft.

Having previously played for Australia's men's handball team, Mouncey began taking gender transition hormones in 2015.

Melbourne-based lawyer Justin Quill on Tuesday warned the AFL it will leave itself open to a "messy" legal challenge if it denies Mouncey accreditation as a sanctioned AFLW footballer.

"If they don't it could get quite messy and quite complicated if they go the other route," Quill told SEN's Breakfast on Tuesday.

"I think they will allow her to play. I think her levels that she's tested at, as I understand it, you guys just talked about the IOC guidelines, she's well, well within the testosterone levels that the IOC will allow and I think they (The AFL) will rely on that.

"They will use that. I also think they will develop a policy for future cases."

He said the IOC precedent means there is little scope for the AFL to try to block her inclusion if they decide Mouncey should not be allowed to compete.

"That's going to be very difficult for them to do and that's why I think they will allow her to play," Quill said.

"They could say, 'She's too big. She's too strong. Her strength and stamina et cetera is greater'. They could try and say that, but I don't think there really is much of a basis because if they don't allow her to play I think there is a reasonable chance that they could be facing a legal challenge and I'm sure there are bodies out there that would support her to make such a challenge.

"She would say, 'I've been discriminated against because of my gender'. In the eyes of the law, she would say, 'I'm a female and I should be allowed to play and you're not allowing me to play and therefore I'm being discriminated against'.

"That will be very much in the minds of the AFL when they make their decision."

The AFL follows International Olympic Committee rules which state an athlete must prove their testosterone count is below a certain level.

It is understood Mouncey meets those requirements.

Inspired by the success of the inaugural AFL Women's season, Mouncey has previously spoken of her desire to test herself at the highest level. But she took to Twitter on Monday to decline further comment. "At the moment I am not in a position to make any comment surrounding my availability for the draft," Mouncey wrote.

"(I) will not be doing any interviews or making comment on the situation."
- with AAP

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Transgender star responds to AFL verdict

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THE AFL has blocked transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey from participating in the AFLW's 2018 season. Lee Gaskin, a reporter working for the AFL in South Australia, revealed the game's governing body deemed Mouncey's "physical disparity is significant and would give unreasonable advantage".

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This video of Caster Semenya and Lynsey Sharp following the 800m final of 2016 Rio Olympics captures the complexity and sensitivity of the issue. Caster Semenya at a high after achieving her dreams and Lynsey Sharp devastated by the feeling her dreams may be always out of reach under the current rules. 

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This video of Caster Semenya and Lynsey Sharp following the 800m final of 2016 Rio Olympics captures the complexity and sensitivity of the issue. Caster Semenya at a high after achieving her dreams and Lynsey Sharp devastated by the feeling her dreams may be always out of reach under the current rules. 

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Testosterone? Heartbreaking Lynsey Sharp Interview! After Womens 800m final 2016 Rio 2016 Olympics

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"Caster Semenya should be celebrated for her gifts, not punished, one of Britain’s most respected athletes has said on the eve of the London leg of the Diamond League season."

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"Caster Semenya should be celebrated for her gifts, not punished, one of Britain’s most respected athletes has said on the eve of the London leg of the Diamond League season."

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Caster Semenya was a divisive gold medallist at London 2012. As the city prepares to host the Anniversary Games this weekend, new rules for hyperandrogenic athletes are pushing her out of the sport.

Caster Semenya should be celebrated for her gifts, not punished, one of Britain's most respected athletes has said on the eve of the London leg of the Diamond League season.

The woman who monopolises the middle distances won her first Olympic gold medal in Stratford six years ago. She has become a far more popular and accepted athlete since then. Semenya is missing the London Anniversary Games to compete in Monaco and her teammates - and many of her rivals - fear controversial new rules will see her exit the sport after next month's Diamond League finals.

Semenya vows to fight IAAF testosterone ruling

Ignorance over the non-binary nature of gender saw Semenya widely held up as an unsympathetic cheat back in 2012. The IAAF governing body is this year resurrecting efforts to legislate against intersex athletes receiving a perceived advantage. Their roadmap threatens to disproportionately impact the 27-year-old and a bubbling victimisation backlash is coming to a head.

From 1 November, female track athletes with elevated levels of testosterone participating in events Semenya typically features in will be required to take medication to reduce levels of the hormone. Athletes who refuse will be shut out of competing in a thin band of events ranging from 400 metres to the mile in international meets under the new IAAF rules.

Semenya's condition is called hyperandrogenism. "It's tough for a lot of women in the 800m, 400m and 1500m at the moment to compare ourselves," Australian rival Brittany McGowan said earlier this year. McGowan lost on home soil to Semenya at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Team England was captained Down Under by Anyika Onuora, who has experienced more than once what it feels like to trail in Semenya's wake. However, she has come out calling for Semenya's attributes to be acknowledged rather than sanctioned by the IAAF, who bring the Diamond League to London this weekend.

"I speak to her on a regular basis on the circuit," Onuora told The Independent. "The first thing I always say is, 'you better be on the start list for the 400 metres'. If you're her rival, you could say, 'she's gaining an advantage', but that's probably coming from your selfish needs, as opposed to looking at someone who's just phenomenal and it's not her fault."

Semenya is most famous for exploits across 800 and 1,500 metres but she runs a handful of races across 400m, Onuora's event, most seasons. "I think it's great that there's someone like her who can kick a lot of ass in the 400 but also kill the 800 and kill the 1500 too. There's no denying that she has an immense amount of talent and I personally don't think she should be punished for it. If it happens in the near future it would be a shame and I personally wouldn't agree with it."

Eyebrows have been raised at the study the IAAF are citing to support the introduction of new regulations. Testosterone was said to make a significant difference in five events, the research found. Bigger differences were recorded in the hammer throw (4.53 per cent) and pole vault (2.94 per cent) than the 400m (2.73 per cent) and 800m (1.78 per cent). Neither hammer throwers nor vaulters are going to be subject to the new regulations. Meanwhile the 1500m, for which there was no effect, will require hyperandrogenic athletes to self-medicate along with those who want to compete in the mile, which wasn't even assessed as part of the study.

The study has been scrutinised by the athletics community since the new rules were proposed in April. Raised eyebrows extended to disillusionment in South Africa, where there are fears Semenya will quit if her appeal fails. The Court of Arbitration in Sport will deliver their verdict in the autumn. "We are all waiting to see how it turns out at the end of the season," teammate Wenda Nel told The Independent. "I'm curious to see what will happen in that regard, if she will continue or stop the sport. She has shown anyone who might be in the same situation that no matter what, until they lock you in jail and you physically can't get out, do what you love and do it to the full. I think that's a great example. The support in the country is right behind her."

Another teammate, Margo Chene Pretorius, feels Semenya has been victimised and that the alleged advantages intersex athletes enjoy has not been proven. "Having done [scientific] research myself, I know it's not valid if it's based on one study only. They [hyperandrogenic athletes] work just as hard as we do. It's not that they're doing less. You cannot just depend on your genetic deviations. You have to work for what you want. It feels biased. If they did more studies, then [the IAAF] would have a foot to stand on."

The African National Congress, South Africa's governing party, has accused authorities of displaying "blatant racism" through their plans to regulate middle distance athletes exhibiting high testosterone while ignoring the issue in the events that their referenced study has shown it to confer the most advantage.

US national hammer throw champion Deanna Price says she would be happy for the rules to be extended to her event to give them credibility. "They can test me for anything," she said. "And if the tests found my testosterone level was giving me an advantage, I'd be happy to take the medication to lower it."

Pole vaulter Katie Nageotte, who also represents America, disagrees. "The pole vault is a very fair playing field at the moment, very clean, and I don't know what bringing [new rules] in would do to that dynamic."

The IAAF says it is not passing judgment on people's sex or gender, but says it reserves the right to organise events in men's and women's disciplines only. "Having levels of circulating testosterone in the normal male range and being androgen-sensitive gives a performance advantage of at least five or six per cent," it argues.

Semenya - who endured an eleven month exile from the sport to undergo gender tests as a teenager - has recently remarked: "As a middle-distance runner, I have done enough for my collection." You can read that as a statement of triumph or a statement of defeat. But you can only go round in circles for so long, on or off the track.
Follow the Independent Sport on Instagram here, for all of the best images, videos and stories from around the sporting world.

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Athletes unite behind Caster Semenya as endgame looms

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Caster Semenya was a divisive gold medallist at London 2012. As the city prepares to host the Anniversary Games this weekend, new rules for hyperandrogenic athletes are pushing her out of the sport. Caster Semenya should be celebrated for her gifts, not punished, one of Britain's most respected athletes has said on the eve of the London leg of the Diamond League season.

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This padlet explores the complexities involved with gender representation in sport. Historically, sport was seen as a 'man's domain' a way for men to display feats of courage and strength. Ancient games such as the olympics were men only. Not until the 1900s did women's participation in sports emerge. This social transformation from a one to two gender model was a significant advancement in equality for women. It proved that women not being able to physically or emotionally compete was a mere social construct.

Despite these improvements, significant challenges exist today with the need to understand the complexities around the participation of athletes who do not fit the "two gender model." Modern day arguments of gender not being biological, however a social construct, presents cases where the gender lines are blurring. Individuals are choosing not to associate with a specific gender. Furthermore, although male and female representation in sport has seen a significant improvement, it excludes participation for some. in particular, for transgender athletes or athletes whose genetic hormones do not meet societies norm.

The case of Caster Semenya and Lynsey Sharp, is an example of the complexities of finding an equitable solution for all athletes. On one hand, Caster Semenya, a female athlete whose testosterone levels are far higher than society's female 'accepted state'. She has been provided the opportunity to compete in the women's Olympic which is a huge success in overcoming past inequalities, leading to her achieving her dreams of winning olympic gold. On the other hand, Lynsey Sharp, societies 'typical female athlete' who see's herself up against a woman with the strength and power (in her mind) she cannot possibly compete with. She  feels devastated at what she perceives as an inequality within the sport and her dreams of an olympic gold being out of reach.

Finally, Hannah Mouncey a womens AFL footballer also represents a compelling case of a transgender athlete who is unable to compete at the highest level due to rules imposed on her. There is a strong case for both Hannah Mouncey and Caster Semeya to continue to be afforded the opportunity to compete at the highest level, however, there is a complex balance of achieving equality when both athletes are arguably at an advantage due to their hormonal genetics. As seen with the 100k boy playing rubgy, argument exists that it is not simply a matter of gender, however, there needs to be rules in place ensuring a 'level playing ground' regardless of gender. However, this argument continues to ensure that a minority is not provided the same rights as those who meet societies 'two gender model', This is issue clearly needs more attention and discussion to reach an equitable balance.