IOC just disqualified women for having too much testosterone. Why do some women have more testosterone? If it’s naturally occurring why isn’t it like height for example in basketball? Just a natural advantage. My first post here, thanks in advance!!
In: Biology
The reason this is not just considered a natural advantage has to do with trans people and their place in these kinds of physical competitions.
People are worried about the idea of a trans woman who was born with a male body competing against women with an unfair advantage. It would be extremely transphobic and a horrible policy to base it entirely off of genitalia because that is not what gives the advantage! Further, there are surgeries that can change them, and we don’t want to be in the business of checking them.
So, using testosterone levels as a metric ended up being their compromise to make sure that women don’t have the advantages of a male physiology when they compete. To be fair using this metric, it has to apply to all women, not just trans women. This system really isn’t perfect. But it’s a hard problem to solve. It’s important that we be accepting of trans people and we don’t exclude them just for being trans.
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