Questioning representations of athletes with elevated testosterone levels in elite women’s sports: a critical policy analysis
Article
Article Title | Questioning representations of athletes with elevated testosterone levels in elite women’s sports: a critical policy analysis |
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ERA Journal ID | 123149 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Bromdal, Annette (Author), Olive, Rebecca (Author) and Walker, Brooke (Author) |
Journal Title | International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics |
Journal Citation | 12 (4), pp. 699-715 |
Number of Pages | 17 |
Year | 2020 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1940-6940 |
1940-6959 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2020.1834432 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19406940.2020.1834432 |
Abstract | Sport sociologists are often required to interpret, question and respond to the ways in which fairness and eligibility concerns in elite sports are represented in policy frameworks produced by sports governing bodies. Drawing on Carol Bacchi’s critical policy analysis framework, ‘what is the problem represented to be?’, this paper explores the importance in devel- oping a critical eye and reading about representations of women athletes with particular differences of sex development (DSD) with elevated testosterone levels and the idea of regulating their testosterone levels in the female classification. Through using the above critical policy analysis line of questioning, this analysis aims to consider what the problem of women athletes with relevant DSDs with elevated testosterone levels in female elite sports is represented to be; what the assumptions underlying these representations of the problem are; how these representations of the problem have come about; what is left unproblematic in this problem representation; what the lived effects produced by these representations of the problem are; and how these representations of the problem have been produced, disseminated, defended, questioned, disrupted and even could be replaced. The critical policy analysis argues that the continuing persistence of policies marking particular women with DSDs as a problem, is related in part to societal views defining particular bodies and athletic abilities in the female classification as either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and in need of fixing. In moving forward and redressing the problem, it requires the embodiment of biomedical ethics and human rights advocacy work by sports governing bodies. |
Keywords | biomedical ethics; intersex; critical policy analysis; sex/ gender; women’s sport; testosterone |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 441099. Sociology not elsewhere classified |
440599. Gender studies not elsewhere classified | |
500101. Bioethics | |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Byline Affiliations | School of Education |
University of Queensland | |
Independent Researcher, Australia | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q5z24/questioning-representations-of-athletes-with-elevated-testosterone-levels-in-elite-women-s-sports-a-critical-policy-analysis
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