Assignment 2 Draft
Do All Transgender Athletes Have To Compete In Sports?
When playing a sport, you are divided into a team aligned by your sex. It is usually by women or men. This occurs because of the physical differences plus the tradition and culture. Within all this, there is an outstanding erasure of transgender beings who are in sports that are not shined light upon. Not all transgender athletes have to compete in sports – just those who are interested in the game. Not everyone is equal to each other, and that is just by fact, but when an individual identifies as such, they should deserve to be with their people. Transgender people deserve to be sporty with those who are cisgender because of how they identify themselves, they work just as hard as others, and they put up a hard fight to fit certain standards.
In discussing the fight transgender individuals put up with in sports, the various doctors in this work take note on the unfortunate being of transgender people. The work states, “Sadly the afore mentioned barriers keep many TDG youth from experiencing the numerous positive mental health and social outcomes that PA/S” (Williams, McKenna, Artessa, Moore, 837). This statement is quite a fact – many TDG youth are under a certain barrier due to them not having the same standards as the next person. This is why many people experience gender envy. It is when a person who is transgender sees another person (who is to be cisgender), and gains ‘fomo’ on having those looks or features that the particular person has. What goes on in the mind in who is transgender think about how they constantly will not live up to expectations made by the world of sports, leading them to loose hope. Also, gender affirming care is apart of the topic. While a trans man will take testosterone, and a trans woman will take, and so on… It is because they want to make themselves feel like themself. As well as hormones, there are also the surgeries. The surgeries help a lot as well. They may help the person physically, but that doesn’t stop others from making people feel like they are not what they are worth. This hurts a lot, and adds on to the plate of neglect.
While on the topic of transgender people participating in sports generally, Ewelina Kamasz, a professor at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, defines the difference between sex and gender. She explains, “Gender is distinct from sex and traditionally described as the result of culture, social institutions and learned behavior. According to this approach, gender is a social construct and a product of nurture whereas sex is a product of nature” (Kamasz, 573). This definition illustrates the duality between the two drastic topics. Sex, in my opinion, is just what you were assigned at when birthed. They assigned you to either the male or female sex because of what you have been born with. While this may be, gender comes in to play soon after. Though one may have some sort of genitalia, that doesn’t mean they want to associate themself with that sex. A person can identify themself as whatever they please. Your sex does not define you. Your gender most definitely does, and that is completely up to you.
There are those today who love to argue that transgender people should have their own league/section all in all. While this may be not a bad idea for some, there are others who’d still feel like they’d be invalidated. The whole point of why transgender people fight to be in sports in simply to fit in. They want to compete with other people who look just like them. But though they may not be the same gender as them, they’d still like to be apart of it. They don’t want to feel left out. Being left out of all of this is the reason why this conflict even exists. When will it be resolved… Who knows? I just know that should br fair for those who identify as a male, female, or the nonbinary shall be able to participate in sports, and while they’re doing that, they shall be with their respective groups.
I feel this topic is very important being that all transgender beings alike feel as if they are often mistaken for who they are. I am a man who doesn’t participate in serious sports because he knows he won’t be respected in the game. Throughout highschool, I played volleyball often in the gym right before class started, and honestly wanted to take it serious along with my music studies. I knew it wasn’t going to satisfy me though. It was going to cause me great pain – by sitting there being constantly misgendered and deadnamed and teased by others on the daily. Lots of people in sports have no respect or filter, and choose to shit on others on how they identify themselves.