Table of ContentsIntroductionLiterature ReviewTransgender Representation in Sports MediaRespect for Transgenders in Sports FanshipPersonal PositionConclusionIntroductionAlthough transgender people have always existed throughout the timeline of humanity, Societal acceptance of deviating from assigned genders continues to be a controversial debate. Particularly in modern Western cultures, gender and sex are largely synonymous. While cultures throughout history have recognized transgender people, explaining their identity as a third gender or a soul trapped in the wrong body, modern cultures fail to separate biological sex from societal gender. There is interconnectivity between the two, in that gender is a socially constructed application of the expectations given to different sexes, but the lack of acceptance and knowledge has led to discrimination and suffering of transgender people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The discussion of trans rights is once again reaching the forefront of societal debate. As Western cultures have begun to grant basic human rights to people in the queer community, trans people have also begun to push for visibility and rights. The fight for transgender rights is an uphill battle, as in recent years trans people have been denied access to public restrooms corresponding to their identity, banned from military service, and posthumously disrespected . For example, Leelah Alcorn, a trans woman from Ohio, sparked a national debate after committing suicide following forced conversion therapy. After her death, some news outlets referred to her as a boy, using her birth name (commonly known as a "dead name" for transgender people undergoing a name change) in media coverage. His family continued the unfair treatment of the deceased by burying him as a boy, using his dead name on the headstone (Mohney). Transgender rights made headlines again as Caitlyn Jenner debuted her post-transition identity, leading to Jenner winning the Arthur Ashe Award. Courage Award at the ESPYs, fueling the debate on the definition of courage. Jenner's victory also forced the transgender debate into the sports world, where it remained fairly quiet, only making headlines at lower levels, where high school athletes were denied participation due to their gender identity. This sudden intersection of sports and transgender rights inspired a debate that very few people were ready or willing to have. Literature Review As noted previously, transgender identities are not new, but academic research on queer identities are generally lacking. Due to the recent surge in acceptance of homosexuals in Western societies, research into specific identities has increased significantly. Homosexuality is no longer a taboo research subject, but other identities continue to attract the interest of researchers. Transgender research exists almost exclusively in medical and psychological research. The basis of transgender research lies in the sociological idea of ​​gender as performance. Harold Garfinkel conducted this research, studying Agnès, a trans woman, to theorize gender as “doing” and as “choreography of micro-interactions” (Papoulias). This theory further led tosociologists to study and argue the social application of gender norms, frequently used by feminist theorists such as SJ Kessler and W. McKenna (Papoulias). Other theorists have continued this view of gender, distinguishing between performative gender and the sexed body, thereby helping to draw lines between the performativity of gender among transvestites and drag artists, who often identify with the gender that suits them. is assigned when they do not wear a costume, and transgender people, who exist entirely. within their interpreted genre (Papoulias). Beyond Western cultures, anthropological studies of transgender people have been abundant. The best-studied examples, as Papoulias notes, "are the berdaches (or two-spirit people) in Native American cultures, the hijra in India, the kathoe in Thailand, the xanith of Oman, and the mahu in the Pacific Islands" (Papoulias ). Although queer theorists take credit for launching transgender activism and research, recent activists and scholars are beginning to distance themselves from the previously emphasized roles of gender performativity and gender deconstruction. Activists and scholars like Jay Prosser argue that gender trivialization undermines the strength of transgender people's true gender identities (Prosser). For transgender people, the pressure to conform to cisnormative gender identities throughout life is significant and harmful, as Levitt and Ippolito discovered. Both distal and proximal factors, such as the media and family members, exert relentless pressures for conformity. Beyond simple pressures to conform, transgender people are more prone to verbal and physical threats and violence than cisgender people. The daily fears of many transgender people include violence and curiosity. Levitt and Ippolito found that transgender people are often treated as an object to be examined rather than as a human being. Due to the lack of mainstream information regarding transgender identities, transgender youth often must struggle with external and internal factors to achieve peace, but they must do so without knowing that there is terminology to describe their experiences ( Levitt and Ippolito).Transgender politics in sports is even less studied and discussed than the spectrum of identities itself. From 1968 to 2000, women participating in the Olympic Games were forced to submit to “sex tests”. The introduction of Title IX in 1972 opened the doors to female athletes, but without any mention of what defines a woman. The 1990s saw the development of the Gay Games' transgender and intersex inclusion policy. In 2004, the International Olympic Committee introduced the Stockholm Consensus, which allowed "transsexual" athletes to participate, provided the athlete had undergone sex reassignment surgery. Although these advancements appear to indicate positive changes toward transgender inclusion, the sports world as a whole remains stuck to its normative gender binary (Sykes). Very few examples of transgender athletes at elite sporting levels have ever reached a mass audience - notes Sykes. athletes, such as tennis player Reneé Richards, golfer Mianne Baggar, cyclist Michele Dumaresq and kick boxer Parinya, who have all competed at the elite level of women's sport. Sykes is unable to name any female or male athletes who have competed successfully at the elite levels of men's sports. For the success of the women mentioned previously, other women have been denied access to women's sports. Richards' success against US Tenniswas followed by discriminatory rules in other leagues, including the United States Golf Administration's creation of a rule allowing only assigned females at birth to compete, thus destroying the growing success of Charlotte Ann Woods (Sykes). discussions about transgender rights in sports began to gain momentum, organized sports began to panic. This is largely due to the threat of subverting imagined and fantasized bodies in the context of professional athletes (Sykes). The sport has consistently attempted to be exempt from transgender rights laws. In the United Kingdom, a complaint has been filed against the country for violating international law. The government responded with the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, designed to protect the civil rights of transgender people. UK Sport requested an exemption from the law, and the exemption was granted (Sykes). Also in Australia, sport is exempt from civil rights laws. A major problem for transgender athletes is the difficulty of integrating into the two main categories of sports competitions. Although trans men are men and trans women are women, people often think of trans men as trans men and trans women as trans women. This introduces what Hargie, Mitchell, and Somerville call "the problem of locker rooms.” The discomfort of shared locker rooms and other facilities poses the biggest barrier to entry for transgender people trying to get involved in sports. Because many transgender people do not come out of sports until after adolescence, transgender athletes often have no experience socializing in locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. There is an equal level of discomfort in entering the locker room corresponding to the gender they were assigned at birth, because it is not a space for people of their gender. Locker rooms also create a fear of intruding into the safe space of others, according to Hargie, Mitchell and Somerville's findings. Locker rooms and restrooms are a public space for gender validation, which is understandably terrifying for transgender youth and transgender athletes. One of the main arguments against allowing transgender athletes to compete is the fear of an unfair advantage for male athletes over female athletes. This argument emphasizes earlier muscular development, high testosterone levels, a higher muscle-to-fat ratio, greater heart and lung capacities, and a tendency toward greater motor aptitude (Sykes). While this may be true for pre-transition athletes, it assumes that all men are inherently better athletes than all women and that men will change gender to succeed where they might not otherwise have been able to. in men's sports. Reneé Richards was only allowed to compete in the United States Open tennis tournament because her testicles had been removed and her body was physically "weakened" by the resulting loss of testosterone (Westbrook and Schilt). The Stockholm Consensus was adopted to allow transgender people to compete if they had undergone surgery aimed at “minimizing gender advantages” (Westbrook and Schilt). These transphobic regulations ignore the scientific facts: trans women who have undergone hormone replacement therapy, with or without sex reassignment surgery, have similar testosterone levels and body fat percentages to cis women (Sykes). Transgender Representation in Sports Media As previously noted, transgender athletes.