2004
Volume 46, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0167-2444
  • E-ISSN: 2949-8651

Abstract

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the controversy around the assumed sex of boxer Imane Khelif during the 2024 Summer Olympics to consider the history of sex tests in the Olympic Games. This history shows us that when unruly bodies that cannot conform to a binary notion of sex emerge, people start to look for signifiers of sex on different locations on or in the body: from secondary and primary sex characteristics, to chromosomes and hormone levels. This article discusses how each of these different locations are accompanied by different forms of mediation and abstraction that are not neutral, but rather mask how our ideas of biological sex are always already influenced by cultural assumptions of gender. This article concludes by reflecting on the effects that the belief in the absolute and immutable biological origin of sex has on gendered differences in sports.

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