NO TROLLS Transgender Inclusion in Football: University Research Project

[Foucault1989]

There is more to men's physical advantage over women than their muscle development.

Men are larger than women. They have a far greater bone mass.

Men have larger lungs, wider airways, and greater lung diffusion capacity than women, even if they're the same height.

There are differences in cardiovascular function. Men pump more blood than women. They have far greater left ventricular mass and chamber size than women. Because the left ventricular ejection fraction is the same in both sexes, the stroke volume is larger in men than in women


None of these physical advantages are adjusted by the use of medications during the transitioning process.
Even the muscle development of a man takes longer to "equalise" with transitioning drugs than was previously thought.


Why would you type this last sentence?

Are you trying to characterise those who are opposed to trans women in female sport as bigoted transphobic knuckle-draggers?

I typed that last sentence because it is my view on much of the commentary I've read, for example ideas that men transition to become elite sports people, that trans women are predators hanging out in womens bathrooms. I'm not saying all people have those views who disagree with the inclusion of trans people in single sex sports but there are a lot of people with those views.

I'll take your scientific points - I don't understand the specifics of human Physiology so it would be disingenuous to argue

 

[Unistudent500]

I think you should ask a female centric board because you will get different answers and concerns.

Most men would have no issue playing against a transgender man born as a woman, but many women would have an issue competing against a transgender woman born as a man. Especially a transgender the size of Hannah Mouncey.

If you know of any women centric boards that I may have not reached out to, I am all ears!

 

[Unistudent500]

And thanks, Back One Out and Foucault1989, for engaging with the survey, and everyone else who has too.

 

[Unistudent500]

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the long delay in coming back and posting a results summary update. There were hiccups throughout the process, but the research has now been completed and submitted to examiners. Thank you again for those that participated, and the mods and admins for allowing me to post here.

What I am going to do is provide a simple summary of the results from the surveys that you participated in (found below), and when an article is written in the future, it shall be posted here so you can see the progress of the research. If you have any concerns or questions that you don’t want to post here, please feel free to email me at maccj014@mymail.unisa.edu.au



This research analysed AFL and Cricket Australia (CA) policies, Australian news media, and fans’ perspectives on trans inclusion in sport. To ascertain footy and cricket fans’ perspectives, two different but similar surveys were created: a footy fan survey and a cricket fan survey. The surveys were qualitative in nature, meaning fans wrote out their ideas, thoughts, and feelings in open-ended text boxes to question prompts. After cleaning the data (removing unfinished surveys) there were 123 footy responses and 97 cricket responses (n=220). The results from the surveys were complex and mixed.

In total, over 60% of fans surveyed shared explicitly negative attitudes towards the inclusion of trans people in sport. For fans that demonstrated positive sentiments towards trans inclusion, this was most often displayed as support for the policy changes that have taken place in the AFL and CA, and a desire for respect and inclusion of trans people. Some fans from this cohort elaborated that inclusion should focus on making trans people feel welcome, and implored sport organizations to do more for trans people.

There was a difference in the amount of positive sentiment between footy and cricket with surveyed cricket fans being more inclined to advocate for full inclusion than footy fans. This difference between cricket fans and AFL fans may be because cricket has a longer history of taking on inclusive initiatives, the contemporary work CA has done around LGBTQ+ inclusion, or the difference in rules compared to football (i.e., non-contact vs. contact—a point raised by a number of fans in the surveys).

The surveys differed from the news media as the fans demonstrated more diversity in sentiment and displayed more scepticism and rejection towards the inclusion of trans people. This was most often shared as concerns towards the inclusion of trans women in women’s sport (e.g., concerns around testosterone management and other biological and physiological factors), and at times, these concerns would be vitriolic and transphobic. The vitriolic responses would most often misgender purposefully, question the legitimacy of trans athletes (or trans identities entirely), or use slurs.

However, whether participants displayed positive or negative sentiments towards inclusion, most responses believed there needed to be rules and eligibility criteria for trans people’s inclusion in sport, especially for trans women. How these rules would apply and what aspects they would focus on differed, but many responses highlighted the desire for rules in elite sport and community sport (sometimes wanting them to differ, other times wanting them to be the same across levels), that focused on testosterone or other physiological controls (e.g., size, strength, etc.), and evaluated the genuineness or time of transition (i.e., whether it was before or after puberty). And while some advocated for limited rules, or no rules at all, others wanted sport organizations to form stringent rules that fell along strict lines of biological sex. What was prevalent in many of these responses was the belief that men are inherently better performers of sport, and that this needs to be controlled for trans people to be included.

In summary, while there was positive sentiment towards the inclusion of trans people in sport generally, and a smaller minority believing that sport needs to do more to make trans people feel welcome, there were also a great number of people that demonstrated scepticism or disdain towards including trans people (specifically, trans women), especially in football. And while most believed there needed to be rules in place for inclusion, some believed that rules should focus on sex and exclude trans people from playing in the category that matches their gender.



Thank you once again for participating and allowing me to share my research on this forum. I look forward to sharing some of the work that stems from this.

 

[Malifice]

In total, over 60% of fans surveyed shared explicitly negative attitudes towards the inclusion of trans people in sport... and at times, these concerns would be vitriolic and transphobic. The vitriolic responses would most often misgender purposefully, question the legitimacy of trans athletes (or trans identities entirely), or use slurs.

In summary, while there was positive sentiment towards the inclusion of trans people in sport generally, and a smaller minority believing that sport needs to do more to make trans people feel welcome, there were also a great number of people that demonstrated scepticism or disdain towards including trans people (specifically, trans women), especially in football. And while most believed there needed to be rules in place for inclusion, some believed that rules should focus on sex and exclude trans people from playing in the category that matches their gender.

Doesn't this trend point to the fact your survey may have mainly picked up the bigoted minority (in that the people with the strongest and most visceral views, would also be the ones most likely to want to participate in the survey)?

Does your paper deal with that factor, as it likely skews the outcome (particularly in light of the fact only 120 odd people participated)?

 

[Unistudent500]

Doesn't this trend point to the fact your survey may have mainly picked up the bigoted minority (in that the people with the strongest and most visceral views, would also be the ones most likely to want to participate in the survey)?

Does your paper deal with that factor, as it likely skews the outcome (particularly in light of the fact only 120 odd people participated)?

That is a fair concern, Malifice, especially because of the sample size and the nature of self-selective surveys. While I maybe didn't make it explicitly clear in this post, I certainly do not attempt to generalize these findings to the entire football or cricket fan base in my paper. This is only representative of those who participated in the survey, and at most, a mere snap shot of broader views. These views are important to capture and understand, but don't necessarily speak for an entire group, but to a discourse that is present.

That said, I don't think the "bigoted minority" were overrepresented in the survey, as the outright transphobic comments were minimal among those that had negative sentiments towards inclusion. I will also add that there has been recent research that has looked at fan perspectives on trans inclusion in sport (they had a larger sample size) and there was a similar split amongst those with negative and positive sentiments.

 

[Shane Heard]

It’s a very complex issue that 99.9% of sports fans out there have no real understanding..I believe.

I certainly don’t fully understand it.

I’d assume though that the large majority of the general public are very uneasy with the idea of a very strong male wanting to play against natural born woman in a sport.

We accept that there’s many many males who want to be identified as transgender and be seen as a woman.

But when it comes to sport, the acceptance levels plummet because we assume they will have a physical advantage.

It’s a tricky one.

 

[jim boy]

It’s a very complex issue that 99.9% of sports fans out there have no real understanding..I believe

You can say that again. One interesting (and short) podcast I heard on this comes from More-or-Less a BBC radio show about statistics. It does a reasonable effort at explaining the effect of lowering testosterone levels and how the science well and truly has a long way to go. You can hear it at More or Less: Behind the Stats - Testosterone and sport - BBC Sounds It certainly is an issue at elite level, but at community level where it is about inclusivity and giving everyone the opportunity, social factors are probably paramount.