Reassembling sex: reconsidering sex segregation policies in sport

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, cases such as Caster Semenya’s have drawn attention to the problematic nature of sex segregation policies in elite sporting competition. Several authors have emphasised that sex segregation policies are based on questionable evidence and do not facilitate fair competitions. This article uses the concept of the assemblage, as derived from Bruno Latour’s work in Actor-Network Theory, to highlight how, through considering the body as made up of multiple traits, it is possible to arrive at a classification system that is fairer than the current two-sex binary, and more logically based on the different physical traits required in various sports. Using the example of the change from a medical classification system to a functional system in disability sport, we outline and discuss a model for able-bodied sport as an alternative to the current sex segregation, which involves classifying bodies based on functional ability across multiple traits.

KEYWORDS:

• Classification
• actor network theory
• fair play
• gender
• disability sport

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roslyn Kerr

Roslyn Kerr is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport, and Head of Department, Tourism, Sport and Society, at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand. She has published extensively on the sport of gymnastics, from sociological, historical and coaching perspectives, but her wider research interests extend to sport governance, community sports clubs, sport policy and athlete development. She is particularly interested in the French school of sociology and her publications have drawn on the work of Latour, Callon, Foucault, Bourdieu and Deleuze. She is the author of Sport and Technology: An Actor-Network Theory Perspective, and one of very few authors who have utilised Actor-Network Theory within sports studies.

C. Obel

Camilla Obel is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand. She has a PhD in Sociology and has published previously in the areas of sports governance, migration, ethnicity, nationalism, gender and embodiment, disability and sport facilities.