Alice Soper: Why sportswomen don't need 'saving' from transgender athletes

It's sociology, not biology, that's holding women back, writes Alice Soper. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

You may have heard lately the call to save women's sports. That there is a threat to these athletes' safety and well-being from transgender participation. That talent is being sidelined due to stolen opportunity. That politics is skewing the science and that a lot of this harm is being caused by male dominance of women's sports.

While I agree with much of this assessment, I question its root cause — it's sociology, not biology, that's holding women back.

Let's start with the word "save" which frames our athletes as damsels in distress. Just the latest example of the way in which the language we use for women in sport is needlessly tender. Inspiring, it's all very "good on her for giving it a go", but participation is the beginning, not the apex for any athlete.

The wāhine athletes I know are fiercely competitive. They are in no need of protection from trans opposition, knowing too well what it is to be excluded from opportunity on the basis of assumed skill. They measure themselves against each other and dissect their performances in ways we are yet to see in regular coverage. They are never as earnest as the hushed tones we use to speak of them. They are a lot more robust. When squads are announced, more often now with an accompanying pay cheque, it's the DMs, not columns, that evaluate selections and unpack the coach's strategy to best our competition.

Our fanbase, diehard and emerging, would relish such conversation coming to light. Contextualising performances and assessing seasons in real time, you finally have something to sink your teeth into.

However, such scrutiny, it seems, is saved only for players in moments of duress. Whose performance was meant to plaster over the years of under-investment, misguided policy and those learning on the job. Any gaps that appear are her fault, as she simply didn't contort herself enough to fit.

Who cares if this system was designed by those with no lived experience? Save it for the review. Why listen to women when we can pay good money for a lovely powerpoint and perform a public apology? It's tradition. The same tradition that continues to produce firsts for women, even in 2022.

So, yes, women's sport is in trouble.

The same trouble it's always been in, the trouble that finds you when you push against the status quo. It's an adversary those in the arena know well, we have played against it time and time again.

It's only those in positions of power now that want to name our greatest rival as trans women, but it is, in fact, our shared enemy, misogyny.

Like any governing body wanting to be seen to act but not willing to change, this minority group of athletes provides a useful scapegoat. They can drum up fear and then purport to have vanquished it whenever they please because the reality is they are solving problems that do not exist.

The Rugby Football Union in England and their Irish counterparts have taken it upon themselves to ban trans players from the women's game. League and swimming recently introduced bans.

There has been no flood of unmanageable participation, no wave of injuries, no crowding out of podiums, no cry for help from those that play. There has been a small group of people who wanted to participate for the same reason we all do; it brings them joy and a sense of accomplishment. And these trans athletes have done that for years without issue, complying to whatever standards were set. We could have all happily continued that way, making tweaks here and there as research and lived experience saw fit.

Instead, we have taken the call for action for the development of women's position in sport and hijacked it to attack a minority group. We are all left worse off, with all women's bodies being further policed.

Meanwhile, welfare recommendations stay on the backburner awaiting the next incident. Our moment of becoming cannot be at the expense of others. We must do better, for all women in sport.