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The controversy over transgender athletes has become a heated issue across the country. As the debate over the fairness of allowing trans women to compete in sports continues, lawmakers have introduced anti-trans bills in 36 states this year. In Indiana and Utah, lawmakers quashed vetos by the state governors to pass laws banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports. Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence warns that these anti-trans laws are all a ploy to control women.
All said, women and girls don’t need protection from anything but the patriarchy. As for white supremacy, its presence here too is evident in the regulation of women’s bodies. These anti-trans laws are enforced on those who don’t look feminine. We know this because since that anti-trans Utah law was passed in March, parents have filed complaints against girl athletes, arguing “that female athletes do not look feminine enough.”
Guess what? Our society defines femininity based on whiteness. Yeah, white women are the benchmark for what is “feminine.” From how a woman should be, keep her hair, her shape, her gait…everything about her appearance has been defined in our society based on white women. Sociologists have written scores of papers on the matter. And because whiteness dictates femininity, non-white women like myself are more likely to be targeted for not meeting the “standard,” because we’re less likely to bear the features of society’s ideal white woman.
For that reason, non-white girls in Utah are far more likely to be subject to speculation in terms of whether we are or aren’t female. Girls who look like me are targeted and torn down.
Serena Williams, for example, has endured this type of shade for decades, as have other Black female athletes. These anti-trans laws limiting women in sports is really all part of policing the bodies of marginalized people. As Vice reported, this year 42 states have passed either anti-trans or anti-abortion laws, and more than half of states have considered anti-trans legislation. And as we know, anti-abortion laws adversely impact non-white women the most for a host of reasons. It’s all about what’s built into the inequities of our society.
We don’t need more inequity in our society. That’s why those who are claiming to stand for equality, they should really be using their voices and their resources pushing back right now against anti-trans laws. Not because these laws are harming cisgender children who are talented in sports, but because these laws are a problem. They advance white male supremacy, which hurts us all.
