Weekly Reading List

June 19, 2022

This is a specially curated reading list for paying subscribers. It contains my personal selections and summaries of the week’s best 8-10 articles on the topic of sex and gender, and other related topics.

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Steroids, ‘Gender,’ and Fair Play | FR Prete

This week on Reality’s Last Stand, biological psychologist FR Prete wrote about the issues of steroids and gender identity in sports, and their role in compromising fair play in women’s sports.

Prete discusses the role of steroids in the 1976 Montréal Summer Olympics doping scandal, where young girls were unknowingly given testosterone through childhood in order to shape them into formidable athletes who would go on to win multiple gold medals. He compared this unfair use of androgenizing hormones to a big issue women’s sports now faces—the introduction of male athletes who simply identify as women.

Athletic divisions based on physical structure or physiology have nothing to do with gender identification, per se. These are two completely separate issues. Athletics can—and should—respect and include all varieties of people while still expecting them to compete fairly and within an appropriate division.

Read the full article.