The recent Olympian sized serving of cisgenderism and sexism on the menu from Paris Olympics merits a break down. I mean just what are the ingredients coming into our social feed? The main course , of course, is all about that hugely popular sport we all have been following for years – women’s boxing (I am sure you all caught a few seconds of it over the years when flipping over to your fave sports ball thingy channel…)!
I’m sniffing out some serious entitlement over women’s and gender minority bodies, marinated in a soupçon of sexism with an added dash of gender policing to make sure the dish isn’t too exotic. Barely noticeable is the side order of men’s beach volleyball and convicted rapist. That really no one would focus on too much, especially when you can be feasting your eyes on the Canadian women’s beach volleyball team’s Princess Diana inspired outfits. We all know Diana was an exemplary volleyball player, lover of beaches and fashion asymmetry all at the same time. But I digress on Di…
Back to the main course lest I focus too much on women’s looks over their athletic performance. I am chewing on the gender policing of female boxers and the incredible amount of attention paid to their genitals vs. the lack of equal umbrage about a male child rapist competing at the games. It seems gender transgression is more panic inducing than child rape…yet these two feeds share the same base of gender role expectations and entitlement. The boxers are failing to meet their gender role expectations while the volleyball player is met his perfectly. Same base – just cooked differently.
Oh garçon! Bring zee menu…
Because really there are only two dishes on the cisgender menu- male and female , only two genders, assigned at birth and trained up in very specific roles. If you exist outside those roles we get to inspect your genitals, biology and generally invade your privacy for the greater good of gender policing you and any person who would dare challenge this system. The incredible presumption and sense of entitlement that allows us to talk about these boxer’s bodies should be enough to show that these athletes are women. Women’s bodies belong to the world, and we are treating these boxers like women when we serve their bodies and biology up in our feeds for discussion.
Boy oh Boy!
Speaking of body entitlement and serving up, let’s get back to our beach volleyball boy, or actually man who raped a 12 year old girl. It’s not really a huge story because boys will be boys and part of being a boy in cisgender culture is being sexually aggressive and demanding sex. And part of being a girl is being submissive and lying back and thinking of England..
Some bodies are worth more than others, and the bodies of children, women and gender minorities are not privately and sovereignly owned bodies but are owed to the world. Sexist entitlement over women’s bodies is why beach volley ball boy went to England, got his 12 year old victim to think of England three times, and then was still able to go on and represent his country later in life. So really, Stephen was just doing what guys do and proving his testosterone infused boy biology bone fides. After all, boys will be boys and girls must be biological.