It’s About Testosterone?

From the New York Times

It’s about testosterone? Hardly. Some athletic authorities are now requiring  women athletes to have their clitorises partially removed if their testosterone is “too high”? On the grounds that high testosterone is an unfair advantage?

Even if higher than average testosterone levels had been shown to help athletic performance (which apparently they haven’t), how could that justify the demand for clitoral reduction? Obviously something else is going on here, something much more to do with discomfort about unusual configurations of sexual characteristics, such as those arising from some intersex conditions.
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And even if naturally high testosterone levels did aid athletic performance, it doesn’t follow that women with them should be barred from competition or required to take the steps described in the NY Times article. Are unusually small jockeys required to take human growth hormone? Are tall basketball players required to have their legs shortened down to some hypothetical “fair” size?

It’s hard to see this as anything but yet another instance of authorities attempting to write their own indefensible worries on women’s bodies, no matter what the consequences for their victims.

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About Laura Purdy

Laura Purdy is a bioethicist, feminist philosopher, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Wells College, where she served on the faculty for more than three decades. She has served on the Editorial Boards of Hypatia and of Bioethics and has been an active member of FAB for many years. She is the author of six books including Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics [co-edited with Helen B. Holmes], Reproducing Persons, and In Their Best Interest? The Case against Equal Rights for Children.

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