Nonnormative Bodies in Sport: Connecting Dominant Gender Discourses on Trans, Nonbinary, Pregnant, and Mothering Athletes

2026/01/01 by Talia Ritondo, Audrey R. Giles
Health Professions · Psychology · Social Sciences · #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Physical Education and Pedagogy #Sports, Gender, and Society

paper · doi:10.1123/ssj.2025-0191

openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/05/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26

Abstract

Few theoretical connections have been drawn between the policing and exclusion of transgender and nonbinary athletes and pregnant and mothering athletes in sport, leading to siloed understandings of how dominant gendered discourses oppress “nonnormative” bodies in sport. In this commentary, we outline how dominant gender discourses (re)produce the discourse “nonnormative bodies disrupt gender binaries” to justify how transgender, nonbinary, pregnant, and mothering athletes are policed in and excluded from sport. We then discuss how those supporting pregnant and mothering athletes can draw from strategies used to support transgender and nonbinary athletes, such as mythbusting, policy analysis, and voice amplification, to build broader movements challenging gender binaries and oppressive sport discourses.

Citations

• Policing the Boundaries of Sex: A Critical Examination of Gender Verification and the Caster Semenya Controversy
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Related

• Sports and the Limits of the Binary: The Contested Terrains of Trans and Nonbinary Athlete Inclusion
• Who counts as a woman? A critical discourse analysis of petitions against the participation of transgender athletes in women's sport
• “I’m the Kind of Trans They Don’t Care About”: Experiences of Trans-Masculine Athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association
• Queering Sport
• Transinclusion" a Growing Phenomenon in Sport: A Scoping Review