The article explores the concept of fairness in sports, focusing on the debates surrounding transgender athletes' participation. It illustrates a dilemma using a hypothetical below-average player, Wanda Weakskate, suggesting that participation may not solely be about physical advantage. Different interpretations of fairness are discussed, including one emphasizing equal competition and another favoring procedural justice, where adherence to rules defines fairness regardless of outcomes. This nuanced examination challenges prevailing notions of fairness and highlights the complexities inherent in debates about gender inclusivity in sports.
To illustrate further, imagine a below-average hockey player named Wanda Weakskate... If Weakskate is a trans woman... some would say her participation is unfair, because anyone born male has certain physical advantages.
Yet philosophers of sport have favored another view of fairness as 'right procedure,' specifically pure procedural justice. Right procedure requires adherence to the rules that define it, but there is no right outcome.
For those who understand women's sport as protection from male advantage, this view of fairness would justify trans exclusion generally, although exceptional cases like Weakskate pose a problem.
John Rawls models the concept of pure procedural justice with a lottery. If no one rigs the process, the outcome is fair whichever number wins.
#fairness-in-sports #transgender-athletes #procedural-justice #advantages-in-sports #gender-inclusivity
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