Transgender and Non-Binary People in Everyday Sport
This formative work discusses transgender people’s inclusion in everyday sport in the United Kingdom. It adopts a trans feminist approach to explore pivotal issues regarding the barriers to participation faced by transgender and non-binary people.
Offering a critical perspective on the current landscape surrounding this topic, the book draws from insightful interviews conducted by the author with 18 transgender and non-binary individuals. The author uses a critical social science approach to explore the heteropatriarchal construction of sport in the modern industrialised West, and how this has formed the backdrop to the continuing discrimination towards many athletes, not just those who are transgender. Using first-hand perspectives, it focuses on the three themes of the sporting body, sporting spaces and sporting communities. It investigates why conversations about fairness and safety regarding transgender athletes have become so polarised within the media, and the significance of taking a trans feminist approach to reducing barriers in sport. Lastly, the book’s key findings initiate a dialogue on the importance of gender affirmation in sport, the value of supportive teammates/role models and how sporting spaces can be reimagined to promote greater inclusion for all.
Transgender and Non-Binary People in Everyday Sport is a crucial resource for researchers, academics, and students in the field of social science, sports organisations, policy makers, third-sector organisations, activists and other related disciplines. The book will also be a compelling read for anyone with an interest in improving inclusion for transgender and non-binary people in everyday sport and wants to learn more about how trans feminism can achieve this.
Abby Barras is a critical social scientist based at the University of Brighton, UK, where she teaches in the School of Humanities and Social Science.