The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has laid out guidelines over how media outlets and others will be allowed to refer to transgender athletes.
The committee has stated that it will be “harmful” to refer to transgender athletes as “biological male” or “biological female.”
Fox News is reporting that there will also be guidelines on how to make sure that “key barriers” are broken to make sure female athletes who have a “lack of recognition” get more coverage than more popular male athletes.
This could have been guaranteed, but the US Women’s Basketball team decided to snub Caitlin Clark.
From Fox News:
In one example, it instructed that rather than write, “She’s the next Michael Phelps,” journalists should write, “She’s an extraordinary athlete.”
The guide also mentioned the reality of gender pay gaps, how female athletes’ appearances are more commented on than men’s, and even featured quotes from IOC honchos decrying gender discrimination.
IOC Advisory Committee on Human Rights Chair Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was quoted in the guide, stating, “Stereotypes, discriminatory social norms and a lack of representation remain some of the most pervasive barriers to gender equality around the world.”
Terms like born male, born female, biologically male, biologically female, genetically male, genetically female, male-to-female (MtF), and female-to-male (FtM) have now been declared “problematic language.”
“Use of phrases like those above can be dehumanising and inaccurate when used to describe transgender sportspeople and athletes with sex variations,” the document said. “It is always preferable to emphasize a person’s actual gender rather than potentially calling their identity into question by referring to the sex category that was registered on their original birth certificate.”
