This is an excellent, nuanced exploration of gender and trans identities within the world of sports, from the Olympics to youth leagues and everything in between. Katie Barnes has been reporting on the debates around trans athletes for years, and I really appreciate how they put today's hot topics into historical context and consider the future of gender in sports. They shine a light on how nuanced these issues are, despite the fact that both sides try to oversimplify them, and provide thought-provoking suggestions for what a gender-inclusive world of sports might look like. Perfect for reading in the lead up to the next Olympics!

Katie Barnes has written an extremely important book for all humans to read no matter how they identify. The reason for this strong belief is that many of us don’t even know the history behind women’s sports, Title IX, testosterone, organizations that govern a certain level of sport, and the controversy of winning.

Ultimately, this book is about culture wars and legislation governing sports that have separated the sexes from the get go. Who are the bills meant to protect? Is it a problem if trans athletes are participating and losing? Is there really such a thing as “fair play”? What if we rethink sports altogether?

Things I loved:
Barnes’s writing is braided with history, extensive research, and storytelling. I learned there have been trans athletes for years and many went unnoticed even before the NCAA wrote policies. This book is interesting and provocative. I also really enjoyed Chapter 11! Read. It.

Things I struggled with:
Being a cisgender woman and having participated in sports myself, I struggled with how I would feel as a high school student and losing against a trans woman. Which is the point of this book, right? But now that I am a mother, I have different feelings about how my children would feel if they were banned from participating in an activity where they sought refuge. Reading on my phone is not my ideal. I do my best reading with my ears or with my eyes on paper. But overall, this was a great read. I am grateful for the opportunity.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press for the #arc. Thank you, Katie Barnes, for your work and dedication to sports. Save the date for September 19, 2023 when Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates hits the shelves.

#FairPlay
#KatieBarnes
#SMPInfluencers
#StMartinsPress

Thanks to St Martin's Press a s NetGalley for the advanced readers copy!

Fair Play is very well researched and thorough. Katie Barnes does an excellent job examining the issues in this book in a way that felt balanced and unbiased. I especially appreciated their view point as they grew up in women's sports and have built a career around women's sports while being nonbinary. I was looking forward to reading what their proposed solutions were and was not disappointed. I very much appreciated their view point and found that I agreed with their potential solutions for moving forward.

The main reason I wanted to read “Fair Play” was the discussion on participation in sports by transgender athletes, especially transgender girls/women, in high school and college. I think that is an issue that does not have an easy answer, and where there can be good faith disagreement. (Unfortunately, quite often the discussions are not conducted in good faith, but rather are used an excuse to denigrate others.)

The author does a good job of addressing the differing opinions, and the bases for these opinions, as well as discussing how much of the argument is based on assumptions about male vs female sports and athletes, and what we know (or at least think we know) about the advantages that a biological male (and therefore also a transgender woman who has not undergone testosterone suppression) will have over a biological female in athletic endeavors.

One of the most valuable discussions relates to the transgender athletes whose success in high school or college sports has attracted controversy, such as Lia Thomas in swimming and Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller in high school track. The author points out that while they won some championships or other significant races, they also were beaten by cisgender girls/women in races, especially higher caliber events. Also, in some of the races where these transgender athletes excelled, there was at least one other transgender athlete whose presence/participation did not provoke controversy because they did not win or place high. In other words, being a transgender athlete does not guarantee success.

I think of my own high school cross country and track experience. I was an average runner and rarely did well enough to earn a medal or ribbon (and I certainly never won a race.) If I had raced on the girls' cross country or distance track team, I would have placed higher overall, but I certainly would not have dominated the races. There were multiple members of my high school’s girls' teams (and other area high school teams) that were faster than me.

In Chapter 12, the author sets forth their opinions on participation in sports by transgender athletes based on age group and competition type (youth sports, college sports, professional/Olympic-level sports, recreational/intramural sports), as well as athletes with differences of sex development (think Caster Semenya in track and field). I pretty much agree with their opinions on where there should or should not be restrictions and the nature of restrictions when appropriate.

This is such a timely and important read! This book tells the story of the gendered nature of modern sports and how it has impacted the discussions around gender, especially around transgender acceptance and access. Most of the book is explained through the stories of young athletes who have accidentally become central actors in the gendered sports debates. These are young athletes who only wanted to play the sports that they love in a way that follows their expression of gender but are now thrust into the national spotlight and the focus of hateful culture wars. The book was so thought provoking and inspiring. The perfect read for the beginning of pride month!

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Fair Play is such a thorough look at sports and the gender debate. Full of incredible interviews with trans athletes from across the gender spectrum and their overwhelming humanity, Barnes takes us through the tumultuous 2010s and 2020s and shows us where we may be headed in the future.