In March 2014, Chloie Jonsson, a transgender personal trainer, filed a $2.5 million suit against Rebox CrossFit because she was barred from competing in the women's division for the upcoming CrossFit games. The company's counsel responded to her application stating that:
“...We have simply ruled that based upon [Jonnson] being born as a male, she will need to compete in the Men’s Division. The fundamental, ineluctable fact is that a male competitor who has a sex reassignment procedure still has a genetic makeup that confers a physical and physiological advantage over women.”
Here, we see that CrossFit's counsel is saying that Jonsson's alleged X and Y chromosomes makes her a man-- no matter the interventions she sought out and went through-- no matter who she is today, she will only be “corrected” by anyone who “really knows” what defines “men and women”. The interesting thing is how we, as human beings, define “man and woman” in many contradictory ways, yet CrossFit tried to choose what they felt was most concrete about being a man in an attempt to marginalize Jonsson. Those with some background in genetics and biology know that there is not just one biological thing that universally defines what it means to be a man or woman or transperson. I am guessing they never head of people with more than two chromosomes, either-- it's termed “Mosaicism” in genetics and I would think that would be something CrossFit would concern themselves with seeing as they are so set on universally determining who is male and female in these competitions. Although the company's counsel goes on to claim that:
“Our decision has nothing to do with ‘ignorance’ or being bigots — it has to do with a very real understanding of the human genome, of fundamental biology, that you are either intentionally ignoring or missed in high school.”
It actually is based on their collective ignorance of transphobia. They said they would “create another category for transpeople if more transpeople started turning out to compete”. What's wrong here? Why is essentializing Chloie's gender at birth overshadowing the complexity of who she is today?
There is a genetic essentiality in the company's reply; here we see them claim to know of a “hidden reality or truth” of sex in the genes. In defining a “man” as “one possessing an X and Y chromosome, they are thus claiming to prevent a genetic male from infiltrating a female space. It is as if they are saying, “We are just letting the world-- and you-- know that you are actually a man.” CrossFit felt that it was revealing Jonsson's “true sex to himself as an immoral, unnatural and confused man."
This seemingly precultural, "natural attitude" about sex pervades CrossFit's counsel; it is as if someone who is born into and maintains a certain sex, is privileged in some way to judge the sex and gender presentation of someone who is not born into either category. This attitude also claims that whatever sex we are born into is fixed as either male of female. Such a binary view of sex and gender fails to take into account the actual complexities of sex and sex determination.
The “natural attitude” mentioned above was campaigned by Harold Garfinkel, a renowned sociologist and ethnomethodologist. In claiming that there is some natural attitude about what bodies should look like and how we learn what “strangeness” looks like when compared to this seemingly inherent sense of “naturalness”. In saying that something is unnatural, a person is claiming that the subject is not real, but fake. The “real men and women” in the counsel at CrossFit denied the narrative of Chloie Jonsson and given her one that they feel to be a better fit. She can never be a “real” woman: only a fake one. She can only be a man dressed up as a woman, according to CrossFit's counsel. The ironic thing is their ignorance on the difference between a “cross-dresser” and a transwoman, despite their claim to be quite learned on said topic.
In an essay titled, Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: On Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Illusion, Dr Talia- Mae Bettcher confronts this supposed heteronormative right to abuse and the sense of “moral indignation toward transpeople”. She, as a transwoman, asks us to search ourselves, in light of a person's right to self-determination, and answer whether we truly can continue to oppress and sexualize transpeople through exposure and identity reinforcement. I mean, think about it-- this “natural attitude” has furthered sexist; transphobic; structurally violent; gender-based oppression against transwomen, and thus furthering the oppression of all women.
Because CrossFit has not been able to see Chloie Jonsson as she really is; they more than likely will serve as an example of what happens when you focus on marginalizing people because they are different. CrossFit's counsel has let its ignorance on transphobia, sexism and transgender people overshadow the basic fact: Chloie Jonsson is just a woman who wants to compete in the CrossFit games. She was a boy who grew up to be a woman-- it happens-- get over it.
They are missing the fact that she is an amazing athlete and trainer who has furthered the CrossFit cult following. They are missing the fact that she is not a man.