The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate elements of racism in two court documents from The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). The court documents deal with two regulations from the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the implementation of these regulations, which aim to assess womens’ participation in elite running. These regulations are based on measurements of female athletes’ testosterone levels to assess who is considered eligible to compete in the female category in elite running. The regulations have been criticized by UN Human Rights Council, which states that the regulations include racial discrimination, since the regulations are primarily aimed at women from the global South as they to a greater extent demonstrate higher levels of testosterone. The thesis has analysed whether racist discourses can be discerned in the court documents by examining statements from the IAAF and CAS when it discusses the implementation of these regulations in elite running for women. The analysis of the court documents is based on a method of critical discourse analysis. which intends to shed light on uneven power structures due to, among other things, race. In the court documents, the content of the texts was examined according to the method. The thesis examines how women who produce higher levels of testosterone are described in relation to women who produce testosterone within the “normal” range. The thesis also examines which discourses have the most space in the court documents. The analysis is supplemented with Sara Ahmed´s theory of the phenomenology of whiteness, and Sandra Fredman´s theory of the concept of equality. The results of the thesis show that women from the global South are considered abnormal due to a socially constructed norm based on white Western ideals. Female athletes who show a higher level of testosterone come mainly from the global South. Since these athletes are more affected by the IAAF:s regulations than those from the West, it can be interpreted that these women are restricted in their freedom of movement within elite running compared to white female athletes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-444036 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Palacios Ibanez, Christabel |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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