Tag: Kerry McGawley

Sex, Gender Identity and Sport (Routledge), edited by Cathy Devine, addresses the highly contentious debate surrounding sex-based categories in competitive sport. The volume advocates that preserving these categories is essential for ensuring fair competition. In this high-quality review, Alexis Sossa concludes that the book is most valuable not as a definitive resolution to the transgender sports debate, but as a provocation regarding the politics of bodily classification. While its explicitly partisan orientation and tendency to dismiss opposing perspectives as “ideology” leave complex empirical and normative questions unresolved, its enduring contribution lies in insisting that sports politics are inextricably bound to body politics.

Petra Kolić’s and Christopher I. Morse’s edited collection Menstruation and the Menstrual Cycle in Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity (Routledge) is the first book to offer students, researchers, and professionals an evidenced-based reference on considerations and concepts relevant to sports performance and physical activity during menstruation and the menstrual cycle. Leah Monsees has been waiting for a book like this, and minor critical points aside she concludes that the book makes a meaningful contribution to this emerging field.

Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal (WSPAJ) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted to advancing the understanding of women in sport and physical activity. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Exploring Basic Needs, Motivation, and Retention Among Female Sport Officials by Janna K. Sunde, Robin Tharle-Oluk, Alice A. Theriault, David J. Hancock (open access),