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Abstract This article examines a particular cultural context where transgender acceptance and inclusion are fiercely contested: women's professional sports. More specifically, I highlight the interlocking discourses of cissexism and sexism surrounding Fallon Fox, professional mixed martial arts' (MMA) first openly transgender male-to-female (MTF) fighter. The interplay between arguments for transgender acceptance and assumptions of fixed sexual difference circulating in MMA blogs, radio shows, and in sports and entertainment magazines, maintains barriers for Fox's participation in the sport. I argue that regardless of the various debates for or against her inclusion in women's professional MMA, both sides reaffirm a patriarchal, cisgender, cissexual system of power by exaggerating 'biologically' sanctioned male physical dominance and 'innate' female physical lack. As a result, Fox's plight is fixed within a discursive paradox as the interlocking discourses of cissexism and sexism create a double bind for trans women in combat sports. Trans MTF athletes encounter cissexism on one front and sexism on the other.
Keywords sexism, cissexism, transgender athletes, mixed-martial arts, gender, sport
Dude Looks Like a Lady bellowed throughout the arena as Fallon Fox waited to enter the ring for her professional mixed-martial arts (MMA) fight against Allana Jones. Jones chose the Aerosmith song to accompany her walkout before the fight as a particularly poignant stab at her opponent. Fox had gained notoriety a few months earlier in March 2013 after being forced out of the closet as a trans woman in a sex-segregated combat sport.1 A reporter seeking to sensationalise her story ambushed her for the exclusive, but Fox curtailed the involuntary outing by contacting Cyd Zeigler of Outsports to write her story instead. Despite coming out on her own terms, she no longer possessed anonymity and reluctantly became professional MMA's first openly trans athlete. As a result of the revelation, Fox's MMA licensing organisations subjected her to medical review to verify that she met the medical requirements to fight as a trans woman. Even though she received the medical clearance to fight Jones, she endured transphobic jeers and epithets throughout the fight and since. Fox went on to win her match against Jones; yet, her victory was bittersweet. She continues to endure a relentless battle for the right to participate in women's MMA in the court of...