Khelif off topic in this tread even with the DSD hypothesis. The nature of the alleged DSD is speculative. With no DSD to discuss... Actually, I take that back. There is a DSD angle for this thread. It even supports a conspiracy theory to defraud world boxing: Are there female DSDs that superficially present as male, and appear to enjoy the upper body strength and other physical advantages normally associated with males?
We know there are DSDs which allow men like Caster Semenya to pass as female - at least bureaucratically - and thus dominate women's sports. Do we know of any DSDs which would allow a woman to pass as male, and also dominate women's sports?
There's some fuzzy stuff here. It depends on how you define "female" in terms of biology. Specifically, which rules, genotype or phenotype? And if genotype, in what configuration?
As biologist, my instinct is to weight phenotype more heavily than genotype. (Though to be clear, this is not my field.) My thinking is that the genes are not sex, but sex is caused by the expression of genes. Basically, a gene that is not expressed, for whatever reason and doesn't pertain to phenotype.
In other words, sex is a phenotype, not a set of genes, though the expression of a set of genes is what causes the sexual phenotype.
It gets pretty complicated, however, because what we are talking about in terms of sex is more than a single characteristic.
A person with Swyer syndrome is 46,XY, but they have a uterus and fallopian tubes. They have neither ovaries nor testes. They will undergo neither puberty without treatment. Treatment is estrogen, which will cause the breast growth and menstruation. Since they have no functional gonads, they cannot produce eggs, but sometimes they can become pregnant through an egg donor.
To me, this is a real grey area. For most purposes, I would consider them female as that is their gene expression (phenotype), and they do not go through male puberty. Their "gender identity" would logically be that of a girl/woman, and I see no reason to dispute the validity of that.
But where do they fit in sports?
Could they pass as male? Without hormone replacement (estrogen) therapy, they will not develop breasts, so maybe? They would gain the effects of neither testosterone nor estrogen. I guess it would depend on the rest of their genetics, their fashion choices, and whatever behavioral mannerisms they might have learned.
Would they dominate women's sports?
I don't know. Without a functional SRY gene, the default expression is female. But does that mean all of the sex-linked traits on the Y are not activated and that all of the sex-linked traits on the X are not deactivated?
Let's suppose for a moment that Swyer does not convey any physical advantage. But a woman with Swyers trains hard and becomes one of the best at some sport. Once it comes out that she has the condition, people will assume that her achievements are due to a "male" advantage, even if it's not true.
Khelif herself may or may not be relevant to this thread. It's hard to say without knowing her medical/genetic information. But the issue of how people with DSDs fit into athletics certainly is. And I think that's a conversation that can be had without casting aspersions on athletes who may have these conditions regardless of stance.
And Rolfe isn't actually discussing DSDs. She's making an accusation of a male cheating. Which is different, and not really the topic, I think.
