Abstract
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 popular opinion. Heated debates in sports media about the fairness and morality of a 'former man' competing against women ensures Fox's presence in the spotlight for some time to come.Fallon Fox's fight for inclusion comes at a time in U.S. cultural politics when trans people are experiencing increased visibility in the media and laws around transgender rights are beginning to gain momentum. The Obama administration has signed legislation against hate crimes based on gender identity, encouraged the application of Title IX2 to transgender students, and removed barriers for trans people to update their official government documents.3 A new California law now allows students to choose bathrooms and sports teams based on their gender identity.4 In each case, these laws seek to protect the individual's right to identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned a birth. Cultural visibility has also increased and trans male-to-female (MTF) activists and fictional characters, in particular, have achieved increased visibility within U.S. media.5 For example, Laverne Cox graced a 2014 cover of Time magazine as both a transgender activist and popular character on Netflix's Orange is the New Black. Concurrently, Janet Mock has been featured on numerous television news programs after her memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, became a New York Times Bestseller. In the sports world, former Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2015 ESPY Awards after publically coming out as transgender. These women have become icons of the trans movement within the U.S. and advocate for the individual's right to express one's gender identity in a variety of fashions and without fear of violence or retaliation.6 The discourses of transgender acceptance have entered a mainstream conversation and taken root in progressive politics and popular culture.The increasing visibility of trans people in the media and the legal measures to ensure their inclusion in society is certainly noteworthy; however, Fox's struggles in the MMA community demonstrates a key area of concern for trans inclusion. In this article, I scrutinise the discourses surrounding Fallon Fox's participation in MMA by both her supporters and opponents. More specifically, I examine the interplay between notions of gender identity, individual trans rights, and fixed sexual difference in MMA blogs, radio shows, and in sports and entertainment magazines that comment on Fox. On one hand, naysayers object to Fox's participation in MMA under the auspice of protecting cis women from the presumed immutable advantages of being born male. On the other, proponents for Fox's right to fight employ sexist understandings of female physicality to advocate on her behalf. …
Published Version
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