Transcriber: Luciana MESSINA Reviewer: Taher Koja
My partner and brother make fun of how I sit when I drive, sit,
pulled as far forward as it will go.
Lifted up to the roof, a cushion under me to further boost me up my neck,
sticking out like a maquette,
my arms and praying mantis position with the seatbelts cutting across my neck.
You see, pulling the seats that far forward is
the only way my toes can actually touch the pedals.
And elevating it is the only way I can see properly over the windscreen
and in front of the car. And no matter how many times I just the sit bolted,
the traffic light it, it'll still find a way of sliding past my not
so tiny bosom and wedging itself against my carotid artery.
And so many other women look so peculiar when we drive is
because when they designed cars. We are not their default human being.
And it's not just cause it's bullet proof vests, activity watches, smartphones.
Everything around us. From our built environment to our legislation
and to medication, the default human being is a man.
This default for the male anatomy
and biology is even more pervasive in medical research,
whether ideal research subjects is male, male humans, male rats,
male cells and all of this is because women experience
a pesky little thing called the menstrual cycle,
which means while male biology is fairly consistent day to day in month to month,
no single day of the month is the same in a woman's body.
And that is considered rather inconvenient in medical research.
Because you see the menstrual cycle hormones and
the fluctuations affect literally everything in the human body.
And so they need to be controlled for or eliminated otherwise,
then you're going to need more people to test something on
and you need to do fancy statistical gymnastics to analyze this data.
And that is just so time consuming, difficult and expensive.
This level of difficulty and cost is defined by
the same species that several rovers on Mars invented
a million ways of warfare and has taught robots to dance.
In order to avoid this difficulty and inconvenience,
we just study men because studying women is the tad bothersome.
Who cares that by not studying women and girls,
the narratives of over half of the world's population are ignored?
We studied and finesse it in men, and then it's coined by Christian you.
You shrink it and pink it for women.
Fast forward a few steps between research and product development,
and the result is the pink cock who sit bolt sits on my neck instead of my chest.
Antibiotics that are not compatible with some contraceptives
and vaccines with Lord knows what effects on the menstrual cycle. It gets worse.
In sports science, which is my specialty.
Only six percent of research is done exclusively in women
and in girls in just about 30 per cent includes them.
That means 70 per cent of the time.
Sports science research doesn't even consider women's biology,
even though this data are later used to develop clinical interventions
and policy in sport. But why does it matter to you? You may ask.
Because each time you see a study on the best way to lose weight, build muscle,
improve your 5K time or recover from injury.
70 per cent of the time that study was not based on yours,
your daughters or your mothers experiences.
Those fantastic results, they promise you.
And you inevitably don't get there were most likely not done in a women's body.
One that's menstruate. Takes contraceptives, breastfeeds,
gets pregnant and becomes menopausal.
70 per cent of the time those female experiences were not factored into
a program that you now diligently follow
and beat yourself up when you don't live to the expectation.
Those pesky hormones that affect everything when we're doing
the research are not too important when we want to apply it. Apparently.
Now, clutch your pearls
for African women and girls in sports who already on
the margins of global sport science discourse,
we experience double discrimination because of what little research there is
on women and girls in sports. Even life is on us.
Of the 100 most influential research studies in sport science to date,
none are from the global south for the African woman in sport.
Our biology is often not considered, for the most part,
the few times it actually is.
Our unique lived experiences, our religious, socio economic,
cultural and environmental circumstances are ignored.
Never mind that the nutritional plan being touted is impractical for
the regular African. Never mind.
That's my box braids or dreadlocks do not fit into that slim cap.
You take it, you modify yourself to fit into it or you live it.
After all, squatters have no rights.
As squatters, we aren't expected to demand a proper bid and clean linen.
We should just be grateful we are let into the mustachioed interior,
not out in the rain.
Again, why am I bothering you about the need
for equity in sports science research?
Because as Nelson Mandela one seat and I paraphrase.
Sports is the powerful agent for societal change and
for driving equity. And sports is a microcosm of society.
So the dehumanization and discrimination of marginalized individuals is seen
in society at large is reflected in all facets of sports. The shame?
Of being one of the 65 per cent of African women
and girls who can not afford sanitary pads and have to use old drugs instead.
The fear.
Of being ostracized by your community, being labeled deviant.
Ugly and unmanageable because you have an athletic body.
The ignorance. Of how your menstrual cycle affects your athletic performance
and being told that your period is something to be ashamed of
and should never be spoken about in public.
The absolute dread ever thought of running
because your breath slapping you in
the face with each step causes you embarrassment and actual physical pain.
That is the status quo for African women and girls in sport.
And in this or parts thereof, we can identify ourselves,
our daughters or mothers. While my perspective is that of
a black African woman in sports, this invisibility in research.
Is repeated across all sectors of life
and in all other systemically marginalized groups, indigenous peoples.
People with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA Plus community,
the list is endless. As such,
we each need to do something in our own sphere of influence to challenge
and disrupt the status quo and to change the definition of
the default human being. If we accept the status quo and do nothing,
male dominated structures will continue to make decisions,
rules and policies for none male individuals. The result?
No empathy is shown for marginalized individuals or their life experiences.
If we do nothing, African women and girls in sport will continue to be
on the margins of global discourse. Its best is an afterthought.
Its worst is barely a footnote.
We will not only be invisible in the research, but in budgets,
policy formulation, the general discourse and in product development,
our experts will continue to make decisions about us based
on information that came from people unlike us.
We will continue to live as third class citizens existing
on other people's leftovers if we do nothing.
Our narratives will not be recorded.
Our experiences will not be validated.
Our needs will stay unmet.
And I will continue to look like a praying mantis when I drive.
Doing nothing is not an option.