Skating Away from the Binary

Reimagining sport beyond the gender binary, where movement and identity break free from tradition
 

Skating Away from the Binary takes a critical look at the ways gender binarism remains deeply embedded in sport, with a focus on pairs figure skating. Erica Rand examines the persistence of these traditional gender structures and explores why trans-hostile sports policies are on the rise, even among those who may otherwise oppose anti-trans rhetoric. Drawing on her own experience as part of a gender-nonconforming pairs team, Rand reveals how figure skating’s historical gender norms intersect with racialized expectations to reinforce widely exclusionary practices in sport.

In 2018, Rand teamed up with Anna Kellar, a democracy advocate and skating journalist, to learn pairs skating. Charting this endeavor, Skating Away from the Binary highlights the challenges and joys Rand and Kellar encounter as they navigate a sport designed around rigid male/female roles. Through lively descriptions of their training and insightful comparisons to other physical activities like tennis, quadball, and ballet, Rand identifies the interconnected binarisms shaping athletic participation, from oversimplified distinctions between cis and trans to the artificial division between athletic and artistic.

Ultimately, Skating Away from the Binary is more than a critique of gender norms in sport—it’s a call to transform them. Challenging readers to consider new possibilities for movement, connection, and collaboration beyond conventional gendered expectations, Rand offers a vision of sport as a space where all people can experience joy and freedom in their bodies and identities.

Erica Rand is professor of art and visual culture and of gender and sexuality studies at Bates College. She is author of several books, including Red Nails, Black Skates: Gender, Cash, and Pleasure on and off the Ice and The Small Book of Hip Checks: On Queer Gender, Race, and Writing.

Introduction

Pairs and Other Multiples

Exercise One: How Competitive Are You, Really?

Winning

Hierarchies of the Human

Division by Fractions

T Time

On Why I’ve Been Avoiding Cis

Exercise Two: Unembed

Gender Attachments, for Stuck and for Looser

Partnering Practice

Dreaming in Pairs

And Now for Our Next Acts

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Where I Go / Zocalo feature