“We just want to be listened to.” Mundane Transphobia in BBC1’s ‘The Trans Women Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova’

This position paper explores the mundane transphobia evident in the BBC1 documentary ‘The Trans Women Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova’, which aired on the 26th June 2019. Using rhetorical analysis, it closely examines the language utilised by Martina when she interviews five individuals – Naomi Reid, Alison Perkins, Joanna Harper, Kristina Harrison, and Charlie Martin – about their experiences of participating in sport as trans women. This piece draws on a number of examples to illustrate how mundane transphobia occurs interactionally in conversations between trans and cisgender people. It argues that whilst Martina at times renders herself as advocating for the inclusion of trans women in elite sport, she instead engages with mundane transphobia, that is, ‘the everyday ways in which non-trans people enact marginalisation towards transgender people despite claims to inclusivity’ (Riggs, 2016, p.4).