Conservatives Argue Title IX is Actually Bad for Men. Huh?
  June 26, 2026 Greetings, Meteor readers, There are only 338 days until the next World Cup. Does everyone have their fits ready? In today’s newsletter, we explore the dark underbelly of conservative fears. With sports! Plus, is everyone reading The Odyssey without me?  Locked in, Shannon Melero  WHAT’S GOING ONYe old feminine graces: Yesterday, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced that it would conduct one-time genetic sex testing for all players in compliance with a recent eligibility policy set forth by the International Olympic Committee. This policy requires all athletes competing in women’s sports categories to prove that they are “biologically female” at least once during their professional career. At the same time, the far-right is amping up its anti-trans, anti-woman war on sports. Just this week, the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation (the group behind Project 2025) published a report detailing all the reasons Title IX needs to be reworked—reasons that are almost entirely based on false, disproven information about women’s fertility being destroyed by sports. The report was authored by Scott Yenor, a disgraced poli-sci professor and cartoonish misogynist who posits that women never actually wanted to participate in sports that much anyway; they were coerced to do so by Second Wave feminists (and Simone de Beauvoir, which is…a reach). The way Title IX has been enforced, he argues, has forced women to participate in activities they are not “naturally” interested in, like wrestling (which happens to be the fastest-growing sport in the country for girls’ participation). As I’ve said before, sport is where all of us play out our political beliefs with our bodies and our money. And the right’s hyperfixation on women’s sports—and what a woman should be—can tell us a lot about what conservatives actually fear: the decline of traditional masculinity. Let me lay it out. Since the pandemic, girls’ sports participation in the U.S. has been on the rise, thanks to broader investment in programs and the visibility of elite women athletes. Why dream of being the next LeBron when you can dream of being the next A’ja? Conversely, we’ve seen a drop in boys’ sports participation, largely due to the price tag of athletic participation, and America’s win-at-all-costs culture. That was especially on display during this World Cup, where sports commentators discussed how Lamine Yamal was getting scouted by FC Barcelona when he was only six years old. That’s what the Heritage Foundation is really worried about: less room for boys to be boys. In his report, Yenor briefly calls for more robust funding of youth sports (for boys)… at the cost of investment for girls. To him, sports is a zero-sum game: “Title IX has led to the defunding of male sports at the college level, the failure to grow male sports despite obvious interest, and the unnatural expansion of niche female sports,” Yenor writes.  SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, WHO IS ALL OVER THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION REPORT DESPITE BEING ONLY MARGINALLY RELEVANT TO THIS TOPIC. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) He is correct that some men’s sports are being defunded, but so are women’s sports. Men’s sports at the collegiate level are being downgraded to “club-level” (meaning non-competitive) because club sports are less expensive and schools are funneling money towards sports that either drive revenue or will get students to the Olympics. And across the board, the top revenue drivers are still men’s football and basketball. As for the failure to grow men’s sports, this is hardly Title IX’s fault. Youth sports have become prohibitively expensive for the average American family. If household incomes are not rising at the same speed as costs, that’s not a masculinity problem; that’s an economic problem. But as history has taught us, fixing the economy is a lot harder than creating a cultural scapegoat. Yenor’s report and the many coordinated efforts to limit gender-affirming care and sports participation expose the conservative worry that something is coming to take away masculinity from young boys, and Title IX is one of the tools of that theft. (Don’t nobody want your masculinity, Scott!!) Claiming that feminism is preventing boys from being masculine is textbook, apocalyptic fearmongering (and organizations like the WTA and IOC are mainstreaming this narrative—intentionally or not—when they enforce anti-trans policies). In this case, conservatives are targeting the language of the people, the one thing constituents from all backgrounds will understand: sports. AND:
 HE’S TRYING TO ABSORB MAMDANI’S YOUTH. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)
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