As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) moves towards new rules on who can compete in women’s categories — covering testosterone levels, genetic tests and bans — a quiet truth emerges: these policies impact all women, not just trans women. They force all women to defend their bodies and prove what’s inside, deepening divides instead of bridging them. Under the guise of protecting women, these laws revive the age-old question: who counts as a woman and who decides?

The proposed rules will issue a ban on all women who have undergone male puberty and will cover athletes with Differences of Sex Development (DSD). Individuals with DSD are raised as girls from birth but possess male chromosomes and male levels of testosterone. If these bans apply to “male levels of testosterone,” we have to ask: who defines that? And what happens when millions of cis women fall outside that definition?