Matthew Kaley | 2026 I.S. Symposium

Name: Matthew Kaley
Title: Protecting Women’s Sports or Policing Womanhood?: Ideological Analysis of Riley Gaines’s Anti-Transgender Rhetoric
Major: Communication Studies; Global Media & Digital Studies
Advisor: Denise Bostdorff

This study employs ideological criticism to analyze Riley Gaines’s rhetoric about transgender athletes, focusing on her posts on X and a podcast episode. The analysis finds that Gaines: (1) describes transgender women as not real women, (2) presents them as inherently stronger than cisgender women, (3) suggests cisgender women need protection from transgender athletes, and (4) endorses legislative bans and Republican candidates as ways to provide that protection. The study highlights the rapid spread of anti-transgender rhetoric by social media influencers. Gaines’s framing of protecting cisgender women from being replaced by transgender competitors exaggerates how often such competition occurs, as her rhetoric aligns with broader right-wing and white supremacist narratives.

Posted in Symposium 2026 on May 1, 2026.