I have been watching how the International Federation of Athletic Associations has been handling this whole Caster Semenya thing and I keep help but keep this ‘officials’ the side eye. This 18 year-old from South Africa who has been raised (as far as we know) as a female, will have to undergo a battery of test to prove her gender (and that will take months). Why? She’s simply too good, basically leaving the competition in the dust at the World Championship in Berlin this week. She also doesn’t meet the European standards of beauty. All I can say is this is a slippery slope to an international mess anyway you look at it.
In an article for The Guardian Germaine Greer points out that even the Olympics abandoned gender testing after they tried it for the 1992 and 1996 Games. Over 6,000 athletes were given the SRY test and none of them misrepresented their gender. But by picking up and pointing out developmental sexual disorders in a small group of women who didn’t know they had them proved embarrassing all around. But the IFAA is not suggesting that Semenya take the SRY they want an endocrinologist, gynecologist, and psychologist to test this young woman. Can you say extreme measures?
The Los Angeles Times reports that Nick Davies, spokesman for the IAAF, said it was clear that whatever the results of the gender tests, “clearly it was not her fault.”
“It’s a medical issue. You’re talking about someone’s life. She was born, christened and grew up a woman,” he said in an interview with the BBC. The aim of the tests, he said, was to discover whether anything gave her an unfair advantage.
Does the need to discover this ‘unfair advantage’ require such a public examination of this women’s gender? As far as Semenya, her mother, her coach and her country are concerned she is a female. Pointing out a possible genetic abnormality could harm this woman in more ways than one and perhaps make her an outcast in her own homeland. And what would such a discovery do to Semenya herself? In South Africa she’s getting tons of support and many find this whole gender/identify questioning distasteful, demeaning and culturally insensitive.
Then there’s the question of beauty. Clearly Semenya does not fit the mold of what some say is feminine (which is quite funny because neither do many athletes from Eastern European countries). But is it her dark skin, broad nose and full lips causing the accusations to fly more? Hmmm looks that way to me.
Even the Young Communist League in South Africa see how looks factor in to this whole equation:
“It feeds into the commercial stereotypes of how a woman should look, their facial and physical appearance, as perpetuated by backward Eurocentric definition of beauty.
“It is this culture which has forced many African women to starve themselves with the objective of reaching the model ramps of Paris and Milan to become the face of this or that product or magazine,“
Like I said before, this is quite a mess. A young black woman emerged victorious in a race. Now she has to prove who she is. In this case, no one wins and that’s a crying shame.
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Well said. I think this whole thing is disgusting and racist. This would not happen if she fit into the traditional standard of beauty.
This is very reminiscent of the Sarah Baartman fiasco where another South African woman’s body was put on display for all the world to see. Her type of womanhood was poked and prodded, even by scientists long after her death. When will black female bodies stop being deconstructed by scientists and the public?
actually reading the daily mail ysterday this has happened before and all the cases they described invovled white woman,one was found to be intersex (but only when dead) the others were men that the germans dressed up to win in nazi days so it’s nothing knew to ask i hat how people always make things a subject of race.
Great Post…I think that this is very sad. There many women that have “masculine features” and men that have feminine features. If there was every any cause of concern about her gender it should have been handled long before she was allowed to race in Berlin.
In the words of Kat Williams…”HATERS DON’T PLAY FAIR”
I think the quick response is to look at this as some sort of race issue, or, as something having to do with European standards of beauty, but, I don’t know that this is what it is. From everything I’ve read, it appears to be a medical issue. Unfortunately, I think this is going to be one of those lose/lose sort of situations. I think it’s not going to come down whether or not she’s a boy or girl, but how much of her is boy and how much of her is girl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
Why does it always have to come down to racism? There are plenty of very dark women with, ‘broad nose and full lips’ who are very beautiful like any other Korean, Latina, European, Japanese, Canadian, Native American, etc. woman out there. She does not look feminine by anyone’s standard. She very well could be a woman, but she LOOKS like she, at the very least, has some kind of hormonal problem.
I don’t think that it comes down to racism.I did however, point out that that is how the South African’s feel. My point is that all of this has been handled badly. Finding out you do have an excess of males hormones [or are indeed intersexed] in front of the world is quite problematic and invasive. But the latest report that her coach has what can only be described as a ‘checkered past’ with hormone injections may actually explaining what’s really at the heart of the matter. (I do hope that isn’t the case either).
Whatever the outcome, Caster Semenya will never be the same.
More on South Africa’s reaction to the IAFF in today’s NY Times’ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/world/africa/26safrica.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
this is so sad the only reasion they are saying that she may be a man is because shes a good runner and if she was not good people would ot take one look at her people need to understand that everyone does not look the same it is not like anyone never heard of women having masculine features its so outstanding how a young black woman could have so much talent
How sad that you are not more of a professional than this…”But is it her dark skin, broad nose and full lips causing the accusations to fly more? Hmmm looks that way to me.”
Look at the picture in the publication the woman is holding. At first glance, the picture is of a male runner. Because of the dark skin, broad nose, and full lips??? NOOOOO!!!! Because of the broad SHOULDERS, large MUSCLES, and general BODY build.
Why do you call others racist when you yourself create the controversy? Have you heard nothing Bill Cosby has said, or do you prefer to only listen to Al Sharpton?
Stick with the issues, please quit stirring the pot! The girl’s biological state is sad and unfortunate for her…don’t create a racial issue for her as well.