Caster Semenya

[epporsimuove]

Despite not talking about it much, I have been following the Caster Semenya "scandal" pretty closely. It is bringing up a lot of different issues, from a discussion of what makes a woman, to an ongoing conversation about the media's epic fail in covering the story in a respectful manner. Take, for example, this stunning piece of brilliance from Yahoo!News, which was the first thing I saw when I finally got online today. The piece discusses the recent rumours that Semenya's gender testing has revealed her to be a hermaphradite (these are, of course, still unverified). Nothing really new, but

Reading the IAAF rules, it would appear that Semenya would be allowed to run if her condition was treated.

Allow me to put on my angry face as a I say this is not a condition, and she does not need to be fixed.

Also, your funny quote for the day:

Not having ovaries isn't something that goes unnoticed.

Actually, unless you have x-ray vision, not having ovaries can easily go unnoticed, as ovaries are not visible on the outside. Sounds like the writer needs to go back to health class.

Comments

[angelikitten]

They're wondering why she might not want to run? MAYBE SHE DOESN'T WANT TO DEAL WITH ANY MORE FUCKWITS RIGHT NOW, YOU FUCKWITS.

Seriously, these people need to get a clue. Preferably yesterday.

[epporsimuove]

I almost filled my post with "fuckers" after every line, but I was trying to be civil. I am so glad someone else did it for me though. Even the articles that are more respectful, forpassionlikecrime found one below, still discuss this in terms of a medical condition. I do not like the phrasing, but I am not sure how I would better describe it.

[forpassionlikecrime]

See, I didn't even hear about this until just now. You're my news source. Come back! Haha.

But I did look it up. And I found a good article from AP. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjO2AGjuuA4IQynCodO7Ej1u247AD9ALDF281

It basically says this has happened before and the point of gender testing is to determine when a man is pretending to be a woman so he can have an advantage in the races. Its a birth defect but she's not *cheating* and they can't disqualify her for for simply being better.

[epporsimuove]

Glad to be your news source. I'll be back briefly in March, just like I talked about. Until then, you'll just have to put up with my blogging news rather than babbling about it at dinner (I really miss PomPoms).

Thanks for the article; I hadn't seen it before, and it does a great job of explaining the science and a bit of the history. Part of what this debate is shaping up to be is a discussion of what makes a man a man and a woman a woman. Is it identified gender, sex organs, chromosomes, or something else (or a combination of these)? Additionally, who gets to make that determination?

My thoughts lie far into the realm of you get to be and identify as whomever or whatever you want. I, and the public at large, have no right - nor really any reason - to force our perception of your identity onto you. This extends beyond just gender and sex to sexual identity (hi! bisexuality), ideological affiliation, religious affiliation, etc.