August 28, 2009
Caster Semenya: The Idiocy of Sex Testing
Dave Zirin and Sherry Wolf in The Nation:
World-class South African athlete Caster Semenya, age 18, won the 800 meters in the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships on August 19. But her victory was all the more remarkable in that she was forced to run amid a controversy that reveals the twisted way international track and field views gender.
The sports world has been buzzing for some time over the rumor that Semenya may be a man, or more specifically, not "entirely female." According to the newspaper The Age, her "physique and powerful style have sparked speculation in recent months that she may not be entirely female." From all accounts an arduous process of "gender testing" on Semenya has already begun. The idea that an 18-year-old who has just experienced the greatest athletic victory of her life is being subjecting to this very public humiliation is shameful to say the least.
Her own coach Michael Seme contributed to the disgrace when he said, "We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man. It's a natural reaction and it's only human to be curious. People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt. But I can give you the telephone numbers of her roommates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide."
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 02:53 PM | Permalink
Comments
Whatever track and field tells us Caster Semenya's gender is--and as of this writing there is zero evidence she is intersex--it's time we all break free from the notion that you are either "one or the other."
Wouldn't the logical result of breaking free from the notion that athletes are either "one or the other" gender be to end separate competitions based on gender? Is that what Zirin and Wolf want?
Posted by: parse | Aug 28, 2009 3:54:27 PM
Yes, I agree. We should drop these antiquated gender labels and have single competitions instead of separate ones for "men" and for "women". It's the twenty-first century, for crying out loud!
Posted by: billy | Aug 28, 2009 3:57:17 PM
A close friend of my daughter happens to be a world-class 800 meter runner. If you knew how hard and how many years these girls train to contend for the title, you might have more sympathy for them and their point of view. Caster Semenya went from zero to the best in just a few months.
Posted by: Luke Lea | Aug 28, 2009 9:31:11 PM
Billy, you're kidding, right? It's hard to tell.
Posted by: Carlos | Aug 28, 2009 9:52:51 PM
Good grief. This is muddleheadedness itself. The people in charge at Berlin, as well as the media covering the story, have shown themselves quite competent in the biology of intersexuality. No-one here is ignorant of the fact that sex isn't cleanly binary, that both genotypic and phenotypic sex bleed outside neat boxes at the margins. This is precisely why they're carrying out tests to determine whether Semenya - with respect of genetic / physical / hormonal condition as it impacts running performance - better fits the male/open or female categories for running competition. Suppose Semenya's intersexed, and suppose 'female' seemed a fair fit to her (and her competitors), she'd be construed as female, not by whitewashing away her hypothesized intersexuality, but in virtue of its irrelevance.
What the athletics and media worlds, with considerable support from the public at large, have shown themselves as lacking is simple decency and empathy toward this poor eighteen year old, who's facing incredible media scrutiny for no fault of her own, and for whom a triumph has been transformed into a shameful experience, as the whole planet plays let's-peek-into-her-panties. The medical science these people get just fine. In fact, as an aside, I can't decide whether the authors of the article get basic logic, let alone science - in addition to writing gibberish about the (non)impact of sex in top-level athletics, they're demanding, open-faced and without irony, precisely that a potentially intersex person be classified as binary-female, independent of the results of testing on whether and how that matters in competition.
I want puppies. What precisely do they want officials to do? Always take everyone's word for their sexual identity? Really?
The binary sex classification in sports exists for market reasons. There aren't fifteen additional gender categories at the Olympics because no-one at the moment cares to watch the 100 m for people with Klinefelter's, followed by the 100 m for people with ovotestes and so on. Classification itself exists, meanwhile, because of considerable interest in what the other half ("half"; to within permille effects like intersexuality) of the population can do.
Posted by: D | Aug 28, 2009 10:56:18 PM
Continue to debate the pros and cons of gender segregation in sports?
Training, wealth, etc. have far greater impact than a penis?
Is this a joke?
Do these people not realize that if we had a single competition for the 100m sprint that the first person across the line would ALWAYS have a penis?
Posted by: Phillip | Aug 28, 2009 11:12:28 PM
D, that was gorgeous.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Aug 28, 2009 11:26:54 PM
Carlos, of course I'm not joking, and I must conclude that you're either sexist or homophobic, or both. (I replied before seeing's parse's comment, although it works as an answer to his/her questions--While we're at it, let's get rid of these antiquated pronouns, too.)
Posted by: billy | Aug 29, 2009 1:28:38 AM
What D said.
Posted by: Sagredo | Aug 29, 2009 4:33:10 AM
I have been very uneasy with this terrible story all night, for a reason that has not yet been discussed here. I do not believe that Caster Semenya would be the target of this kind of hellishly unseemly speculation if she were white. The way that people, even her coach, have helped themselves to remarks about her "equipment," and what can be seen of her when she gets naked, is objectification that reminds me of what Saartjie Baartman endured. Of course, that was a long time ago, but there is a strong whiff here of the appalling disinhibition of society before a woman of color on display for her anomalies. Whatever the treatment an androgynous-looking Euro-American competitor would receive, I do not believe it would be freighted with the ugly ease, and the lowness, people bring to talking about a two-headed calf.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Aug 29, 2009 8:33:33 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Ratjen
Posted by: fred lapides | Aug 29, 2009 9:34:35 AM
Odd, my post vanished.
To restate:
Do these people not realize that if we had a single competition for the 100m sprint that the first person across the line would ALWAYS have a penis?
We can flesh this out with some additional information. This young woman's recent achievement is either amazing or pathetic. The Olympic qualifying time for the 800 M is a full 9 seconds faster than hers was. Regardless of the effort she puts into her training, or the love and devotion she has for her sport, to an advocate of genderless athletics her involvement in serious competitive sports is pointless.
Imagine all the wonderful performances of Serena Williams we would never get to see, to name but one example, if billy ruled the world.
And that's the most sexist position I can imagine.
I don't get the homophobe charge though billy. Care to explain? Or were you just on a roll?
Posted by: Carlos | Aug 29, 2009 10:16:26 AM
Thank you, Elatia--I knew there was a racism angle here somewhere, in addition to the sexism and homophobia. Carlos, that you think Serena William's performances are wonderful only because she's a woman, only goes to prove my point. Do I really need to explain the homophobe charge? Why don't I just quote from one of the web letters, that sums up the situation perfectly: "This "testing," however, is nothing but homophobia. Physically examining Castor is nothing less than rape." I wish a world in which we were all Stephen Colbert, being literally unable to see race, or sexual orientation, or gender.
Posted by: billy | Aug 29, 2009 11:21:31 AM
Yes you do, billy. You made the charge. Defend it. The letter you posted has nothing to do with me.
Posted by: Carlos | Aug 29, 2009 1:19:02 PM
billy: "Do I really need to explain the homophobe charge?"
Carlos: "Yes you do, billy."
But do I really, really need to explain it? In any event, I wanted to correct one thing: When I said in reference to Serena Williams that "she's a woman", I should have instead followed my own suggestion about antiquated pronouns and said "it's a woman" or perhaps "they's a woman".
Sexist, homophobic, racist: It's possible I overreacted a tiny bit, Carlos--I guess I was just shocked that you thought I might be kidding. I mean, am I the type of person who thinks it's ever appropriate to have humor anywhere near the word "rape"? Or, for that matter, near the words "Stephen Colbert"?...
Posted by: billy | Aug 29, 2009 4:13:25 PM
Probably assigning a null value to anything you say would be the simplest course. Agreed?
Posted by: Carlos | Aug 29, 2009 9:34:17 PM
Yes, I was joking the whole time. Sorry it was so hard to tell.
Posted by: billy | Aug 30, 2009 4:38:34 AM
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