What makes a woman?
What do you remember about the recent track and fields champs in Berlin? Usain Bolt toppling records? Valerie Villi cleaning up the competition? Or the teenage woman accused of being a man?
Caster Semenya has gone home to South Africa while the sporting world waits for a revelation on whether she is "entirely female".
My heart breaks for the girl. At just 18, she's had to contend with media everywhere breathlessly reporting that she looks like a man. Oh, and she has high levels of testosterone. Apparently, that can't be right, the media has mused with great excitment. And surely she can’t be all woman and look like that?
A bigozine article suggested it is possible that Semenya has a chromosomal variation; however, the authors argued, this did not automatically give her an advantage and the "fluidity of gender and sex" should be acknowledged.
Leaving aside whether the IAAF should acknowledge this, or if they are right or wrong to test her, how shameful that they have paraded the process in front of the media.
From a journalist's perspective, of course the media would report it - it has all the ingredients of a fantastic story. But that doesn't make it right.
OK, so outwardly, Caster doesn't have the appearance we traditionally associate with women.
But how long has she been involved in intense training? She's only young. At 18 it's possible that years of training have delayed the onset of her menstrual cycle. This has certainly happened to young gymnasts and ballet dancers.
Endurance training can also suspend a woman's menstrual cycle. It's happened to me and I wasn’t at all thin or training at the level elite athletes do - 15 hours a week was enough to do it.
Time magazine reports that IAAF officials confirmed that in Berlin Semenya had already began the gender-testing process. Apparently this involves "an endocrinologist, a gynaecologist, a psychologist, and both internal and external examinations". Sounds like a barrel of laughs.
But what then? I imagine that even if nothing out of ordinary is found, Semenya will never live this down.
And what will happen if it is discovered she has a chromosomal variation?
I guess she will be stripped of her of her medals, like in the case of Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan. Soundarajan was later diagnosed with androgen insensitivity syndrome. This condition occurs in the womb, when a genetic male is resistant to androgens, the male sex hormones, which results in the body appearing externally female.
I’m a little lost as to how or why this automatically provides such a huge advantage.
Soundarajan talked to Time magazine about Semenya’s case.
"She is a woman and that's it, full stop," Soundarajan told the magazine. "A gender test cannot take away from you who you are."
But the bigozine article I quoted earlier also says athletics and sport is a "minefield of sexism and homophobia.
"[It] has long pushed female athletes into magazines like Maxim to prove their ‘hotness’ - and implicitly their heterosexuality."
Interestingly, male track and field athletes are never accused of being too feminine. We don't point and jeer at the skinny ones and demand they be more masculine.
Aside from the obvious issue of competitive advantage, why is it such an issue for women? They certainly don’t help each other.
Time Magazine quoted a competitor Elisa Piccione after Semenya beat her soundly. Piccione had this to say: "These kinds of people should not run with us. For me, she's not a woman. She's a man."
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Picture: Reuters
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I cannot understand why this had to be done so publicly. Surely a test (if a test is really necessary) could have been made without exposing this poor girl to such humiliation. Regardless of the outcome she will be scarred for life by this experience. Perhaps when completed a very public test could be made on the officials who were responsible to determine whether they possess compassion and common sense genes.
As for her fellow competitor she is beneath contempt for that comment.
Heck if she survives this she'll survive anything
From time to time, Nature produces variations from the norm or "freaks" (not meant in a bad way). The Guinness Book of Records is full of them. Tallest, shortest, biggest, smallest, able to eat the most hotdogs etc. And now the latest one... the fastest female human.
Of course it could also be because she put in the time, effort and dedication to become the fastest, and put in more of those than any other competitor lately. Or a combination of both.
What results is those who can't keep up assuming and making claims in order to cut down this tall poppy. Happens in pretty much any sport or endeavour. Those who don't make the grade cut down those who do. Anything even slightly "different" is claimed to be an unfair advantage.
A shame that she has to be dragged through all this but I really hope she comes through clear.
The competitors attitude and comments say it all clearly she wasn't happy about being beaten by someone with more talent and skill.
Great post. Fully agree.
Slightly to my own surprise, I find myself agreeing with Ben on something. "Beneath contempt" expresses it nicely, Piccione is behaving like a tantrum-throwing three year old.
As for publicly testing the officials, I'd be all in favour but I think the results are a given. According to another article on Stuff this morning the latest thing is apparently to protest by throwing frozen roadkill. Pass me a frozen possum, somebody...
Obviously a whole lot of sour grapes from that Piccione woman. Surely in 2009 we should be trying to move away from the misleading and in many ways outdated concept of gender?
I've noticed though, that sport is quite a sexist area. You only have to look at the amount of media attention directed at men's sport compared to women's sport. I also get the idea that as a culture we have a myth that sportswomen are unsexy and unfeminine, and therefore crossing gender boundaries anyway. Even if that were true, what's wrong with it? There's more to life than sex.
The poor girl.
Why the IAAF should be ashamed for how they are handling this. As youn point out - whatever the outcome Semenya will be dogged by this for the rest of her career.
I hate to think the impact this is having on her personally.
Sadly sport has become riddled with cheats - so I guess the old definitions of male and female have been made useless. Surely if you have an "outie" your a male, and if you have an "innie" your a female.
It is easy to blame the officials, it is easy to blame the media, but the public as a whole are guilty of the unwanted attention she has recieved. We have 'sensationalized' this around the water cooler, 'must be a man', 'must be taking testosterone', 'can't be normal'. If we didn't make a big deal about it, the media wouldn't be reporting it, and the tests (because they would happen) by officials would have gone by largely unnoticed and unreported, and her dignity would remain intact(ish).
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Great post! I totally agree- the poor girl.