Caster Semenya; is she or is...?

[eumelia]

Just this evening, at the Berlin World Track and Field Championships, Caster Semenya of South Africa won the 800 metre distance run.

I saw it on teevee and I was amazed.

She left them all in the dust, a few of the other athletes were utterly bewildered.

Now she faces a gender probe, more info here.
That is, she's going to go under the invasive procedure of "making sure" she's female, because she did too well in her field.

Such is the fate of female athletes who are too successful.

I don't know what how Semenya ID's, nor do I care, however, her appearance is butch... too butch for the comfort of the athletics committee.

Diversity within female "sex" is verboten, obviously.

I'm smelling the misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and racism from here, in my little dusty room.

Maybe one day athletic categories will be divided through comparative abilities, rather than through gender segregation.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Strangely, I was just looking at that exact story on ontd_political - and agree with cirisse's excerpting of the blog Jezebel's conclusions (http://jezebel.com/5340960/coach-gender-concerns-reasonable-because-runner-looks-like-a-man) on this issue: The IAAF and other athletics governing bodies need to come up with a workable definition that's fair to intersexed [B.N.: but not just!] athletes — and that definition shouldn't be "looks feminine to us and isn't threateningly good."

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It's only because she's so good that they're testing her. But I wonder, say the result does end up being non XX, her career is ruined and her sense of identity will (I can only assume) be put under duress.
As I said, gender segregation in sports is really not what it used to be.
I don't see why they can't at least have "mixed" events... I mean if women athletes want to succeed they need the "Women's" categories because women are still taught and told that we need to be smaller and weaker etc, so they really can't, in that framework compete with men.
But there are so many women and men who have the same level of ability... why not let them compete against each other and with each other?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

There's an interesting idea, indeed!

A related footnote from comments at the Jezebel post: the case of 1930s intersex sprinter Stella Walsh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Walsh) (I haven't the diacritical knowhow to render her actual Polish name here) is cited as one reason why the IOC no longer has gender-determination tests for athletes (as of 2000, allegedly) - I can't see why the IAAF still has them, considering the clusterbungles they've already made in doping tests.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

What really annoys me is that the suspicions are framed as being about "how she looks", and every newspaper article, even those who just had it as a single paragraph in a longer article, had a photo.

The IOC really needs a working definition - or several categories, like each track event at the Paralympics.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Every time a woman athlete was put under "the gender test" it was mainly because of her appearance. If Semenya had done well, but looked like what the committee believes to be a woman, they maybe maybe they would have tested her for doping.

I tried to explain to someone that there's a big difference between testing for performance integrity and testing for "sex" identity.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I always wonder if Florence Griffith-Joyner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Joyner) put on her massive performance of femininity (long nails, buckets of make-up, long, straightened hair) so that people wouldn't accuse her of the same thing. A muscular woman who runs fast? Must be a man!

One thing that the reports seem to be skipping is that performance-enhancing steroids do have "masculinising" effects - they promote a pattern of muscle development and hair growth associated with men (heavy musculature, low body fat, extra facial and body hair, receding hairline). The first thing I would think about an athete with a tremendous and sudden improvement in performance and a "masculinised" apperance would be "drugs". And yet the IOC is framing this as a gender issue first. I wonder if that's a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny of their drug testing regime?

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I was looking at a lot of the female athletes at these world championships, and the number of masculine effects that are visible, it was terrifying. And points to *very* widespread abuse of performance enhancing steroids.

Just I think they stop using them 3 months or whatever before a championship so that they get them out of their systems.

I think you might well be onto something with them going for gender rather than stirring up another drug test fuss.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Just I think they stop using them 3 months or whatever before a championship so that they get them out of their systems.

This is correct - but all national and international federations for sports have to run out-of-season drug tests, too. If you're registered to compete, they can show up any time of the year and you have to supply a sample. Two Australian athletes were banned for five years each because they ran away from an out-of-season test instead of giving a urine sample. It's also why a lot of non-performance-enhancing drugs are banned - because they either mask illegal drugs in your system, or clean them out faster.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

The problem is the drugs companies are always one step ahead of the dope-testers isn't it? I mean, they keep bringing out newer and better drugs that the testers have trouble detecting?

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with the work of Annemarie Mol? She has written about the ontological and epistemological problems of sex determination. I cannot presently find the essay of her I read (it was in Dutch) but her work sure is worth checking out.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely run a search of her in my Uni data base. Thanks for the suggestion.

[ninboydean.livejournal.com]

Maybe one day athletic categories will be divided through comparative abilities and through gender segregation.

I think you meant "...rather than through gender segregation"?

I agree, of course.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I did, thanks for the nitpick!