Biological Gender Questioned of Athlete, Caster Semenya
by pookielocks

18-year-old Caster Semenya of South Africa, won the Women’s 800 Meter in the World Championships by a long shot over other female contenders.

Not only did she win, she set a world record of 1 minute, 55.45 seconds, beating current world champion,

Janeth Jepkosgei, by 2.45 seconds. (USA Today)

 

 

Photograph: Thomas Lohnes/AFP/Getty Images 

Semenya’s win has stirred up controversy in the world of Track & Field. Her masculine features and deep voice combined with her otherworldly speed at the championships have started a gender debate, with athletes and coaches from several countries questioning her true biological gender. 

This begs the question of whether it’s acceptable to single out one athlete to test her gender. Shouldn’t all athletes be tested prior to championships of this magnitude? Is it morally wrong to say that because an athlete looks and performs like a male, she should be gender-tested?

 

Mandatory gender testing of female athletes was instated in 1966. The International Association of Athletics Federations ceased gender screening for all athletes in 1992, but retains the option of assessing the gender of a participant should suspicions arise. They are currently invoking this rule in Semanya’s case.

 

Semenya’s coach is not worried about the test results. “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.” (Maholo)

 

 

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is under heat as well. They should have verified her gender quietly, before allowing her to compete. Now the entire world is abuzz with questions of gender identity, leaving Semenya in an unfavorable worldwide scrutiny.

 

This is not the first time the world has questioned the biological gender of a purported female athlete. Perhaps the most famous case of gender-bender suspicion in sports is that of sisters, Tamara and Irina Press in the 1960s. The sisters were Olympic and National Track & Field stars for the Soviet Union. Tamara won three track-and-field Olympic gold medals and set 12 world records while Irina won a gold medal in the 80-metre hurdles. They became the first sisters to win gold medals at the same Olympics (Rome, 1960). During their reign, however, they were universally called “The Press Brothers” due to their manly faces, figures, and masculine record-breaking skills. Curiously, they dropped out of public competition when gender-testing first became instituted in 1966.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Tamara Press accepting her Gold Medal in the 1964 Olympic Games

 

In 1996, 8 Female Olympians (Atlanta Games) were found to have Y chromosomes, however 7 of them were okayed to compete due to being diganosed with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). People with AIS have a Y chromosome but develop all the physical characteristics of a woman except for internal female sex organs. The result is a genetic defect wherein the body does not produce testosterone. Since testosterone helps build muscle and strength, a person with AIS competing as a female athlete would have no competitive advantage over 'normal" females. (India Times)

 

More recently, Indian middle-distance runner Santhi Soundarajan who won the silver medal in 800 m at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar failed the sex determination test and was stripped of her medal. Sadly, Soundarajan attempted suicide in 2007 amid the controversy over her gender. It is unknown whether she suffers from AIS, as the Olympic Council of Asia continues to practice mandatory gender testing. (India Times)

Submitted by pookielocks (view blog) on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 7:49am

Comments

 

So sad

Yes I agree it would have been better if a gender test had been performed quietly before all this hoopla started.

Now, its a sad story if she passes or fails.  If she fails, it will cause a huge stink, and if she passes, it will be clear that this strong woman had to endure her gender being questioned.

I think she is beautiful.  Stunning. Did you see how she recovered from nearly tripping ? Magnificent.

I can understand that it would be hugely problematic if she is not biologically female, as she is competing as a woman.  But it seems so sad that this had to happen.

 

Submitted by mashadutoit on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 10:01
 

I know of a hermaphroditic

I know of a hermaphroditic child who is not aware of his/her "condition." She is being brought up as a female and will soon have to undergo hormone treatment to continue. She has many "male-gender" qualities that present themselves.

I wonder if someone like this became an athlete, then discovered after testing, they were not who they thought they were. Perhaps that was the case with Santhi Soundarajan.

 

www.shebecameabutterfly.net and www.msmodern.com and www.taking-back-control.com

Submitted by pookielocks on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 10:55
 

i just found this

i just found this info:

Normally, women have two X chromosones (XX) and men have an X or Y chromosone (XY) in their cells. The presence of XX chromosones confirms the person's female gender.

However, some people born with a Y chromosome develop all the physical characteristics of a woman except internal female sex organs, a result of a genetic defect that does not produce testosterone.

A person with this condition - called androgen insensitivity syndrome or AIS - might be XY but she is not a man because her body never responds to the testosterone she's producing.

Since testosterone helps in building muscle and strength, an AIS case would not give an XY female athlete any kind of competitive advantage.

Seven of the eight women who tested positive for Y chromosones during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics had AIS. They were allowed to compete.

 

www.shebecameabutterfly.net and www.msmodern.com and www.taking-back-control.com

Submitted by pookielocks on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 10:58
 

That has to bu humiliating

That has to be absolutely humiliating for that poor woman.  Imagine what that must feel like - competing at the highest level of sport and doing well, having put incredible amounts of time and effort into becoming a great competitor and then being punished, as it were, for your success - by having your gender questioned.  It's absurd, and kind of sick. 

Just as a couple of quick asides - I think Androgen Insensitivty Syndrome is also the disease from an episode of House MD (Oh, Lord help me, I'm addicted to that show! Thankfully not Vicodin, though...like the protagonist) where a supermodel has undescended testes, and one of them has cancer. (I think one of the quotes from the edpisode is something along the lines of.."The perfect woman..is a man," which he realizes after a MAN develops a sympathetic pregnancy alongside his wife.)Not a real big point here, but that episode immediately sprang to mind after seeing this drama unfold.

Also, one of my friends is hugely into a sport called rugby (it's a lot like football) and joked that "If she DOES turn out to be a dude, make her turn out for the Springboks." (That's South Africa's team, evidently - they're supposed to be really good.) "Habana (one of their players) doesn't do a thing when he gets the ball, and they aren't going to win the next World Cup playing like England!" I don't know entirely what he means, but I'm assuming it would be funny to someone who does. 

That has to be a horrible thing, and I hope that some sort of vindication can come out of this.  A top flight, elite, world class athlete like Caster Semenya deserves so much better than be punished for her success.  That's just awful.

Submitted by AnnanAmos on Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:22