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For background information on this issue, please check out PookieLocks's recent post on Blogher.
On Tuesday night I saw something on CNN that nearly made me pee my pants with laughter. On Campbell Brown's No Bias No Bull program, She had a Urologist and a sports reporter on to talk about whether the South African athlete was a man or a woman. Funnily enough - or not so funny -the Urologist, (surprisingly) a woman, Dr. Jennifer Berman, described Semenya a a possible hermaphrodite and then pondered whether she was on steroids ( she was tested and had three times the testosterone in her body than a 'normal' woman).
What made me roar was the reaction of the sports reporter (surprisingly) a man, Dave Zirin, who happens to write for The Nation and tells the story here. He had this total 'WTF' look on his face like the woman was insane. After Campbell let him respond, he quite easily dismissed her claims, challenged her use of the word hermaphrodite and then called the woman out on her sexism and...well, general ignorance.
The show then played a short clip of what was going on in South Africa. Apparently, thousands of people showed up to welcome the athletes home and the majority seemed to support Semenya, saying that what was happening to her was ridiculous and offensive...and yes, that dreaded 'R' word:
The loyalty of Semenya's friends and neighbors is striking. South Africa's rural communities are typically regarded as bastions of social conservatism divided into traditional gender roles and expectations of femininity. But there is no evidence that Semenya, an androgynous tomboy who played football and wore trousers, was ostracized by her peers. Instead, they are shocked at what they perceive as the intolerance and prurience of western commentators.
"They are jealous," said Dorcus Semenya, the athlete's mother, who led villagers in jubilant singing and dancing on Friday. "I say to them, go to hell, you don't know what you're saying. They're jealous because they don't want black people improving their status."
I'm on the fence on this one, because I really do not care what gender she is. However, today, bloggers are wondering....does race have to do anything with it? Are the organizers of the Berlin track meet where she kicked the asses of her competitors to literally walk away with the gold medal in the 800, just pissed because a black girl from South Africa won?
(Yes I know...'race, smace, always about race'. But don't hate the playa, hate the game).
Interestingly enough, while Zirin writes a compelling article, he seems to raise her sexuality in the article. But just because she has muscles and doesn't wax her eyebrows....does that make her a lesbian?
Sweet Lord Jesus. Well not really.....
There is currently no definitive information regarding Semenya's sexual orientation or gender choice. We know she identifies herself as an 18-year-old woman and she can run like the wind while not looking like a conventional pinup.
Unfortunately for women athletes, you can't be too masculine for fear you'll be called a lesbian. You can't be too aggressive for fear that you will be called mannish. You must be an outdated stereotype of a woman before you are an athlete. You must market yourself as nonthreatening and blazingly heterosexual.
Over at The Root, senior writer Kai Wright asserts that because of the confusion over her gender, sexuality and her race, Semenya is basically perceived as a 'social monster.' But he does note that this is not the first time that female athletes - successful ones, that is - have been forced to undergo public scrutiny about their gender:
Semenya is hardly the first woman—notably, never a man—forced to undergo sex testing to compete in amateur sports. From 1967 to 1999, all female Olympiads were forced to take versions of the test. The phantom menace of men gaming the system to compete as women never materialized, but athletes were nonetheless routinely deemed to have insufficiently pure femininity. Eight women were barred from the 1996 Olympics, the last at which the tests were used, the Los Angeles Times reports.
But what interest me is the similarities between this brouhaha, the public scrutiny over the physiques of Venus and Serena Williams and the recent scandal about First Lady Michelle Obama wearing shorts on VACATION. VAY-CA-TION, you idiots. Nadra Kareem, who blogs for About.com says this:
The league may not be far off the mark. Although their gender was never in question,
