Is This Champion Runner a Man or a Woman?
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We are used to sports federations getting worked up about drug tests. But a gender test? South African runner Caster Semenya won the world championship this week by 2.45 seconds. Watch the video. She’s nowhere near the pack, and barely sweating. The Israeli sportscasters just keep repeating “This is amazing! Where did she come from?” Great Britain’s Barbie runner, Jennifer Meadows, looks miffed. “I’ve heard a lot of speculation,” Meadows says. South Africa’s track and field federation, meanwhile, is being asked to perform a gender test. What does this mean? They won’t really say, except to assure that it’s an “extremely complex, difficult test” that involves a gynecologist, endocrinologist and psychologist, and will take time. I can’t imagine what test one could come up with that would definitively prove gender. If it’s a simple XX/XY test, that would take an afternoon. Her father and paternal grandmother insist she is a female. And if Semenya turns out to be intersex—meaning she was born with genitals of both sexes, or even that she had a sex change operation—is she not a woman? She is, by any humane standards. I look forward to the results. They will, at the very least, provide an important and entertaining philosophical treatise on the meaning of gender.
Hanna Rosin Double X co- editor, reporter, prefer my friends live.
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I have to agree that the
By: you know it is | Mon, 08/24/2009 - 16:05
I have to agree that the phrase "humane standards" is unclear, and I can't see anything particularly inhumane about deciding that some intersex conditions disqualify one from competing in women's events. After all, the whole point of having separate men's and women's events is to exclude people based on their genetics. In other words, it's routinely and virtually universally accepted that a person's genetics can be legitimate grounds to disqualify them from competing in certain athletic events.
Another odd comment that one encounters is that "if she looked the way a woman is supposed to look then there wouldn't be these accusations" (made with the implication that the people wanting to investigate whether there's an intersex condition are blinded by overly rigid notions of what's gender-appropriate appearance or prejudice against women who are not feminine in traditional ways). It's certainly true that if Semenya did not possess the deep voice, musculature and bone structure of a man but instead looked like a woman, then people would not wonder if there is an intersex condition, but what of it? Wondering if there is an intersex condition because of her characteristically masculine appearance is not closed-mindedness, it's an eminently reasonable question to ask.
It might be helpful to remember that the reason behind the gender-testing rules in these competitions is fairness to the other women athletes. Hence I can't see that the positions and comments that are being described as "feminist" (which are to the effect that the gender-testing requirements are bunk) are really all that feminist. After all, the other competitors certainly are women (well, probably, maybe not certainly), and it is their interests that are being protected.
im disgusted at the gender politics of the feminists
By: p.bateman | Mon, 08/24/2009 - 13:47
personally i would agree with melk and nickolas here that this issue is being given a gender political twist by the feminists.
i dont know really what is up with these feminists...what the fcuk does she mean by "she is a woman by any humane standards
Good News for XX Athletes
By: MrJM | Mon, 08/24/2009 - 10:51
In a related story:
http://GainsForFemaleAthletes.notlong.com
-- MrJM
Is this champion runner a man or a woman?
By: melk | Mon, 08/24/2009 - 09:13
"...is she not a woman? She is, by any humane standards."
What on earth does this mean? It appears that Ms Rosin and some of the commenters have little interest in sport itself. This is just another gender politics lecture. The reason it matters whether this runner is female or male is because of fairness to the other female competitors. They have spent much of their young lives training for this event and it would be unconscionable to then lose to someone who might be male. Semenya's winning time is sensational by female standards, but it would barely be good enough to win at a local male high school track meet. We're not talking here about a competition for playing the Beethoven violin concerto.
feminists, you cannot have your cake and eat it too
By: nickolas | Mon, 08/24/2009 - 05:10
i think some women (specially feminist types) want to have their cake and eat it too.
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on one hand they ask "why her gender is a question" and then cynically "maybe they cannot tolerate a girl performing so well" and at the same time they want the games to be segregated by gender.
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they know very well that if genders were not segregated there would be no woman competing at top levels (even at college levels) in swimming, running, high jump ,vault etc. and then they would being crying about womens under-representation in sports!
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and to the person who asked the idiotic question "what if its a male intersex" ....it wouldnt matter even if women competed in mens athletics! male inter-sex shouldnt be much of an issue. because mens sports already are about the best level. the whole purpose of segregating genders(or is it sex!) is to PROTECT womens sports not mens! .....understand? so determining gender matters more for womens sports.
Gender is not sex
By: TSedohr | Mon, 08/24/2009 - 04:44
Gender is only the sex that the person identify with, such as the pregnant man he may male as in gender (legally) , but his sex is still female (scientifically speaking) and even if Semenya had an Y chromosome (XXY)it doesn't matter if the Y chromosome is defunct, in nature an organism is classified as male if it produces sperm and female if it produces an egg, (not if it is XX it is female or XY it is male, because if we classified it based on that birds and reptiles would be genderless, so as long as she menstruates shes a female,even if she had some male parts or an extra Y chromosome.
@paulk
By: Caerolle | Sun, 08/23/2009 - 15:15
uh, sorry, no...yes, bones are bones, and they arent going to shrink, and yes, if you take massive amounts of testosterone, you will build muscle mass, male or female. However, that is called 'doping,' and is illegal.
`
Yes, working out will help keep mass, I suppose, but if the testosterone isn't there, there isnt going to be any edge over a genetic woman (other than the larger frame and heavier bones, which perhaps are an edge, I dunno). If transsexual women actually had a definite edge over genetic women, I dont think they would be allowing them in the Olympics:
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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SPORT/05/17/olympics.transsexual/
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I actually *know* transsexual women, and they have loss their base muscle mass; same for transgendered women who havent had their testicles removed, but have been on testosterone blockers and estrogen for an extended time (the Olympics require two years).
`
Carol :)
With regard to Caerolle's
By: paul_k_666 | Sun, 08/23/2009 - 06:18
With regard to Caerolle's comment above, androgens cause the development of a larger (on average) amount of muscle and a stronger, thicker skeleton. These changes will not disappear when the hormones are withdrawn. In the past many athletes, such as weight lifters and swimmers took massive amounts of hormones and stopped taking them before the Olympics in order to pass their drug tests. If you keep working out, the changes caused by the hormones will persist (not, as some would tell you "turn into fat").