A freak is usually a manifestation of our deepest and darkest fears. At the World Athletics Championship in Berlin, all our anxieties about sex and gender are being played out on the body of an 18 year old South African, Caster Semenya.
Entered to run as a woman, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) has asked that Semenya submit to a gender verification test. The South African, who had a modest career as a junior athlete, eclipsed a world class field in the 800m, belying her age and inexperience in the two lap event. Though her times have shown rapid and impressive improvement over a short period, they still remain within the mainstream of women’s 800m running. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8210471.stm
The IAAF is in a righted pickle. The Federation admits that gender verification is a “complex” process, involving the opinions of endocrinologists, gynecologists, psychologists, as well as experts in internal medicine and gender.
Ideas of what is “male” and “female” are by and large, socially constructed. On a daily basis, we perform roles of gender that we learnt and didn’t ourselves create. Markers such as clothing, voice modulation and mannerisms play a big part in determining whether we present as a man or a woman.
In their gender verification test, the IAAF will do well to consider the subjective element of Semenya’s own self-perception. What is this woman’s deeply felt sense of who she is? How has she approached her life, in a world that organizes human beings in terms of male or female? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bqET22vEU
The tension between Semenya’s self-perception and the biological and social perceptions of her gender is what pushes us into a murky area. Could it be that Semenya’s sense of who she is and her attitude towards her own body, are at odds with the sex that she was assigned at birth? If so, how is she told that from henceforth, she will cease to be a woman on account of an IAAF test! What if the test is inconclusive? Even worse, can “she” be both male and female, at once?
In the context of professional sports, the worry is that there may be an unfair advantage for Semenya in being physiologically male, whilst competing against women. Responding to this question, Germaine Greer argues that sports itself is not fair, for rewarding genetic advantage (this analysis does not appreciate the role of skill and application in sports) http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/aug/20/germaine-greer-caster-semenya.
The Semenya story has gifted amateur humorists with very low hanging fruit. Everyone believes they can get a joke out of this one. Personally, my empathy chip has kicked in. If you have ever been considered a freak or a monster, this should not be a laughing matter.
Entered to run as a woman, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) has asked that Semenya submit to a gender verification test. The South African, who had a modest career as a junior athlete, eclipsed a world class field in the 800m, belying her age and inexperience in the two lap event. Though her times have shown rapid and impressive improvement over a short period, they still remain within the mainstream of women’s 800m running. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8210471.stm
The IAAF is in a righted pickle. The Federation admits that gender verification is a “complex” process, involving the opinions of endocrinologists, gynecologists, psychologists, as well as experts in internal medicine and gender.
Ideas of what is “male” and “female” are by and large, socially constructed. On a daily basis, we perform roles of gender that we learnt and didn’t ourselves create. Markers such as clothing, voice modulation and mannerisms play a big part in determining whether we present as a man or a woman.
In their gender verification test, the IAAF will do well to consider the subjective element of Semenya’s own self-perception. What is this woman’s deeply felt sense of who she is? How has she approached her life, in a world that organizes human beings in terms of male or female? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bqET22vEU
The tension between Semenya’s self-perception and the biological and social perceptions of her gender is what pushes us into a murky area. Could it be that Semenya’s sense of who she is and her attitude towards her own body, are at odds with the sex that she was assigned at birth? If so, how is she told that from henceforth, she will cease to be a woman on account of an IAAF test! What if the test is inconclusive? Even worse, can “she” be both male and female, at once?
In the context of professional sports, the worry is that there may be an unfair advantage for Semenya in being physiologically male, whilst competing against women. Responding to this question, Germaine Greer argues that sports itself is not fair, for rewarding genetic advantage (this analysis does not appreciate the role of skill and application in sports) http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/aug/20/germaine-greer-caster-semenya.
The Semenya story has gifted amateur humorists with very low hanging fruit. Everyone believes they can get a joke out of this one. Personally, my empathy chip has kicked in. If you have ever been considered a freak or a monster, this should not be a laughing matter.
I for one feel very sorry for this young woman. I have no issue with the IAAF responding ton a compliant about her gender by her competition but I have a huge problem with the publ8ic nature in which they have gone about it. I'm sure that she is quite accustomed to the whispers about her masculine appearance. Thats one thing but its quite another to have 'the authorities' in essence put her up for ridicule.
ReplyDeleteIts all very sad for her at a time when she should be congratulated. Are we saying that the social contructs of gender are black and white and anything else should be ostracised??
Her parents ( who are rightly upset)confirmed that she is their little girl. Thats enough for me!
Its very unfortunate that the IAAF raised this issue on this young woman. Clearly, emotional intelligence does not exist in the professional sports world. I can just imagine what this is going to do to her self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Caster would have had a problem if her shorts was short and if she wore a weave.
Phil,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. It is a thorny issue. The IAAF might are trying to uphold its rules which largely require competition that is gender specific. It is perhaps unlikely that a woman will seek to pass as a man in sport. The reverse is however sadly a reality. Clearly, the measure cannot be a superficial look-see. But how do you preserve the dignity of the athlete in question? Why should Caster be the only suspect? Should gender testing be mandatory so that no one ever has to go through this? In your personal life you may identify as one gender never mind what equipment you were presented with at birth but should that or your parents certification be enough? I don't think so.
MM
I can't begin to tell you how much this whole thing has fucked me off. I've tried to articulate what has annoyed me about it in my own blog, but as an amateur humourist, I could only grasp thinly at my indignation with a sarcastic diatribe about how to look womanly.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not this issue isn't just about whether Semenya is "female" but about whether she's "entirely female". I suspect that this concept irritates me because gay women are so very often accused of not being "real" woman, much in the same way gay men are never considered "all man". It's as though the IAAF has tapped into years of gender binary bigotry faced by millions of queers and re-exploded it.
Whether she's "entirely female" or not, I am under no illusion that had Semenya appeared on the scene using a falsetto and wearing high heels, I would not be typing this right now. By choosing not to engage in commonly accepted (and Westernised) ideals of femininity, she became open to the same accusations millions of queer men and women face every day. This isn't about her sex, (as it might be), but about her gender representation.
Aside from the gender terrorism, there is also an element of racism as Athletics South Africa have been portrayed as thickie, darkies who can't understand how to determine the sex of an athlete. It wasn't at Berlin that the IAAF first asked for the gender tests. They've been pressurizing ASA for months. It seems that Semenya has undergone some tests (it's suspected that she might indeed by XX but may yet have undergone the endocrine or psychological tests) but the IAAF want the full battery and hoped that the ASA would pull the athlete from competition before Berlin.
It's interesting to compare and contrast IAAF attitude to ASA with JAAA. It's not to say that the JAAA haven't been viewed with suspicion in the past. Usain Bolt's repeated clean dope sheet means that some of the respect long due to their athletes is finally forthcoming. However, there are commentators who continue to point to genetic advantages and "natural ability" rather than accept that these abilities have been honed by sporting authorities dedicated to finding, sponsoring, refining and training talent.
Incidentally, it is not just in track and field that successful athletes from developing countries receive sideways looks. The Nigerian Football Federation recently announced that it would age test all its footballers to quell the long standing jokes and rumors about its under 21 squad.
Western cultural imperialism continues to cast its stench over much of global society and the case of Caster Semenya shows that sport is no exception.
Im wary of most articles from the Daily Telegraph. But this one caught my attention: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/6078171/World-Athletics-Caster-Semenya-tests-show-high-testosterone-levels.html
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWe had someone from the gender unit come and speak to us, and it was only then that I discovered that gender is not the same as sex. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteTests have shown she had elevated levels of testosterone.