Caster has clearly led a life as a female, she was raised this way, her birth certificate supports this, she competes as a female, so why should there be doubt. Every athletes has some sort of genetic advantage over the ones they are competing against. A volleyball player may be an inch taller, a swimmer may have longer fingertips, Lance Armstrong has above average aerobic capacity, so why should Caster's muscular build be any different. The world has seen extraordinary athletes before so why should one be criticized for looking more masculine than other females.Caster's family insists that the controversy doesn't bother them or Caster. Her grandmother is quoted as saying that it "doesn't bother me that much because I know she's a woman." (Sports Illustrated) Caster's cousin has said, "That's how God made her...We brought her up in a way that when people start making fun of her, she shouldn't get upset." (Sports Illustrated)
Recently Caster underwent a make over for a South African magazine to help prove that she is in fact a woman. In the article she says that she is proud of who she is and really does enjoy wearing dresses. (BBC) If Caster were to walk out onto the track looking like she does on the front of the magazine I doubt there would have been any controversy over whether she was actually a female, so why is her gender questioned when she displays her talent as an extraordinary athlete?
I cannot be entirely sure why the questioning of Caster's gender began, but I am fairly certain of why the question was taken seriously. If Caster was, in fact, male, then she would have a muscular advantage that was not taken into account by the rules regarding fairness.
ReplyDeleteAn article I found on the Comcast homepage said that the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) had test results showing that Caster has no ovaries, but instead has internal testes that make a huge amount of testosterone. Obviously, it is not cheating since it's not something Caster did on purpose. However, testosterone is an androgen, the kind of steroid people take to bulk up muscle.
The other women didn't have this advantage, so one might wonder at the fairness of her competing amoungst 'normal' women.
To answer your question, people see something that looks weird to them and they want to know why it is different. This can be applied to when they saw how muscular Caster is, they saw something out of the ordinary and they wanted an answer. Unfortunately, many people can be quite callus and downright rude in the way they pose the question.
Just from reading your article, I don't know how her time compares i to the the males top times in the 800, but I think that Caster should allow to compete with females if all tests have proven her to be a female. In regards to Shirley's comment, does not having ovaries make someone not female? Also, Shirley brought up the fact that people think Caster would be at an advantage racing against other women, but on the other hand, would she would most likely be a disadvantage racing men.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update Shirley, if anyone wants to read it here's the URL: http://www.comcast.net/articles/sports-general/20090911/ATH.Semenya.Gender.Test/
ReplyDeleteI read about this a couple weeks ago and it didn’t seem like a very big deal to me. Gender can matter a lot in physical competition, and so can performance-enhancing drugs, so there shouldn’t be any sort of outrage like we may be seeing in some peoples’ reactions. There is a misconception that gender is basic. It’s not, it’s extremely questionable.
ReplyDeleteI think Shirley said something that touched on an interesting question: What is female and what is male in terms of athletics? How do the distinctions between male and female change when not thought about in terms of athletics, if they should change at all?
Gender is confusing, despite the fact that it’s one of the first things we subconsciously notice in others when we meet them. When it comes to gender identity itself, there is the mental aspect of it and then there is the physical aspect, and these can all vary and mix in so many ways that if you were to create a value graph of what types of genders exist, it would probably look something like this: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/img/gradient-h-dith.png
When you take a look at people who are transgender, genderqueer, or intersex, their identity as what gender they are is entirely dependent on what they personally identify as because of how they feel in their thoughts about their gender. Some describe biological gender (physical gender traits) and birth as a sort of roulette— the body you may develop might have nothing to do with your identity, and you have no control over it. But how this grey area of gender applies to things we only have black and white concept of gender for is where this might change.
For example, there has been a lot of controversy already about the military, bathrooms, prison separation, health clinics, and with this article, athletics, because of the role physical gender traits have in how these include or exclude people. In this case, I think the athlete should unquestionably be competing as a woman because she is a woman, but if you think about the role her lack of ovaries might play in her competition, it’s still kind of confusing, because where is the line drawn? Outside of this specific case, I have no idea.
As a runner, I have heard about this story in the news and I believe the result was that they determined she was 'more a man than a woman' in whatever way, and stripped her of her medal. I don't agree with this resolution, stripping Caster of her medal seems much to rash and blown out of proportion. If so many people claim she is in fact a woman then she should be allowed to compete. She is being treated unfairly and its a crime not to let her run.
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