Caster Semenya- an assault on Womanity

[Natasha]

Caster Semenya- an assault on Womanity

http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=17090
Lwanga Mwilu
8/27/09

The infamous sex test that has turned the global spotlight on South African athlete Caster Semenya is a negative milestone in our collective history as women world over. It is not just about an 18 year old woman being violated by having her sex questioned in front of the whole world, it is also about a generations- old attempt by patriarchy to define womanhood and ridicule or punish those who do not conform; those who are brave enough to resist the generic categories and write their own life scripts.

[Catherine]

What it is actually about is that she ran the 800 meters in a junior championships in a time of 2mins 11sec amd came 36th out of 44 runners. now 13 months later she wins the world championships in 1min 55sec an improvement of 16 seconds.

There is something wrong with this improvement. The fuss has been stirred up by the regime in South Africa calling the questioning of this improvement rascist and sexist.

The IAAF has tried to do the tests on her quitely and compassionately but the SA govt has not made this possible.

Now there are reports that the results of a test done in SA says that she has three times the normal level of testosterone in her body. Now that is not right for a woman competeing in women athletics.

So I would guess that she has some sort of intersexed problem and needs some doctors

[Virginia87106]

3 times the normal for a woman still may be not too high.  Different labs have varying ranges of what they consider normal with values ranging from the low 200s to over 1200 ng./dl. considered normal for men and from 15 to 70 ng./dl. considered normal for women.

Also, many women take T to increase their sex drive, so her levels may be due to medications.

She does seem to have several secondary physical characteristics that would appear to me masculine, so I believe the possibility of her being intersex is high.

In that case, this is all the more horrible for her, for she may discover things about herself she never knew.  And our culture is still uncomfortable in dealing with the issue of intersex.

[Catherine]

Yes it is very horrible for her.

but it has been made even worse by the actions of the SA federation.

There is also the small problem of the South African coach being one of the disgraced East German coaches. Who were well known for throwing hormones and steroids about like candy.

So I would guess this has a long way to run yet. (no pun intended)

[myles]

I also read somewhere about the coach being linked to doping in the past. Too bad for her and all involved. If he is giving her steroids  or whatever without her knowledge that is just sad. Maybe they should be investigating the coach.I agree that it all came about because of her dramatically improved time. In the end it's awful that it has turned into a question of if she is female or not. Sad in so many ways.
Myles