What's the big deal about gender? – Female Identity as Intersex
WNN India Correspondent, NILANJANA BHOWMICK
Women News Network – WNN
http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/01/05/femidentity888/A U.N. report by Finnish international law professor and United Nations Special Rapporteur, Martin Scheinin, says, "gender is not synonymous with women, and, instead, encompasses the social constructions that underlie how women's and men's roles, functions and responsibilities, including in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, are understood."
The report stresses "gender is not static; it is changeable over time and across contexts."
Caster Semenya, an 18 year old South African athlete came into prominence last summer when she won a world championship at Berlin. She beat her own personal record and came to the notice of the world track and field federation who requested a biologic sex-verification test August 7. On public allegations that Semenya is a hermaphrodite, what is termed more correctly today as an "intersex person," she has faced the possibility of losing her medal.
