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Caster Semenya Placed On Suicide Watch

http://intersexnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/caster-semenya-placed-on-suicide-watch.html (http://intersexnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/caster-semenya-placed-on-suicide-watch.html)
9/15/09

South African runner Caster Semenya, who is at the center of a gender row, has been placed on suicide watch amid fears for her mental stability.

QuoteIf she commits suicide, it will be on all our heads.

Powerful comment there.
It would be on the heads of people who probably wouldn't care anyway. I sure hope this has a happy ending, she didn't do anything to deserve all this, she just excelled.

This is horrible.  The world has put so much pressure and insight into something very private and very difficult.  I'm not surprised she's on suicide watch.  If it were me, I'd have probably already done it.  Hopefully the world lays off for a while and lets her process what the hell just happened.

OH there's a nice, stabbing comment at the end of the article there!!

"I am so sick of her treatment at the hands of special interest groups and TG movement in particular who jumped on the occasion of adding her to their nonsense".

I understand this...
Actually, if my transition becomes impossible, I am seriously planning to take my own life.

We live in a strange world. If you are a woman, you have to look like one, there is not alternative...

Quote from: Tank Grrl on September 15, 2009, 09:22:21 PM
"I am so sick of her treatment at the hands of special interest groups and TG movement in particular who jumped on the occasion of adding her to their nonsense".

One thing you have to realize, whether she likes it or not, she is in the spotlight. Special interest groups may have their own agenda, but like it or not she has been thrust into this position. The media doesn't one iota about her, they just want their story and they will get it whether she works with them or not. The best thing she could do is do what she can for her brief moment in the spotlight.

Going on the offensive with the backing of a few special interest groups will do 2 things. It can put her in a spot where she can make a difference and feel some empowerment (hello Oprah!), and second, once she puts herself out there in front of them freely, they will get tired of her and leave her alone (hello pregnant man).


People have no idea how brutal the public and media really can be.  You think you do, but really it is far worse. What you see them doing to her in the news is NOTHING compared to what they are doing to her that you don't see. Got Facebook, I hope you have a good password. Cell phone? keep your pics off of it and screen EVERY call. Got a computer, better have some protection. Email, spammed to death, possibly hacked into. Don't think they won't break into your home and go through things either, much less death threats and more. NOTHING is off limits or private if people want to see it, and if you are in the headlines, people want to see it.  You can either fight it (got money?), or roll with it and take advantage until they get bored of you.  Hiding just makes them more persistent.

If Caster had just come out and say she wished this hadn't happened, maybe a brief explanation, she would probably have already faded from the news. Once you become famous, you lose your rights, like it or not. You now belong to the public until they have either chewed you up and spit you out, or tired of you.

She needs a press agent and work with a group if she wants to have any chance at controlling this.