Caster Semenya
Having set a world record, 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya is being subjected to extensive “gender testing.” Misrepresentations of intersex notwithstanding, this controversy has brought the idea of non-binary gender to MSNBC, the AP, and NPR and The Nation Magazine. What do you think can be done with our current binary-gender/sex-based sports segregation to achieve fair competition? For instance, David Zirin suggests on NPR separation by muscle mass or weight class.
Posted by XylophoneGender on August 31st, 2009 at 08:01 am
Category: video 4 comments »
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 pm |
This video interview has one major flaw – the two people in it interchange the terms sex and gender. Sex is biological/anatomical, gender is a socially constructed category and thus cannot be determined by having a doctor go in a room and have a look at her.
Let her run with the men. One step closer towards equality.
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September 8th, 2009 at 10:41 pm |
Follow up news.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Embattled-track-star-Caster-Semenya-gets-new-coa?urn=oly,187999
A forced image to appease critics? Attire that Semenya enjoys? Somewhere in between? We may never know.
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October 24th, 2009 at 1:28 am |
brittney, as a trans woman who has known her gender her entire life, I’d posit that some parts of gender are biological/anatomical (in the brain) and some are socialized. Not that the two aspects could ever be decisively teased apart.
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November 19th, 2009 at 10:34 am |
While news outlets like Advocate should know better than to use phrases like “true gender” as if the medical testing could come up with some magic, tidy answer, it’s good to know that she can keep her medal:
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/11/19/Caster_Semenya_Can_Keep_Gold_Medal/
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