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South Africa's Caster Semenya has been cleared to compete as a woman after undergoing a series of controversial gender tests. Read the full article here.
I have mixed feelings about Semenya being "cleared" as a woman. After more than a year of tabloid exploitation and humiliation, what does this ruling really mean for Semenya and intersexed athletes? Was it a win for Semenya? She seems to have "passed" the test, but the test itself has not been changed. What was it that made Semenya "woman-enough" to compete again? Was it one chromosome? One gene?
Could the very idea of sports continue without the male-female divide? Have we learned any lessons from the handling of Semenya's case? (which is not the first nor certainly the last of its kind) Why have we never heard of a male being tested to see if he is truly "male enough" to compete among peers?
Take a look at the way Semenya was portrayed on a magazine cover during the controversy. What are we being told about appropriate femininity? At what point is someone woman-enough? Who gets to decide this?
talknerdytome
| 7/6/10 04:28 PM
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