progress on the prairie

Caster Semenya

Maybe you all have heard the story of Caster Semenya, the South African runner who won the 800m gold medal at the world championships recently; she is amazing, and fast, and muscular, and doesn’t wear her hair down when she runs. Then, lo and behold, concerns were raised that she wasn’t really a female. So the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), put her through several tests- including hormonal, gynecological!, and psychological- to prove she was a female.

All this, and Semenya is 18 years old.

The hormone tests are now back, and the results show that she has unusually high levels of testosterone “expected in a female sample”.

Here’s (some of) the problems:

#1 Testosterone levels vary from person to person, from male to male, and from female to female. They also vary at different times of the month, different times of your life  (increasing during puberty), even at different times during any given day (highest in the morning), and over the course of any given activity (levels drop after ejaculation, for instance). They often increase under pressure or when risk or harm is posed to an individual. They also increase in winners of a competition and decrease in the losers of a competition!

To summarize, my first point is that TESTOSTERONE LEVELS ARE TOO COMPLICATED AND MYSTERIOUS TO PROVE SOMETHING AS BANAL AS WHETHER OR NOT AN INDIVIDUAL IS MALE OR FEMALE.

#2 People who have been writing about this case, as well as the people who are conducting the testing of Semenya make no distinction between the terms ‘SEX’ and ‘GENDER.’ See ESPN. See The Guardian. See USA Today. What’s the big difference, you ask? It is this: SEX refers to the type of reproductive organs you are born with. What’s between your legs, to put is vulgarly. However, and this is a big however, more than two sexes exist in ALL animal species, especially the human species. When you are born with a mash-up, a variety, a rainbow of XX AND XY chromosomes, you are intersex. Sometimes, being intersex shows up at birth (which presents a real problem for these babies because they encounter all kinds of doctor and parental biases toward “girls” and “boys”.) But sometimes nobody, not even you yourself will know that you are born with both kinds of chromosomes. Sometimes, men have a penis, produce offspring, feel and look like a regular dude, but upon autopsy after they die, they are found to also have a set of ovaries! This chart is very enlightening if you want to look into intersex diversity further.

Okay, so what is ‘GENDER’? Gender is how an individual identifies her or himself. Period. That’s it, in my humble opinion. And, this is why, to me, the Caster Semenya story is such a tragedy. She says she’s a girl. She was raised as a girl. She wore skirts to school for cryin’ out loud! No matter what any doctor with ten degrees says, or what endocrinology tests show, there is only one expert on Caster Semenya’s gender, and that is Caster Semenya!

The test results may show that she is intersex or whatever, but that doesn’t prove she was cheating, nor do I think that means that she should be disqualified. It means that the categories that sports and the rest of our society have constructed are too plain to contain our complexities as human beings.

I also think that she is being poked and prodded like a fuckin’ animal, and I think it’s because she is a woman and she is good and she is black and she is young. Which is fuckin’ disgusting. So there.

Pardon my language,

Spring