Caster Semenya (1991- ), a South African runner, won the Olympic gold medal for the women’s 800-metre race in 2012 and 2016. But almost from the moment she won her first World Championship race, in 2009 at age 18, there have been questions about her gender.
Is she female? That depends:
- Anatomy test: Yes. She is anatomically female according to her mother and grandmother. This was the main test till 1968.
- Chromosome test: No. She was born with a Y chromosome. This test was used by the Olympics from 1968 to 1996.
- Testosterone test: No. Her body produces high levels of testosterone, in the lower range of most men. Used by the Olympics since 2016.
- Self-identification test: Yes. She has always considered herself to be female, despite her deep voice. This is the test that laws in the West are moving towards.
Shaky science: The chromosome test was overturned because Y chromosomes do not always affect performance in anatomically correct females. Testosterone does in general increase muscle mass, but it has different effects on different people. And there is no solid science on how testosterone affects a woman’s performance in different sports.
On May 1st 2019 the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) backed a testosterone test that would:
- apply only to the 400m, hurdles, 800m, and 1500m races – just the ones Semenya is good at.
- apply only to those born with 46,XY – the rare syndrome Semenya has. Most top female athletes have high levels of testosterone, but they will not be tested.
IAAF: This rule is the brainchild of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) – the very ones who leaked her gender test in 2009, humiliating her in front of the whole world. They run the World Championships, not the Olympics. The IAAF’s top limit on testosterone levels is half the Olympic one.
Just add water: CAS had suspended an earlier IAAF rule on testosterone in 2015 because of the lack of scientific proof. One flimsy scientific study later and the IAAF is back with this new rule. CAS backed it despite what it called a “paucity of evidence”. Maybe it was Lynsey Sharp’s White women tears (pictured above), which the BBC showed the world after she lost to Semenya in 2016. Sharp came in sixth.
Semenya:
Would it be easier for you if I wasn’t so fast?
Would it be simpler if I stopped winning?
Would you be more comfortable if I was less proud?
Would you prefer I hadn’t worked so hard?
Or just didn’t run?
Or chose a different sport?
Or stopped at my first steps?
That’s too bad.
Because I was born to do this.
What God giveth the IAAF taketh away. To compete she has to take drugs to lower her natural levels of testosterone.
Irony: Transgender women are told all the time they are not “real” women because they were born without a vagina and take hormones. But now here we have Caster Semenya, born with a vagina, told she is still not a real woman – that she needs to take hormones to become one!
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Nike’s Caster Semenya ad – where her words in the post come from
- Olympics
- John Carlos
- Jesse Owens
- Sheena Johnson Tosta
- Flo Jo
- Lynsey Sharp
- bodily substances:
- White women’s tears
- testosterone
- women
- trans women
- cisgender
- intersex – what Semenya is
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Abagond 
My heart goes out to her. I have always felt she has been treated unfairly.
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The yt chick’s yt woman tears are taking me out. 😒
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Intersex people tend to be forgotten about in the discussion over transgender issues, yet in my opinion the existence of intersex people makes it very clear that gender is not strictly dichotomous.
Depending on what science discovers about the origins of transgenderism, I believe it’s very possible that 50 years from now it may be considered an intersex condition.
Which is not to say that intersex people (as currently defined) face exactly the same issues and struggles as transgender people (as currently defined). There is overlap, but there are also some differences.
In this particular case, it’s obvious that the IAAF is singling out and targeting Caster Semenya. It’s appalling that they outed a teenager, especially considering that could have gotten her killed by some transphobic nut job.
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And South Africa’s gold and diamond resources are controlled by non Africans.
Anything new?
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Oh c’mon. She’s female even by Republican bathroom bill standards! Phelps wins a bunch-o-medals in swimming and he’s some kind of prodigy but this woman wins a couple for running and there’s a whole movement to eliminate her from competition? Looking at the times over the years, there’s been faster women before her and there will likely be faster women to follow her. Even if they did away with gender classification all together and classed runners based on average times, Semenya would still be competing right where she is. Lynsey Sharp can suck it up and train harder or go compete somewhere else for a participation trophy.
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Poor Caster. I’m a high-testosterone intersex woman and seeing her get humiliated like this is so heartbreaking and enraging. An athlete who’s pure talent being thrown in the garbage because they can’t handle her excellence.
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