Wednesday, September 02, 2009

My favorite sports writer (after J's Theater)...

...Dave Zirin, that is... from 
The Nation, 21 August 2009...

Caster Semenya and the Idiocy
of Sex Testing
By Dave Zirin & Sherry Wolf

World-class South
African athlete
Caster

Semenya,
age 18,
won the
800 meters
in the

International
Association
of Athletics

Federations
World Championships
on August 19.
But her victory was all the more remarkable in
that she was forced to run amid a controversy that reveals the
twisted way
international track and field views gender.
(photo, Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters: Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei of Kenya, left,
Caster Semenya of South
Africa and Jennifer Meadows of Britain display
their medals from the
women's 800 meters at the world championships
on Wednesday [August 19, 2009]).


The sports world has been buzzing for some time over the rumor that Semenya
may be a
man,or more specifically, not"entirely female." According to the
newspaper The Age,
her "physique and powerful style have sparked
speculation inrecent months that she may
not be entirely female." From all
accounts an arduous process of "gender testing" on
Semenya has already
begun. The idea that an 18-year-old who has just experienced the
greatest
athletic victory of her life is being subjecting to this very public
humiliation
is shameful to say the least. Her own coach Michael Seme contributed to
the
disgracewhen he said, "We understand that people will ask questions
because she looks
like a man. It's a natural reaction and it's only human
to be curious. People probably
have the right to ask such questions if
they are in doubt. But I can give you the
telephone numbers of her
roommates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the
showers
and she has nothing to hide."


The people with something to hide are the powers that be in track and
field, as well as
in international sport. As long as there have been womens'
sports, the characterization
of the best female athletes as "looking like men"
or "mannish" has consistently been
used to degrade them. When Martina
Navratilova dominated women's tennis and proudly
exposed her chiseled
biceps years before Hollywood gave its imprimatur to gals with
"guns,"
players complained that she "must have a chromosome loose somewhere."


This minefield of sexism and homophobia has long pushed female
athletes into magazines
like Maxim to prove their "hotness"--and
implicitly their heterosexuality. Track and
field in particular has always
had this preoccupation with gender, particularly when it
crosses paths
with racism. Fifty years ago, Olympic official Norman Cox proposed that

in the case of black women, "the International Olympic Committee
should create a special
category of competition for them--
the unfairly advantaged 'hermaphrodites.'"


For years, women athletes had to parade naked in front of Olympic
officials. This has
now given way to more"sophisticated" "gender testing"
to determine if athletes like
Semenya have what officials still perceive
as the ultimate advantage--being a man. Let's
leave aside that being
male is not the be-all, end-all of athletic success. A country's

wealth, coaching facilities, nutrition and opportunity determine
the creation of a
world-class athlete far more than a Y chromosome
or a penis ever could.


What these officials still don't understand, or will not confront,
is that gender--that
is, how we comport and conceive of ourselves--is
a remarkably fluid social construction.
Even our physical sex is far
more ambiguous and fluid than is often imagined or taught.
Medical
science has long acknowledged the existence of millions of people
whose bodies
combine anatomical features that are conventionally
associated with either men or women
and/or have chromosomal
variations from the XX or XY of women or men. Many of these

"intersex" individuals, estimated at one birth in every 1,666 in the
United States
alone, are legally operated on by surgeons who force
traditional norms of genitalia on
newborn infants. In what some
doctors consider a psychosocial emergency, thousands of
healthy
babies are effectively subject to clitorectomies if a clitoris is "too large"

or castrations if a penis is "too small" (evidently penises are never
considered "too
big").

The physical reality of intersex people calls into question the fixed
notions we are
taught to accept about men and women in general,
and men and women athletes in sex-
segregated sports like track and
field in particular. The heretical bodies of intersex
people challenge
the traditional understanding of gender as a strict male/female

phenomenon. While we are never encouraged to conceive of bodies
this way, male and
female bodies are more similar than they are
distinguishable from each other. When
training and nutrition are
equal, it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference
between some
of the best-trained male and female Olympic swimmers wearing
state-of-the
-art one-piece speed suits. Title IX, the 1972 law imposing
equal funding for girls'
and boys' sports in schools, has radically altered
not only women's fitness and
emotional well-being, but their bodies as
well. Obviously, there are some physical
differences between men and
women, but it is largely our culture and not biology that
gives them
their meaning.


In 1986 Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño was stripped
of her first-place
winnings when discovered to have an XY chromosome,
instead of the female's XX,which
shattered her athletic career and
upended her personal life. "I lost friends, my fiancé,
hope and energy,"
said Martínez-Patiño in a 2005 editorial in the journal
The Lancet.

Whatever track and field tells us Caster Semenya's gender is--
and as of this writing
there is zero evidence she is intersex--it's
time we all break free from the notion
that you are either "one or
the other." It's antiquated, stigmatizing and says far more

about those doing the testing than about the athletes tested.
The only thing suspicious
is the gender and sex bias in
professional sports. We should continue to debate the

pros and cons of gender segregation in sport. But right here,
right now, we must end sex
testing and acknowledge the fluidity
of gender and sex in sports and beyond.


[Dave Zirin is the author of A People's History of Sports
in the United States
(The New Press) Receive his column every
week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com.
Contact him at
edgeofsports@gmail.com.]

[Sherry Wolf is an independent journalist the author of
the new critically praised book
Sexuality and Socialism
(Haymarket Books). She is currently organizing for the
October
march for Marriage Equality in Washington DC]


Endnote:
• "Gold Awarded Amid Dispute Over Runner’s Sex" 20 August 2009, NYT.
"Inquiry About Runner Angers South Africans" 25 August 2009, NYT
My favorite pull-quote from this article. I read this over the back of a seat
while on the train to NY and had to find the article:
"
We are not going to allow Europeans to define
and describe our children.” said Leonard Chuene,
the president of Athletics South Africa,
speaking about the case of Caster Semenya."
• "Runner Caster Semenya has heard the gender comments all her life"
LA Times reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, 21 August 2009

Labels: ,

12 Comments:

At 1:13 AM, Anonymous http://balaoing.blogspot.com said...

wow

 
At 5:41 PM, Blogger المتوكل على الله said...

Thank you for accepting comments about our site

شركة تنظيف موكيت بالرياض
شركة تنظيف فلل بالرياض

 
At 12:55 AM, Blogger 5689 said...

zzzzz2018.8.10
christian louboutin shoes
fitflops shoes
supreme shirt
ralph lauren outlet
ralph lauren uk
moncler online
new nike shoes
uggs outlet
off-white clothing
oakley sunglasses wholesale

 
At 7:55 AM, Blogger محمد على said...

شركة تنظيف فلل بالرياض
شركة تنظيف كنب بالرياض
شركة تنظيف موكيت بالرياض
شركة تنظيف واجهات بالرياض
شركة تنظيف خزانات بالرياض
شركة تسليك مجارى بالرياض

 
At 12:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...


Thank you for the article, hopefully the article you give can be useful.

OBAT WASIR 100% ALAMI TANPA OPERASI
OBAT KOMPLIKASI 100% ALAMI DAN MANJUR
Obat Jantung Koroner Alami Dan Aman
Obat Batu Empedu Tanpa Operasi 100% Alami

 
At 11:21 PM, Blogger Lia Aliana said...

wow ... the information that you present is very useful, we are waiting for the latest information

Manfaat Minyak Ikan Untuk Nyeri Sendi
Nama Penyakit Yang Mematikan
Buah Yang Dapat Mengatasi Keputihan

 
At 6:50 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

The latest information we are waiting for lho..semoga what is given can be useful
success always everything.

obat tradisional maag akut
obat tradisional buah zakar bengkak
obat tradisional lutut kaku

 
At 12:47 AM, Blogger Walatra Bersih Wanita said...

Sharing is not about how big and how valuable things you give, but how sincere and sincere what you want to give.

Cara Mengolah Daun Sirsak Untuk Hernia
Obat Jantung Koroner Tradisional
Pengobatan Stroke Ringan Yang Alami
Cara Mendeteksi Kanker Serviks Dengan IVA

 
At 8:04 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

It's an amazing experience to be able to see quality articles from excellent webs like the ones you make.
Luka Lambung Pada Balita

 
At 9:39 PM, Blogger ركن كلين said...

خدمات ركن كلين للخدمات المنزلية ومكافحة الحشرات بالرياض لذلك تحرص شركتنا كأفضل الشركات الموجودة فى الرياض على التخلص من جميع الأفات الشرسه مثلا الفئران وغيرها من القوارض التى من الممكن ان تكون سبب فى تدمير اغراض اى منزل او قد تسبب بعض الامراض اونقلها لذلك نقدم الخدمات التالية
شركة رش مبيدات بالرياض
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالرياض
شركة مكافحة الصراصير بالرياض
شركة مكافحة الفئران بالرياض
شركة مكافحة بق الفراش بالرياض
شركة مكافحة الوزغ بالرياض
شركة مكافحة النمل الاسود بالرياض
شركة رش دفان بالرياض.

 
At 1:11 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

thanks for information,,
Cara Mengatasi Osteopenia

 
At 1:15 AM, Blogger mike said...

fakaza 2020
fakaza 2020




lil wayne funeral zip

lil baby sum to prove mp3 download

 

Post a Comment

<< Home