Reaction to Semenya

In today’s class the discussion over Caster Semenya’s story regarding her having to undergo gender testing because of her masculine appearance sparked some heated discussions and remarks. There were so many valid points made in class today, but am on the fence about the whole situation.

In my opinion, on one hand, her having masculine characteristics and speculation of possibly having 4 times as much testosterone as the average woman gives her an advantage over the other women. If I was a woman in a race that she was running and she clearly ran 2 seconds faster than any of the other Olympic runners, I wouldn’t be happy. If she was proven to physically and hormonally have masculine characteristics then yes I believed her being gender tested was the right thing to do.

On the other hand, I think the media speculation and twisting on the story was out of the water. Just because a woman doesn’t have the  ‘normal’ characteristics of a woman does not mean that she is automatically a man. Women these days dress and ac all different kinds of ways. But the most common stereotype is that if a woman dresses in sports attire or sweats, no make up, hair up, she is instantly seen as a  ‘dyke’ or a lesbian. Another point made in class today that I completely agree with is that if a different woman on the Olympic track team with Semenya performed the same way as she did but wore make up and did her hair, she would not have been thought to secretly be a man. Semenya did not wear make-up, always had her hair back and because of all those factors plus her performing so well, she just had to be a man.