Different Perspectives

By: Erin Coady

               Caster Semenya, an 18 year old female track and field star from Limpopo South Africa, dealt with different versions of media reports from her home country as well as in America.  Semenya’s “true” sex was what was in question following reports surfacing saying there was no way she was a legitimate female after she blew away her competition in the 800 meter IAAF 2009 World Championship.  I will be examining how media outlets from America portrayed Semenya during the gender-verification testing time as well as how South Africa treated her.  It is important to note that media outlets “are not objective accounts of events…” (Cooky et. al, 2013. p 36) but are businesses which pick and choose which information to focus on, which information to omit and which information to push onto its viewers. 

                  American media for the most part seemed to focus on Semenya as a matter of scientific intrigue.  At the time of the gender-verification testing, there were many media outlets who grabbed onto this story of a young South African girl with the muscular appearance, build and deep voice of a man who blew away her competition with relative ease.  Cooky et al., examined in their comparative analysis of the US and South African media coverage of Semenya how each depicted her in their respective media outlets.  In the Global North, according to Cooky et al. the gender verification testing was referenced as “an objective, scientific process that ensures a level-playing field and thus, ‘fairness’, in sport” (2013, p. 36)-which suggests that there are no racial, gender, or sex biases behind the tests.  Yet, according the Los Angeles Times “the concerns about whether she met standards to compete as a female athlete were prompted by still and television images of the teenager” (Cooky et al, 2013. p 41).  This suggests that due to her muscular build and appearance she was not viewed as the typical Caucasian beautiful women which therefore suggests in a colonial sense she is different or “other” because she does not fit the American norm for female appearance and build.  In terms of gender, Semenya is framed by the US media according to Cookey et al.’s study as ambiguous (16%), Hermaphrodite/Intersex (6%), not a real women (6%) and a girl/women/lady (50%) (2013, p. 42) which is a drastic difference from that of its South African counterparts which I will discuss later.  By choosing to frame Semenya as something other than a regular girl by using terms such as ambiguous and hermaphrodite, these US media outlets are deliberately deciding to put the idea of this 18 year old girl as not a ‘true’ women, into the minds of all their readers.  

                  Semenya’s home country of South Africa tends to have more of a supportive view of her in their media outlets.  The Sowetan claimed that “we all know that their crime is that an African girl outran everybody to clinch the women’s 800m final” (Cookey et al, 2013. p. 40) which suggests that the IAAF’s decision to test Semenya’s gender was racially motivated and there was clear discriminatory intentions.  It is hard to blame South Africa for holding onto past histories of them being objectified by America.  Cooky et al argues “South African media framed the gender verification as a lingering artifact of South Africa’s apartheid past and the racist history of Global North/Western culture’s scientific scrutiny of African women’s bodies.” Africans and Americans have a clear history of problems, most notably slavery, in which African people were treated as ‘other’ and subjected to many embarrassing, inhumane things which went against today’s human rights.  Even the slight whisper of the Semenya testing seemed to produce an uproar in most South African media outlets.  Many of South Africa’s media jumped on the Semenya bandwagon when she was thrust into the public eye in a less than flattering light and began to refer to her as “our first lady of sport” and “our golden girl” (Cooky et al, 2013. p 46).  In contrast to the American media outlets, South African media rejected the scientific approach to learning the truth of Semenya’s gender and instead took the local testimonies of her family, friends and acquaintances who knew her growing up and claim they need no proof as she is their girl.  Compared to the American stats, South Africa media framed Semenya as ambiguous (1%), hermaphrodite (3%) and girl, women or lady (95%).  Not all South African media outlets were as supportive however.  South African magazine Drum ran stories saying that Semenya was engaged to a fellow female track star (Drum, 2013) while other magazines such as You gave Semenya a feminine makeover (You reference).  By giving Semenya a makeover, You is suggesting she was not beautiful the way she was and that they were helping her by providing her with means to become more feminine and therefore more lady like. 

                  In conclusion, after reviewing studies done which examined South African media portrayals and American medial portrayals of Caster Semenya I discovered three main comparisons.  First, American media outlets at the time framed their inquiries about Semenya’s gender as scientific observations which would help to keep the fairness of the sport while South African media outlets focused on more local definitions of Semenya’s gender such as parents testimonies and claimed the American’s obsession with proving their golden girl is a boy is racially fueled.  Secondly, American media tended to describe Semenya with words such as hermaphadite, ambiguous and intersexual while South African media focused on calling their track star women, girl or lady.  Finally, what both countries had in common when discussing Semenya’s story was that they both failed to include many quotes or background information from Caster Semenya herself.  Both used the story of the 18 year old South African track star as a vehicle to discuss broader race and gender/sex binary issues.