By: Katie Macisaac
Authors Vannini and Fornssler’s, Girl, Interrupted:
Interpreting Semenya’s Body, Gender Verification Testing and Public Discourse,
explore how sex-gender is contained in mediated public discourses that
questioned caster Semenya’s identity at the International Association of
Athletic Federation World Championship. They exam Semnya’s sex and gender
identity by using discussions, scientific and medical methods, and athletic
governance policies of her “disordered” body. Furthermore, where her competing
with women is considered “fair-play” and “equal” for other female athletes, or
whether they should consider a new class of competition.
As stated
throughout the article, Semenya has three times more testosterone than the
average woman. In addition, testosterone is the hormone, which allows men to be
physically more competitive and able than women. Furthermore, in drug testing
it is the increase in testosterone which is detected to conclude whether
athletes are indeed taking performance enhancing drugs. After Semenya won the
800m at the IAAF back in 2009, her time was almost near impossible 1’55”45
whopping the nearest competitor by 2”45.[1] It
was the drug test that detected the increase in testosterone and she was
accused of taking performance enhancing drugs but all drug test came clear. The
next test would be sex and gender testing, this would conclude that she had the
secondary sex anatomy of females but lacked the primary (uterus and ovaries).
Methods of
sex and gender verification are visually based inspections of athletes, because
Semenya appears more masculine she is automatically judged for appearance
rather than athletic ability, furthermore, her athletic ability is no longer an
element to be amazed by but to be judged by. Due to Semenya’s special case, an
introduction of a third category further supports “pure” male and female.
However, Semenya declares herself to be a woman and has always thought of
herself as one. When she entered the competition of course she entered as a female,
she did not know of her increase testosterone level, she did not have any
knowledge that this would give her an advantage in competition. In the media,
people deemed Semenya a man due to her “body is outcast from the female sex
category because her bodily shape and muscles distribution defies the
disciplinary regime of a feminized body, similarly to women bodybuilders whose
bodies challenge what is considered natural for women’s bodies.” [2]
However, the argument that is being presentment is that
If Semenya defines herself as a
woman that’s fine with me. In the case with transgendered people there may not
be the ability to definitively categorize them as one or the other. But in the
case of athletic competition if testosterone is the ‘male advantage’ and you
have an organ that produces it naturally then that’s the category you should
race in.[3]
In the blog the argument that is
being fought is that even though Semenya does lack the sexual organs of being a
woman, she considers herself a woman and always have.
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