Caster Semenya: So good that her sex is called into question

I accept what you're saying about the 'in-betweeners' but that's where the contradiction lies. This 'woman' definitely has an excess of male hormones which is evident in the way she looks, talks and performs. If there are varying degrees then how can she be viewed as 100% woman?

Maybe there should be a scale of genderness where -10 is female, +10 is male and 0 is something exactly in between. Everyone can then be measured and you must be, say, -5 or less to compete as a 'female' or you are just deemed to be too close to a male. I know this sounds ridiculous but accepting that there are degrees of maleness and femaleness means that competition will never be on an even playing field. Isn't it just possible that she is female but is closer to a male than most of her competitors, and therefore has an unfair advantage?

I also find it a little amusing (and ironic) that your website requests gender :)

Great read. The media obsession with this story is kind of silly and I agree that those quotes are atrocious. Caster probably is intersex and it's unfortunate she has to deal with all this attention.

Obviously you are ignorant about athletics. Athletes don't simply appear out of nowhere and win world championships. And not just win, but beat world records by two seconds over world class athletes. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and the best athlete ever, Wayne Gretzky, didn't just show up from obscurity and dominate their sports. Their achievements were well documented throughout their lives.

Too good to be a woman? Maybe. But he/she doesn't look female. Not a requirement, but being female in a female race IS a requirement.

65000 babies a year you can't tell if they are male or female? First, you have to give context to the 65,000 number. Sounds impressive until you realize that there are 3.1 MILLION babies born a year. Now 65,000 is a tiny fraction of all babies born in a year. You used the 65,000 to create a false aura that perhaps a lot of babies are "mixed". As if it's widespread. But it's not. But we aren't talking about babies, are we? We're talking about grown adults.

It's simple, if you have the Y chormosome, you are male. End of story. And the women that he/she competed against have the right to know the truth.

Or are you afraid of the truth?

anyone who would look at a woman and determine she can't be one because she "doesn't look like one" is so uninformed. I know a couple of men who wish to be women so they dress and act like them, and get more compliments on being hot then most women do.

And sometimes great athletes DO come from out of nowhere. Ever heard of any sports players who were pretty good in high school but then do awesome in college? Many people who have natural abilities grow up without proper nutrition and coaching. They get to college on scholarships due to the natural talent and then explode because now they're provided free, nutritious meals and excellent coaching and training. She always had the talent, she just finally got the coaching she needed to bring that out.

And to claim that 65,000 babies born mixed-gender isn't important because 3 million babies are born normal? That's just insensitive. Anyone who is born different is treated like a freak, mostly by people like commentor OSD who thinks there is a black/white answer to everything. Some people are born XY and XX, but some are born XXY. What about that? What if you met someone with no penis but also no ovaries, born XXY but who had a hormonal balance more equal to a woman than a man? Male or Female? You think you know everything about the world of genetics because you took a biology class in high school that told you that XX is a girl and XY is a boy. OSD, If you were really that smart you'd be smart enough to know when you don't know what you're talking about.

The meaning is this story is really quite emblematic of our times. A seemingly simple rule set: separate male and female competitions. It fits so snugly into our general thought process, and it's worked forever, so why should it suddenly stop working? The reality is that there is a more ambiguous middle ground out there. And as the people who live in that space step out of the shadows of society, a seemingly well-ordered system is thrown into chaos and forced to adapt. All the extensive gender testing Caster has had to go through since she hit the world stage may amount to a big fat inconclusive when it comes to society's idea of gender. How can rules never designed to acknowledge her existence classify her then? It's one reflection of one of the most prominent issues facing western culture: can we live up to our progressive, individualist philosophy, and truly make a place at the table for everyone. Or will we backslide into orthodoxy?

Sex seems like a rather arbitrary way of separating people for running anyway. Just because two people are of the same sex does not make them equally matched athletically. In fact, a study on aerobics by the US. Dept. of Education found 4 requirements for runners, only one of which reflects a difference between male and female (They're at the end of this comment). Shouldn't we be matching people at physical factors like height, weight, etc. rather than sex, instead of automatically keeping men and women (and transgender and intersex people) from competing against each other?

Findings from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED191848&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED191848:
(1) Male and female runners are slight in build with little body fat and possessing large lung volumes; (2) Male marathon runners are taller, heavier, and have less relative body fat than female runners; (3) Male and female runners did not differ in aerobic capabilities; (4) Experienced female runners are able to work at a high fraction of their aerobic capacity as are all male runners.

And Anna Pulley, as a Kelly Clarkson fan AND a practitioner of the black arts (necromancy, of course) I must say I'm disappointed by your narrow world view.

OK, for some reason the comment I tried to leave disappeared into the ether. I'll try again.

A few weeks ago I learned of a case from the 1930's that was similar to this. Look up Stanislawa Walasiewicz, aka "Stella Walsh" on the Google. She was a Polish runner who set world records in the 60 and 100 meter, then won a gold medal at the 1932 Olympics. When she was beaten by Helen Stephens at the 1936 Olympics, she claimed that Stephens was a MAN, baby. Stephens had to submit to a genital exam to prove she wasn't a guy (she wasn't, by the way).

Years later, when Walasiewicz died, it turned out that she had male genitalia. Go figure.

Anna, I'm just not sure. But I definitely wouldn't date her with that voice, armpit afro, and muscles. I love track and field, but I am hoping that Caster is a woman....but oooooh. Wow!

Obviously they must have not been lokking at those europena woman

Racial profiling? Where are the facts for that? Oh, wait - she's black so white people MUST be profiling her. Just like Gates, right? Get a clue....

For everyone involved in this conversation, here's an article in The Nation that sheds insight on the topic:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/zirin_wolf

An excerpt to get you thinking:
"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."

Let's let her run with the boys and when she wins they can say that lack of a penis is good enough to be called a woman.

Olympic sprinter Ewa Klobukowska was stripped of her medals for having an extra Y chromosome (she was XXY) even though she looked anatomically female. Years later, she gave birth to a baby! So she was female enough to carry a child to term, but too male to qualify as an Olympic female athlete. Messy huh?

Exactly, luvsummr and Alicia: There is a possibility that she is intersex, and if so, how horrible will people feel when the truth comes out? Some issues are complex, and that's why it is important to be sensitive.

I too am an intersexual. I am 47xxy. I look male but have the makeup of both sexes. I have an ovary and a testicle. I have female breasts...46C....and look male...when working. But can be VERY female as well. I feel this person is being screwed. It seems she was in a village in South Africa...someone discovered her athletic ability. It wasn't a problem for a while until she suddenly blew the doors off her competitors. I feel she is be exploited. Growing up in a time when things like this were unheard of, my school years were hell. I am 59 now and learned about my genetics through a karyotype at the University of Wisconsin and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN at the age of 49. I was virtually ignored by physicians for all that time. I feel terrible for this girl. She didn't ask for all this ruckus! Leave her be....

Just a few facts to go with this condition:
80% of babies discovered with this condition in the womb are aborted.
The suicide rate among people like this in the United States is incredibly high because of peer pressure when they are very young and when most people discover their condition in middle age, commit suicide by the time they are 60.
They are outcasts by the female population and they are outcast by the male population...when their condition is known. Probably the most famous person in the USA with this condition is Jamie Lee Curtis.
Not a fun life. Until the internet came along and one could delve into information on the issue, you think you are the only one like this in the world and you tell no one. I did not tell my wife for 24 years of marriage. She knew I was different but how different she didn't find out until I did at the age of 49. Then, it blew the doors off to find this HUGE MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE called my life. Doctors, for the most part, are worthless. They don't take an interest in it at all...as it is a 'sexual condition.'
How terribly sad for this young woman!

My last comment on this...is this. I was told by an insurance agent that I would be on the automatic decline list for health insurance because of that extra X. Nice...genetics..no control. It would be like turning people away because they are 5'6" or shorter. Or perhaps because they have green eyes. Or perhaps because they are bald. They have no control over their situation but are declined AUTOMATICALLY because of those conditions...

If you want to end sex discrimination and compete with the males, that's fine. But then don't complain about how women can't get a fair shake because they never win. You can't have male-female classes in sports (or anything else) unless you draw a line on what each sex consists of.

Actually, the easiest way to get rid of this dilemma, is to simply remove any gender requirements for sports. Just have a hundred meter dash for anyone who can qualify. No "men's" or "women's" races, just qualifiers and the finals. Q.E.D. The fact that men tend to fun faster will probably tend to skew the results towards the male participants, but that is a small price to pay in the grand scheme of political correctness, right?

Oops, I meant "run faster". My apologies.

Whatever this person's gender makeup, she is a victim of circumstance. Obviously, she and her family believe she's female. What a shame to go from a moment of pride to shame and humiliation through no fault of her own.

@kingsnake - I hate to say I told you so...

Great post.Homosexuality continues to make headlines on a daily basis.And almost of the homos in earth are emerging their participation in sports specially the lesbians.Last month’s world track championhsips thrust 18 year-old Semenya into the spotlight as her gender was brought into question. And this made a big question for many. This is one of the most controversial issues in sporting world. And here another one,Brett Favre put an illegal block on Eugene Wilson, and he's lucky there wasn't a more serious injury. What Brett Favre did is called a "crack back" – it's where a blocker puts his back below the waist of a tackler, which makes knee injury or other lower body injuries far more likely – and it is illegal. He was playing wide receiver on the play, as the Minnesota Vikings, as so many other teams are riding the Dolphin's coat tails with the Wildcat Offense, which puts defenses on perpetual red alert with a quarterback out of the normal position. It's anticipated that Brett Favre could get fined by the league, though he likely won't need instant loans to cover the bill.

Caster Semenya has a unique condition of possessing remnants of both male and female genitalia. Intersexuality, as it is known scientifically, is indeed a rarity in 'higher' animals. With this condition, if an individual can not function as both a male and a female reproductively, it is more correctly termed pseudohermaphrodite. The rarest of this pseudohermaphrodite condition is a male pseudohermaphrodite in which an individual appears, phenotypically, female but whose internal genitalia are those representing “maleness.”(testes). Caster Semenya appears to be this type. A colleague and I have been studying a unique form of intersexuality on remote islands of the archipelago of Vanuatu in the Southwest Pacific since 1993.( See www.swpacificresearchfoundation.com)
On certain isolated islands intersexual pigs are found possessing this condition. On Vanuatu, pigs are woven into the very fabric of traditional life. Male pseudohermaphroditic pigs can be found here in relative abundance and nowhere else in the world. Occasionally intersexes are identified in pig and cow slaughter houses throughout the world. Because these unique pigs are revered by the villagers in Vanuatu that still practice “Kastom”, this condition is purposely bred for, thus perpetuating the condition. A man's value in a Vanuatu village is proportional to how many pigs he owns. These intersexual pigs are worth one hundred “normal” pigs and are, indeed, a valuable commodity.
Because of our research, another mammal species with this condition has been identified which will enable us to learn more about this condition in humans.
For more information contact;
James K. McIntyre
Director
Southwest Pacific Research Foundation
1009 White Street
Fernandina Beach, Fl. 32034 USA
jmcint6317@aol.com
904-261-5630