Sexual Ambiguity, Sports, and Life

So now, amazingly enough, we have officially entered the age of "Gender Discrimination" against women who may or may not be woman enough.

You heard me. Apparently, having too many "male characteristics" while being a woman is enough to disqualify you from competing against other women in athletic events these days, or at least if you are a South African girl named Caster Semenya.

Caster Semenya is a running sensation. She beat the world's record by running the 800m in 1:56.72, astounding the world, and that's the problem. After she stepped up her game and blew everyone else out of the park in the July, 2009 African Junior Championships, the International Association of Athletics Federation insisted that she take a "gender verification test" to prove that she is indeed a female.

Granted, Semenya has an athletic build. She is muscular, not very feminine in her mannerisms and has a deep voice. But has anyone else besides me been watching the WC Track and Field games in Berlin? Muscular bodies, deep voices and athletic prowess prevail. I'm sorry, but a weave and acrylic nails don't make anyone feminine. Serious athletes have serious muscle tone and sacrifice some of their more "feminine attributes" for their sport. You lose fat and gain muscle, which includes breast tissue for some. I'm not a doctor and can't explain what this does to one's body, but I do have to wonder where we draw the line between who is a woman and who isn't. Apparently, genitalia isn't enough any more. It's complicated and calls for many specialists to determine the presence of hormonal and/or chromosonal disorders.

But the question for me is, how many people in your life do you know who have some sexual ambiguity? Does that mean they can't compete in athletic events? More importantly does it mean that they should be publicly humiliated and stripped of their accomplishments?

I'm ashamed of the powers that be at the WC in Berlin for their treatment of this young woman, especially in light of the fact that if they had any question in the first place they should have handled it before now (and certainly less publicly). I'm also ashamed of a society that wouldn't take the feelings of a young woman into account for the sake of their insistence on "black or white and nothing else."