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Maybe you all have heard the story of Caster Semenya, the South African runner who won the 800m gold medal at the world championships recently; she is amazing, and fast, and muscular, and doesn't wear her hair down when she runs. And, lo and behold, concerns were raised that she wasn't really a female. So, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAFF), put her through several tests- including hormonal, gynecological!, and psychological- to prove she was a female.
All this, and Semenya is just 18 years old.
The hormone tests are now back, and the results show that she has unusually high levels of testosterone "expected in a female sample".
Here's (a couple of) the problems with this case:
#1 Testosterone levels vary from person to person, from male to male, and from female to female. They also vary at different times of the month, different times of your life (increasing during puberty), even at different times during any given day (highest in the morning), and over the course of any given activity (levels drop after ejaculation, for instance). They also increase in winners of a competition and decrease in the losers of a competition!
To summarize my first point: TESTOSTERONE LEVELS ARE TOO COMPLICATED AND MYSTERIOUS TO PROVE SOMETHING AS BANAL AS WHETHER OR NOT AN INDIVIDUAL IS MALE OR FEMALE. TESTOSTERONE CANNOT PROVE SEX. AND THEY DEFINITELY CAN’T PROVE GENDER.
#2 People who have been writing about this case, as well as the people who are conducting the testing of Semenya make no distinction between the terms 'SEX' and 'GENDER.' See ESPN. See The Guardian. See USA Today. One of the few reports to use the correct terminology is written by Ross Tucker, PhD for The Science of Sport, but his slant is nonetheless paternalistic; Tucker proclaims:
There is surely nothing more offensive than the question of a woman's sex - even a doping accusation does not come close.
Hmmmm, no. Respectfully, Doctor, I must disagree. Call me a man all you want, but if you say that I’m really good at something only because I’m a man, then you're being offensive.
Anyway, what's the big difference between ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’, you ask? It is this: SEX refers to the type of reproductive organs you are born with. What's between your legs, to put is vulgarly. However, and this is a big however, more than two sexes exist in ALL animal species, especially the human species. When you are born with a mash-up, a variety, a rainbow of XX and XY chromosomes, you are intersex. Sometimes, being intersex shows up at birth (which presents a real problem for these babies because they encounter all kinds of doctor and parental biases toward "girls" and "boys".) But sometimes nobody, not even you yourself, will know that you are born with both kinds of chromosomes. You can go your whole life without anyone finding out. Sometimes men have a penis, produce offspring, feel and look like a regular dude, but upon autopsy after they die, they are found to also have a set of ovaries!
Okay, so what is 'GENDER'? Gender is how an individual identifies her or himself. Period. That's it, in my humble opinion. And, this is why, to me, the Caster Semenya story is such a tragedy. She says she's a girl. She was raised as a girl. She wore skirts to school for cryin' out loud! No matter what any doctor with ten degrees says, or what endocrinology tests show, there is only one expert on Caster Semenya's gender, and that is Caster Semenya! If Semenya identifies as a woman, then her gender is female.
The test results may show that she is intersex or whatever, but that doesn't prove she was cheating, nor do I think that means that she should be disqualified. It means that the categories that the IAAF and the rest of our society have constructed are too plain to contain our complexities as human beings. Brace yourself for this announcement: the male/ female binary is an illusion.
So, why isn't her word good enough? I don't know; I wish it were. I happen to believe that she is being poked and prodded like an animal, and I believe it's because she is a woman and she is good and she is black and she is young. Which is disgusting. So there.
For more information on intersex diversity and frequency, this chart is very enlightening.
Comments
bravo, spring! well said.
So, here is the thing you are forgetting in all this. Human males (biologically speaking) are much faster than human females (biologically speaking). I ran a 1:58 800 meters in high school and I got 4th in the state I was in. If a female runs that she is world class. So, if you allow runners to assign whatever gender they want to themselves, what is to stop a biological male from running as a female and being a world champion. Excluding the male/female binary, as you put it, would assure that no females were ever medal contenders. That's not sexism, that's biology. I don't think the way this was handled was right, but I don't think burying our head in the sand is the right answer either.
Here is the real thing not all men are faster then all women. And training and diet can affect that even more. Finally if she were a “he” no one would be looking for Adasen’s disease which causes a man to produce too much testosterone and become aggressive one of the Kennedy’s had it, Bobby?...No one is looking to check the CROMAZONES OF MALE ATHLETES etc…at most they under go doping charges.
When I swim and I’m not that fast I can easily out distance the average male if I were six feet and trained I could probably outstrip 90% of most trained male swimmers.
I have always been tangentially interested in sports, but now that I appreciate bodies more, it is so interesting what male and female bodies can and can't do. It does seem like the sports world is going to have to make some shifts, given what we know about the fluidity of bodies and all the ways we have to modify bodies (even something like putting asterisks by baseball player statistics when they have been caught using steroids).
In what I've read about this case, I haven't heard to many people talking about talent, race, and age, which are surely all contributing to the debate regarding her gender. Thank you for so much for point this out, and for even discussing the animal aspects of this debate. It's so much to think about!
You hit on some of the major problems with how this issue is being covered by most of the media. It's good that you clarify the important distinction between sex and gender. Biologically speaking, a "male" is an individual who makes (or "should" make) small gametes (sperm), while a "female" is an individual who makes (or "should" make) large gametes (eggs). I say "should" to account for individuals who are fundamentally female or male but don't make gametes because, for example, they've been castrated, or had a hysterectomy, or are post-menopause, or whatever.
Other situations harder to categorize: congenital adrenal hyperplasia, 5-alpha aromatase deficiency, androgen insensitivity, chromosomal variations (XO, XXY, etc.), genetic mosaics, etc.
As a trans person I'm sympathetic to Caster (whatever her situation may be - I don't know). Unfortunately the women she's competing against are entitled to fair treatment, too. There's probably not a good resolution to this case.
If she was male there would be no test for Adasen’s disease which Bobby Kennedy had and makes you incredibly aggressive a male would only be drug tested and there are no studies proving nay of the “gender problems” increase skill in any way.
Just so you know, men are NOT biologically faster then women. Men on average are taller then women, the average women is 5'5 and the average man is 5'11, so you have to take into account stride difference. Thus when they both run the same race women are running further so it is an unfair measure. If you control for the height difference you will see a lot more of an equal result. PLUS, you ALSO have to account for the fact that women are usually not as encouraged to go into sports as men are, and recieve much less support overall. I would encourage you to look at some scholarly studies done on this it is very interesting. We are socialy taught to think males are better performers in sport ( i even thought this before getting a degree in Kinesiology), but it is just not true (biologically).
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