There has been a lot of attention paid to the recent discovery that South African runner Caster Semenya may be intersexed. Read this report from feministing.com on efforts to give Caster Semenya a makeover. Why do you think this is such a big story? Should she be stripped of her gold medal? How should intersexed athletes be treated in the future?
6 comments:
I think this is a hard topic to cover. Since she is women she just has extra amounts a testorone it makes it hard to come up with a "right" answer. It does give her an unfair advantage over other women however if you make her suffer by taking her out of the womens races when it isnt her faught how is that fair? And where will she compete if they do decide to do this? NO i dont think she should be stripped of her medal and i dont think their is one right solution to this problem.
I believe that this is a such a big story because, like the article states, "athleticism is stereotyped as a strictly male trait". Since Semenya's sex seemed to have male traits, along with female traits it was a concern to the public. Her femininity is something that people should be able to clearly see, and it wasn't obvious. I do not think that Caster Semenya should be stripped of her gold medals because she earned them just as any other athlete would have. Just because she may not be what the public eye sees as "normal", does not mean that she should be degraded of her achievments. I believe that intersexed atheletes should be treated just like any other athelete, not based on their sex
but their skills and abilities.
This is such a big story because men and women have such different athletic ability. If this women were to be transgender than she would have a unfair advantage over the women she would be running with. Even if the "man in her" had nothing to do with her being more athletic, people would still think it did make her faster and stronger, even if it didnt. If she were to be transgender then I do think it would be unfair for her to be running with the women because she could have an advantage over them until proven differently.
I'm really glad to see that they are letting her keep her medals and are keeping the results private. It is probably hard enought to have to go thru what she is going thru... and even harder in the public eye. If she has been raised female her entire life that is who she.
This is a very sticky situation. I do believe that because of her extra testosterone she has an advantage over women. But i do not think she should be stripped of her medals. Its societies fault for having strict gender scripts. Only Male or female, since there is no gray area for those who do not meat the norm i don't know what the solution could be to solve this problem. She has worked hard for her achievement and should not be discredited because of her differences.
The reason for this becoming such a huge story is because just like the article says, "athleticism is stereotyped as a strictly male trait". I think that anytime a female is extremely good at a sport, people are almost programmed to question it because it isn’t normal. For the most part, females are not exceptionally great at sports like males are. In the world of sports, there are way more talented male athletes that have made names for themselves than there are in female sports in general. I don’t think that she should be stripped of her medal. At the same time, I am not sure how it should be handled when it comes to intersexed athletes. I do find it unfair to the females who have to compete against people like Caster Semenya. Before they even get to race, Semenya is already at such a overwhelming advantage and that isn’t fair. I don’t think there is going to be a right way to handle situations like these because either way it goes; someone is going to be upset.
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