After Atalanta

What seemed like endless tests and discussions over the gender of South African runner Caster Semenya have apparently come to an end with the IAAF (the international governing body of track and field) ruling that Semenya can continue (after the imposed one-year hiatus) to race against women. I guess that means the powers that be decided she was a woman. The findings will not be released of course because of confidentiality reasons--not that the whole thing was super secret to begin with. I believe confidentiality has already been pretty much blown apart. So the IAAF has deemed her eligible but they cannot say why (not that they should) but the attention they brought onto Semenya isn't likely to dissipate with her new clearance. This Salon column on the news notes not just that Semenya came under suspicion because she defied gender norms, but that the attention that her story garnered because of her non-conformity is similar to the stories from women's sports in the past few ye...

I have not watched one second of the men's World Cup. And yet it seems to be the only thing I can blog about these days. (I do have a post coming about working out in skirts--so stay tuned for something non-soccer. Not that there's anything wrong with soccer. I'm just not much into men's soccer.) But some people are still talking about women who play soccer. First, Diane Elayne Dees, the creator of Women Who Serve, a blog about tennis, wrote this poem in remembrance of South African star Eudy Simelane , who was gang-raped and murdered because she was a butch-appearing lesbian. Diane's poem, In Memoriam, is at The New Verse News and was posted on June 12. [Dr. Pat Griffin has also written about Simelane and the issue of corrective rape in South Africa.] Salon has also taken the men's World Cup happenings to talk about the women's World Cup. Ryan Brown reminds us , in the wake of the most-watched (in the US) soccer game in 15 years last weekend between the US...

So it turns out the rumors around Caster Semenya are still based on things that very loosely resemble facts. Semenya has no intention of suing either the ASA or IAAF. She has retained a lawyer--the same firm that represented Oscar Pistorius in battle against the IAAF to run in able-bodied events with is cheetah legs. But the lawyers are there to help with what whatever issues arise from the continued inquisition over Semenya's gender. I am kind of disappointed.

On December 22 the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the case of female ski jumpers trying to get into the 2010 Olympics. This was the last ditch effort of the group which has pursued legal means and made appeals to the IOC, including a letter to President Jacques Rogge--who refused to grant the group's request for a meeting. I was pleased to see that South African runner Caster Semenya has not faded away after speculations about her gender and intense invasions of privacy. Instead she is fighting back-- with a lawsuit against IAAF and Athletic South Africa (ASA) for leaking information about the gender testing. The bungling of her case has also resulted in the president and board of the ASA to step down. It appears that testing began before Semenya went to Berlin for the World Championships and that ASA president Leonard Cheune decided to send her anyway because results were not yet in. But, as we know, questions were raised and information that should have stayed private was...

And troubling news all around really. Unofficially, the "gender tests" Caster Semenya underwent during and after the World Championships indicate that she has internal testes and no ovaries or womb. She has pulled out of a race in South Africa that she had said she would compete in. It seems doubtful that her gold medal from worlds will be taken away from her because it was not a doping case and because so many in South Africa have come out in support of their new superstar. (The apparent contradictions in South Africans' behavior on gender and sexuality have been noted including their early denial of the AIDS crisis and its effect on women and the problem of "corrective rape" against lesbians.) Words such as hermaphrodite and normal are being thrown around rather problematically. It is so very unfortunate that the issue of intersex is so misunderstood (Oprah did very little to shed light on it when she tried to address it a few years ago) and that Semenya...

What was so great about Caster Semenya's response at the World Championships to the controversy over her gender presentation was that she did not change a thing--and she won the gold medal. She was completely unapologetic about not meeting the standards of femininity set by all around her. Something changed. Perhaps as the weeks have gone by she became more aware of the severity of the controversy. A South African coach (not her personal one) resigned because he was part of keeping Semenya somewhat in the dark about the nature of the testing--he initially told her she was being tested for doping. Other high-ups in the South Africa have come out publicly condemning the tests. Perhaps she realized the ripple effects of this situation and felt the need to quell criticisms. Because this is what her latest response is. I don't usually publish pics from other sites but this one seemed important. The blogger at the above link does a good job parsing out the situation and has a simila...

It appears that some are being somewhat sensitive to the investigation of South African Caster Semenya's gender. No one is accusing her of cheating or that she has knowledge of her condition. Note however that one, there is still an investigation and two, there's an assumption that there's something wrong with her--something abnormal. I watched the tape delayed race last night and Semenya won by a lot, which probably did not help her cause. But, of course, it's also a sign that she is not thrown by this whole thing--or even motivated by it. And despite the apparent sympathy marked by the absence of shouts of "she's a boy! she's a boy!", the discourse is a little more indicative of what people are really thinking about just how much of a girl Semenya is or is not. The NYT called her a "muscular 18-year old from South Africa." Odd choice of adjectives given that this is the world championships and everyone has muscles. And remember folks, muscl...