Eighteen-year-old Mokgadi ‘Caster’ Semenya is being celebrated as a national hero in South Africa after winning the 800 metres at the World Athletics Championships, but the decision by international athletics officials to order a gender verification test has stirred deep anger – and brought accusations of prejudice against the country and the continent.
Many in South Africa feel a victory by their talented young athlete is being tarnished by bad losers and a world all too ready to mock. Sensitivities to prejudice are never far from the surface in the country where apartheid white minority rule ended just 15 years ago.
South Africans point out that headlines such as “Is she really a HE?”, in Britain’s Daily Mail, and the question of gender verification only surfaced when Semenya started to do much better than her peers.
“It shows that these imperialist countries can’t afford to accept the talent that Africa as a continent has,” the South African Football Players Union said in a message of congratulation to Semenya.
Politicians stepped in too.
“The ANC YL condemns with contempt those who are questioning her gender,” said the ever vocal Youth League of the Ruling African National Congress.
Some even drew parallels between Semenya and an unpleasant episode from the colonial era - Sarah Baartman, a South African woman, was taken from her rural homeland in 1810 and paraded to the world as a freak because of her unusual physical features. Her remains were finally brought back to South Africa in 2002 and laid to rest.
Whatever the results of the officials’ tests on Semenya - and the scientific procedures could take months – most South Africans are convinced that she is not a cheat but a great athlete who will return to a huge welcome.
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She should be compensated by the international board of athletics, once its established Shes is a Women.
- Posted by Eli Jyah - Ld ElonThe fuss is unfounded.The only fair alternative to scrapping tests is for women to compete against men.That would condemn women to being non-paticipants.
- Posted by brian odohertyAs a South African I must point out that the GENDER TEST carried out on fellow South African Zola Pietese (nee Bud) in 1984 produced no such fuss.The race card being played by politicians in South Africa is always used when other arguments are unsound.
This thing lacks UBUNTU you don’t do that to a human being. The humiliation was not warranted. Even the IAAF has acknowledged that they mishandled this whole thing which then puts questions on the MOTIVE????
- Posted by SlindileMaybe the IAAF has to conduct these tests, but why now. This girl has always been competing at Junior level, why is there only talk now when she’s kicking the butts of the Europeans. This is just bulltish! South Africa and Africa at large must fight this or else history will judge us very harshly. Caster you rock! Waliklebhula irekhodi (Zulu for, you smashed the reckod!)
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- Posted by 86henryI agree with Ananda__the authoroties were terrible in their handling of the case but fact is__rules are there for everyone in competition at this level and how you were raised can never determine gender,,,,imagine a man boxing against female opponents,,,the rules are also there for the protection of ALL competitors.
- Posted by ThomPeople can say anything they like about gender, skin colour, culture or nationality.
But the reality is that she should be, and is going to be tested. And nothing that anyone says will stop the test from happening.
These tests are to ensure that the races are fair for everyone. If someone takes part in a race, they agree to be subjected to testing.
If she has nothing to hide, she has nothing to fear from the test.
If there are people who believe the test should not occur, perhaps it is because they fear the possible result?
- Posted by HmmmAre you all seeing what I am seeing? I just discovered that the true nature of this human being, by analyzing her name: SEMENYA.
It sounds like Se—Men—Ya, in other words, see Men, ya!
This so-called woman just look like a woman to foul us, but in reality she is a man. Men is in this middle of her name. Even one of my friends told me that, “Because she is so ugly, she is looks like a man, otherwise she is a woman”.
- Posted by MorrisAnyway, let’s keep the debate open.
They should do like the old times: Run Naked
- Posted by GrandsomeAlthough Senmenya going through a a posteriori test a questionable, I think because we have using new metrics to assess her gender, all competitors should go through the same test, or at least all the potential winners.
- Posted by AnandaLet’s suppose that Semenya fails the test, how do we now know that the others would have not failed the same test?!
It’s pathetic how people are going on and on about racism , Nationalism, Anti-Africanism….etc.
It’s really a simple matter, this runner looks very much like a man, period. Quit making up hidden reasons to publicize other agendas, this only only about one thing. The runner looks very much like a man , even among other masculine looking women.
- Posted by flexIt’s an unfortunate situation because I can understand all parties but the IAAF did a very bad job. It’s fair for other competitors to have doubts about her gender but it’s also unfair for Semenya to have to prove at this point her gender after having been allowed to compete in the first place. She didn’t bend any rule.
My understanding is that she went through the same rules as everyone to get to this point. So if something is wrong, it has to be the rules and/or IAAF. And not Semenya.
I personally believe that IAAF simply messed up. At least they should have been consistent with their own rules. They are the one who qualified her to compete and those are the same who want to test her gender again.
I can also understand south african frustration because it looks like IAAF decided to stand by Semenya competitors rather than by standing by their own rules. I don’t think IAAF would have done the test had no one complained.
- Posted by AnandaWhenever there is a doubt, they test. I think that the people crying racism, or privacy, are deluded as to how far a person or country would go to win. Sex-change surgery, along with hormone treatment is a drop in the bucket compared with the long term effects of many of the drug regimens athletes undergo. This is a routine test, and yes, you only typically test the winners, to save on cost. Since men are genetically bigger and stronger, it is the females that normally have to be tested to ensure they are really female.
- Posted by James PerlyCarol, “intersex” might be the PC term for a hermaphrodite, but it is a meaningless scientific term that has replaced a word that was well understood due to our knowledge of Greek mythology. Now that we and our children have virtually stopped reading and spend so much time instead on brain-numbing pursuits such as TV and video games, we have forgotten meaningfulness.
hermaphrodite XV. — L. hermaphrod?tus — Gr. hermaphród?tos, orig. proper name of a son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who grew together with the nymph Salmacis while bathing in her fountain and so combined male and female characters.
Now isn’t that more memorable than a word that sounds like an orgy?
- Posted by AnnI wholeheartedly concur with Denyutali Mgaya. Africa is incredibly rich in its diversity of cultures and landscapes and natural resources, but we are repeatedly led to believe that the whole continent is impoverished and in desperate need of our help. For heaven’s sake! Ever seen the slums and levels of poverty in the US? The 50,000 homeless who are known to sleep out on the streets of New York alone year round? The impoverished intelligence of people of all socioeconomic backgrounds who happen to eat some of the worst “food” (junk food) in the world?
I believe that western countries with a vested interest in Africa’s natural resources started a campaign some years ago to discredit Africa and Africans, and the US has stepped up political interference in strategically located countries such as Somalia and Liberia. I believe that this is a prelude to moving in with armies to expropriate oil, etc., as was done in Iraq and as is happening in Afghanistan.
I have lived in Africa and found it to be very rich in everything and not at all as our governments would have us believe. I have also lived in North America and found it to be unhealthy, gluttonous and very poor culturally. As Denyutali Mgaya says, westerners do feel comfortable when Africa fails in everything. But Africa has not failed in what is truly meaningful.
We’re used to our western 18-year old girls looking like porn queens so maybe it is natural for us to look at a female body clearly built for speed as somehow more masculine. A lot of western countries’ best athletes / runners are black, are they not? We whites not very good at it, and they are. The investigation of Semenya looks like racism and sour grapes to me.
As a couple of people have commented, just get a doctor to have Semenya drop her pants to have the case closed quickly. She shouldn’t have to endure this!
- Posted by AnnI think that the ones who crictizes over who’s a man or a women they are the ones who should have a “sex test”not her. It is wrong, they have low low self esteem for themselves and God made a man and a women. You heard the mother is that enough for you all. I hate when people jugde other people just by their sex then their color whats next come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Posted by jimrealy this is great shame for those who propose this idea! still today we African can what ever evry white man can do! to insure this I can site a good example, OBAMA! again OBAMA!!!!! the same is true for SEMENYA of SOUTH AFRIQA!
- Posted by teferiPoor, poor athlete. Not! Get a grip people…racist to confirm gender when gender isn’t clearly known? Absurd. Sexist to doubt same? Rediculous. If a man or woman was wearing a police uniform, one would naturally assume that person was a cop. Yes? Not so. Think about it…. Even though “Caster’s” genetalia may be questionable, nobody I know would mistake Caster for a woman, as she/he has no (even remotely) physical attributes of one. How about we apply the same “how dare you” logic to say…airline travel (and pilots specifically). “How dare you be suspicious of me” (because I’m Middle-Eastern, want to learn how to take off in a airplane, but not how to land one) “You are a racist”! No Sale.
- Posted by jamesI find this situation to be so contankerous unnecessarily. Every culture is different and that should be understood. One size fits all is not an adopted and acceptance gesture amongst all cultures. Everyone who is black does not want horse hair in their head and chemicals to lighten their skin to define their femininity and the likes of those who sit in the judgement seats. I remember Mutola who ran the same distance as this young girl, and she was call a man too until she put the horse hair in her head to define her feminine side. Also,remember the best black young women (Williams sisters)who has held a tennis racquet were also defined by whites as men too, even the dikest one Navaratolova made her comments about them?. You people need to just stop this sick and bias judgement. I hope they do not come up with a Bolt lightening being a girl too because of possessing unsurpassable qualities.
- Posted by CoraI haven’t read the entire blog, but it seems no one has mentioned that a similar situation played out in the 2006 Asian games:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/1 8/sportsline/main2275607.shtml
I think the governing body should have been much more discreet in their approach, but this person must be tested.
- Posted by Plasmodium