BY SHAUNELLE CURRY

Caster Semenya, an 18-year-old South African women’s middle-distance runner, has received worldwide attention in recent months. She made her country proud when she won the 800 meters at the World Athletics Championship in Germany in August.

She received the hometown welcome of a hero, with public officials and throngs of people singing, dancing and cheering upon her return home.

Yet, it is the seed of doubt surrounding her gender that has cast the world’s eyes upon her.

Semenya’s record-setting times on the track field, coupled with her masculine features, prompted gender testing by the International Association of Athletics Federation, the sports global governing body. Leaks to the media suggested that gender test results may show that Semenya is intersex and has both male and female sex organs.

The concern is that she may have internal testes, causing her body to produce more testosterone than the average woman. There was speculation that Semenya’s medal, won in the 800-meter women’s championship race, would be in jeopardy because of this.

Last week brought good news for Semenya when it was announced that she will be able to keep her medal and prize money. And the results of her gender tests will be held in confidence. But, the question still remains how this will impact the current guidelines for dealing with gender testing and female athletics.

What’s Sex Got to Do With It?

Gender is a social construct of our maleness or femaleness. Sex, on the other hand, is a biological concept of male and female currently categorized on the basis of our chromosomes and sex organs.

Many of us assume that our gender identity, our sex, and the societies’ perception of our gender must line up on the same side of a very clear man/woman line. However, statistics from the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA.org) state that the total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female is about 1 in 100.

For many people, sex actually falls somewhere along a continuum between male and female. Earth shattering, isn’t it?

Calling Into Question

the Question

In the case of Semenya, her external sex organs are female. Her gender identity — how she views herself in the world — is female. And her gender, that social construct that is reinforced by her family and clan and the members of her society, is female. All of these appear to line up. Then what was the catalyst for questioning her gender in the first place? 

“The questioning of her gender is based on (a) stereotypic view of the physical features and abilities attributable to women. Such stereotypes demonstrate the extent of patriarchy within the world’s sporting community,” Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, South Africa’s minister for women, children and people with disabilities, said in a letter, according to news reports quoting the South African Press Association.

Mayende-Sibiya has written a letter to the United Nations’ Division for the Advancement of Women. In it, she calls for an investigation into whether or not Semenya has been treated in line with U.N. protocols on gender and equality. She is challenging the gender testing done on Semenya on the basis of a possible violation to the protection of women’s rights.

I stretched my brain a bit and imagined that this was happening to a man instead of to a woman and that it was related to an intellectual contest instead of a physical one.  Imagine the conversation: “Oh, I’m sorry, sir. You cannot compete with all of the other male geniuses. You are so brilliant that we think you might actually be a woman. This obviously gives you an unfair advantage. We noticed that you don’t have any facial hair and there’s no bass in your voice when you speak. And those man boobs — well, what cup size are those? A rigorous series of gender tests should satisfy our curiosity … excuse me, I mean, our protocol.”

Is that absurd? Offensive? Humiliating? Look closely — this is the same battle that Semenya has been waging against being marginalized and dehumanized on the basis of gender and stereotypical  gender roles. This time we have added some medical nuances to it. But still, a young woman’s sex organs are being objectified and her humanity diminished. 

The famously recounted words of the formerly enslaved, abolitionist woman warrior Sojourner Truth ring through my ears: “Look at me! Look at my arm. I have ploughed, I have planted and I have gathered into barns. And no man could head me. And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much, and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman?” 

Semenya’s very existence has put this question before us again. Yet, the question before us now is this: Should the sport’s governing body have the authority to decide that this woman — or any woman — is a woman?

Shaunelle Curry is executive director of Mother’s Day Radio (www.mothersdayradio.com), a community-driven initiative designed to take direct action in challenging and expanding current media portrayals of womanhood. She can be reached at info@mothersdayradio.com.