"Hermaphrodite" really? What is this? 1955? Come on...
Caster Semenya, forced to take gender test, is a woman ... and a man!
BY Oren Yaniv
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Thursday, September 10th 2009, 1:50 PM
The 18-year-old South African champ has no womb or ovaries and her testosterone levels are more than three times higher than those of a normal female, according to reports.
The tests, ordered by The International Association of Athletics Federations after Semenya's 800-meter victory in the World Championships, determined she's a hermaphrodite - having both male and female organs.
Semenya could be stripped of the gold medal she won in Berlin last month and her competitive future is in limbo, according to Australia's Daily Telegraph.
The athletics governing body is also expected to advise her to have surgery to fix the potentially deadly condition, the paper reported. The IAAF would not comment on the results that have yet to be released.
According to a source with knowledge of the IAAF tests, Semenya has internal testes - the male sexual organs that produce testosterone.
Testosterone is a hormone responsible for building muscles and for producing body hair and a deep voice.
Confirmation of the test results is sure to stoke the controversy that erupted after the university student's sensational track triumph.
She has been embraced in her home country - where she was declared "our girl" - and appeared on a magazine cover after a feminine makeover.
"God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself," she told You Magazine, which ran a photo spread.
"I don't want to talk about the tests. I'm not even thinking about them."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_caster_semenya_.html#ixzz0QoCCO08K
4 comments:
When I first heard about this story I thought the same thing. What an incredible invasion of privacy and what a horrible thing to make public in such a terrible way. She was born that way! I don't think she should be stripped of anything. I am glad that her hometown is standing behind HER. Maybe she and her family had no idea anything was "wrong" with her. Ugh, this kind of thing makes me sick. And to report it that way is wrong. Thanks for blogging about this!
I'm not up to date on gender labeling- what should we call a hermaphafrodite nowadays? I do feel bad for this girl, since she found out in quite a public and humiliating way that she has male and female sexual organs.
BUT, in terms of competition, I certainly wouldn't want to be swimming against a girl/woman who had that much testosterone. I know she can't help it since she was born that way, but it certainly creates an uneven playing field for fair competition. So many athletes use performance enhancing drugs now so virtually every sport is tainted anyways.
I can't believe this is an issue. How the hell did they ever get the nerve to ask for this testing, much less the permission to do it? The world is F-ed UP!
We definitely have to talk about this issue when we see each other next week--I can't imagine what she must be going through, but I love what she said about accepting herself and being proud of herself.
And BTW-the staff writer totally contradicted himself. He first said she has no womb (who the hell calls a uterus a "womb") and no ovaries and then he proceeds to say that she is a "hermaphrodite" having both male and female organs. Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?
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