Intriguing...

Though I would never accuse a woman who's good at anything of being a man...I must admit that this is a surprise indeed.

"OMG this woman is too fast!" people said, "so maybe she's not a woman, there's no way a woman can be that fast". I was really mad when I heard that they were doing gender tests on her.  I became really irate when I saw that cover of that magazine that said something like "ohh so this is what she really looks like!" and she was dressed up like a very girly-girl.  I thought to myself: "damn, they're trying to make her look less threatening and making her fit into a single category...".  And then we get the alleged results of her tests... I am very upset and feel sorry for what she's going through.

The world hegemony is always trying to find new ways to keep the status quo and justify their desires.  Poor Semenya is just caught up in the middle of a world where Western views dominate, and we are all put in bounding boxes, categorized as one thing or another (with nothing in between).  It's so sad that by law she has to be either male or female, when there is nothing wrong with her.  The only thing is that she doesn't fit into the male/female dichotomy of gender.

More interestingly, in a way this is the same reaction as when black men dominated the olympics in Berlin a few decades ago.  At the time, it was believed they were an inferior race, so people tried to justify their success by saying they were genetically better at sports.  Both assumptions were not true (they were not inferior in one way nor superior in the other).

I know this is a womens rights page but, you have to take in to consider that she also LOOKS male, has a masculine voice and body. If the above report is true, then she has testicles, which makes her a boy. Sure it's embarassing, and it could have been handled better. Sure people should have quietly investigated. BUT sorry, she is a boy. Unless the other WOMEN who are running in this race are allowed to inject testosterone to make their performances better, this man should not be running in the woman's race. Her story is sad, she has been humiliated, and i'm angry about that, she is HUMAN and shouldnt have had to suffer that, but she should be pulled from the women's team.

Did everyone suddenly forget that the same type of gender question was asked of Russian and other Eastern Bloc "women" decades ago during the various Olympics when they dominated so completely?!?  This is not a race issue or a privacy issue. This type of inquiry has precedence!  Anyone who would take the time to go into old SNL archives will find lots of skits done with men pretending to be these athletes.  

It's unfortunate that this has played out on the world stage for her sake.  But remember, this type of investigation has taken place before and is, in a large sense, the reason why athletes who win are tested for performance enhancing drugs.

by an MD.
"Female development will occur unless maleness is actively induced by the Y chromosome. In females, the gonads become ovaries; ...and the phallus becomes a clitoris. In males, the Y chromosome causes the gonads to develop into testicles, which start to produce the male hormone testosterone by 9 to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Testosterone leads to development of the penis and scrotum and the internal tubular system that will later carry sperm. Another hormone produced by the testicles, anti-mullerian hormone (AMH), inhibits the development of a uterus and vagina."

Base on the article, when Semenya was born, she did not have enough testosterone to produce a penis and scrotum.   She also did not have enough "AMH" to inhibit the development of a vagina. Therefore she was born a female. Y chromosomes did not actively induce maleness. All women create testosterone. Some create more than others.  This doen't make you any less of a women.  It also doesn't mean that your oravies are now "internal testes" because they produce a lot of testosterones. If they vote her to be a male, then they are redefining the longstanding definition of a female.

by an MD.
"Female development will occur unless maleness is actively induced by the Y chromosome. In females, the gonads become ovaries; ...and the phallus becomes a clitoris. In males, the Y chromosome causes the gonads to develop into testicles, which start to produce the male hormone testosterone by 9 to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Testosterone leads to development of the penis and scrotum and the internal tubular system that will later carry sperm. Another hormone produced by the testicles, anti-mullerian hormone (AMH), inhibits the development of a uterus and vagina."

Base on the article, when Semenya was born, she did not have enough testosterone to produce a penis and scrotum.   She also did not have enough "AMH" to inhibit the development of a vagina. Therefore she was born a female. Y chromosomes did not actively induce maleness. All women create testosterone. Some create more than others.  This doen't make you any less of a women.  It also doesn't mean that your oravies are now "internal testes" because they produce a lot of testosterones. If they vote her to be a male, then they are redefining the longstanding definition of a female.

We are all equal!

Interesting how it works like that. If a girl is deemed "too good" at sports, she must be a boy? And goddammit, no one will believe her until science intervenes!

...

My question is - why are we so eager to find this out? Clearly if a man was competing in women's events, that might make things unfair because when it comes to physiology men and women are not equal species.</blockquote>

I think you pretty much answered your own question.  Semenya is plainly WAY more masculine in appearance than the vast majority of the already buffed-out female competitors she's racing against.

I feel a lot of sympathy for her; this episode is probably the first time in her life she's had to face the reality that the physical body she's inhabiting is apparently not 100% "female" by our standard definition.

But to present this as some sort of outrage against her humanity is silly.  She's a competitive athlete, voluntarily taking part in sports.  To do that, a person is agreeing to compete in the appropriate category- male or female.

And if a man tries to compete with the women, it won't be allowed, for the exact reason you've laid out here, Jen; because it isn't fair to have a man running against women.

The other competitors have a right to be able to take part knowing that they're running against fellow females.  While you're complaining and asking "why should she Semenya have to prove she's a girl?" you're ignoring the rights of the women she's racing against- and you're ignoring the basic point of having a male/female split in the competition.

I don't know what the solution in this case is.  I'd have to say that the most reasonable thing is that so long as she's got testes cranking out testosterone, she shouldn't be allowed to compete as a female; it'd be roughly analogous to allowing women to take hormones and steroids but still compete.

Take out what appears to be the male tissues and then I think you have a reasonable argument that she should be allowed to compete.  Until then, if we're going to continue having men and women compete in separate categories, I can't see how she can be allowed to race against women.

 I AGREE WITH THE M.D. POST, THEY ARE CORRECT, CASTER SEMENYA IS A WOMAN BORN OF GOD, JUDGED BY MEN STANDARDS, AND IT'S A SHAME THAT THINGS THAT PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEY TRY TO DENY OR DESTROY, SHE IS 18 YEARS OLD, AND IF SHE SAYS SHE'S A WOMAN SHE'S A WOMAN, WHAT ABOUT, EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS? WHAT ABOUT HER FEELINGS? HUMANITY CANNOT JUSTIFY CREATION, OR TO TELL A MOTHER OR A FATHER WHAT GENDER THAT THEIR CHILD IS, THAT COMES FROM THE INSIDE, NOT BY WHAT OTHERS THINK, THE WOMAN IS BUILT, SEXY AND STRONG NO ONE IN THE WORLD CAN DENY HER OF HER HEART, SOUL AND SPIRIT.