Boy, Girl, or...

[Just-a-Writer]

Caster Semenya. All she wanted to do was run in the Olympics. And she was fast enough to do it, so what went wrong. What went wrong was that she WAS fast. And she didn't LOOK quite right to somebody. And that's when the intrusion began.
Semenya had her gender put into question. And instead of going the conventional route of checking her birth certificate, or talking to her pediatrician, they put science to work. And they didn't simply look for a Y chromosome, they went in-depth. So now this young woman had to face their discovery before the entire world. She's intersexed, a hermaphrodite. She's left to feel alone in a world that has two accepted genders; male and female.

At health.allrefer.com they even have a "treatment" plan outlined.

"The family of the infant needs to be informed of the child's condition as early as possible. It is a very sensitive time, requiring compassion and guidance to avoid feelings of guilt, shame, or discomfort."

Guilt? Shame? Discomfort? For what? One in every 1500 births annually are diagnosed as intersex, and those are just the ones that are caught. If there are no external signs, they aren't recognized until puberty or later. And those numbers are unknown. So it's nothing to be ashamed of, and obviously nothing to feel guilty for.

Allrefer also says, "Early assignment of the sex is important for the emotional well being of the person. In large part, the decision is based on the corrective potential of the ambiguous genitalia, rather than on chromosomal determinants. The initial care should include a team of professionals that include neonatologists and pediatric specialists, endocrinologists, radiologists, urologists, psychologists, and geneticists."

What they fail to recognize is the actual child. How in so many cases the child is brought up not being told about how they were born, how many children "feel" like they are the wrong gender, or how confusing puberty can be for them. Puberty is hard enough for male and female children, it is much worse on an intersexed child that was "assigned" the wrong gender.

Rumor has it that Semenya will get to keep her medal, but will be banned from women's races from here on out. Why? Because her hormones and internal organs don't "match"? What about men's races? She can't use the same locker room, her external organs don't match. Where does that leave this young runner? What has she done wrong to be penalized like this?

Scientifically, we know, we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, a person's gender. The problem lies in our stunted social development that prevents us from recognizing the third gender. Instead, they are EXPECTED to have surgery to correct the matter, the sooner the better. Generally, the same people that insist that the intersexed have this "corrective" surgery, are the same ones that begrudge an undiagnosed, of any gender, the same type of surgery.

If we are going to rely on scientific testing to determine an athlete's gender, then we need to start accepting the idea that gender is not clear cut. It is more than genitalia, reproductive organs, and hormone levels. We have to realize that not only are there more than two genders, but that most likely these are only the extremes. We also need to realize that what we currently called intersexed may only be a blanket term to cover the genders we aren't scientifically, socially, or intellectually prepared to accept.

I hope that Caster Semenya's name goes down in history not as the athlete that was "outed" for being deformed, but as the world's first step to changing their perception of gender. The reason we realize there are more than two genders. And as a very fast runner.

[Boothby171]

Penis or not...is the body chemistry and composition that of a man or a woman?

If she is a woman, then she should have appropriate levels of male testosterone in her system. If not (if she has too much), then although it would be inappropriate to accuse her of doping, she should be disqualified.

[Westerly_2]

I think it was the wrong time to test this athlete after the fact. Shouldn't this have been done before? Before she even competed. Who missed the point? Now everryone is embarrassed, especially the athlete raised as a female who competed in good faith. I guess she has extra testosterone in there which gives her an advantage, and so other females are at a disadvantage. Presumably, she should be disqualified in future, but where does she stand? I feel bad for her hopes and efforts and all her training and hard work.

It all makes you realize how non-simple and non-binary life is. Morph happens. In the womb all kinds of alternate hook-ups go on, more than people realize. There's such variety.
In competitive sports all they know is XX or XY, and in that world, your papers had better be in order

[Just-a-Writer]

Externally, she is female. After a physical examination and testing, they found testes that hadn't dropped instead of ovaries, and high levels of testosterone.

I apparently did a lousy job of making my point, which was that if we're going to have scientific skills to make such a specific determination, then we need to raise our social abilities to the level where such a discovery wouldn't destroy the self-image of the individual.

I have heard (can't remember the source at the moment) that at one point the girl was on suicide watch. It should have been handled with more discretion, she shouldn't be made to feel she did anything wrong or that there's anything wrong with her, and what we're apparently able to learn about a person exceeds our ability to cope with the results.

[Tina]

JaW, I personally find this a very sad and unfair situation, myself. The woman is who she is and I do not feel, once again, that because we might not be able to wrap our minds around it that she should be a public spectical for being created as she was. It is to no , zero, none, fault of her own, she did absolutely nothing wrong but to go about living her life as it was handed to her.
To shame her publicly for being a human being, over which she has no control is simply immoral and wrong, is my feeling. There are certain aspects of life that we as people control, and many that we do not.
I have to say that it is such a shame to me, that when human beings do not understand something, when they can't live in their nice neat little boxes they wig out and tear another human being to shreads and this is just so barbaric to me. When will the intelligence of the human race catch up to the realities of the human race? It is very disturbing that another human being is now suffering due to lack of reason and intellect. Sad for her and I would guess also for those who love her and care about her.

[Just-a-Writer]

I never heard about the girl from India. In my opinion, until they have a fuller understanding of the variations of gender, they need to keep their "gender testing" more simplistic. If they were born women, brought up as women, treated as women their entire lives, they're women. PERIOD.

This is also my personal opinion, but I can't help but wonder if the actual numbers aren't higher than 1%. The people with obvious external genitalia issues would dominate the recognized individuals, but what about those that don't have obvious deformities? Semenya and the woman from India would probably have never known if their athletic skills hadn't been challenged. How much testosterone is "too much"? Who's to say?

I've always been tomboyish, aggressive, maybe I produce "too much" testosterone. A site called fertilityplus.org has a break down of women's hormones, and this is what they say about testosterone in women: "Testosterone is secreted from the adrenal gland and the ovaries. Most would consider a level above 50 to be somewhat elevated. "

Most?? That's a scientific diagnosis? Somewhat?? So clearly it isn't a very precise study yet. But it's precise enough to publicly humiliate unsuspecting young women? Despicable.

[Just-a-Writer]

Having babies isn't even a tell. I personally know a young woman that was diagnosed intersex when her mother took her in about the growth of excessive facial hair. She has one ovary and one testicle that didn't drop. She produces 50-50, but the doctor says she could still have children if she wanted to.

This young woman was lucky. She had come out as a lesbian early in high school and her friends were all very accepting of her. When she learned about her intersex it wasn't a big deal to anybody.

[cynthia Hunter]

She was raised as a women thought she was( i think so too) so she should be able to race as one.
I get where they want it to be the most equal chance for all the players,but in this instance I think it was fair.

[Naidre ~ Wild Tide]

There are a lot of gender "issue" disorders. Intersexed only being one of many. If hormones aren't dispensed properly to the baby while in womb, many things can happen. Gender dysphoria, body of one sex, brain of the other, hermaphrodite and many different stages of intesex. Boothby, no it isn't just the body chemistry that determines whether you are a man or woman. It is a complex maze and one that I do not feel the Olympics or any athletic organization should get involved in.
We can say, well if she is actually a man than she had an advantage but is that truly fair???? Here is a person whose identity all her life was a female. She was raised a female, went to school as a female and knows she is a female and further is comfortable being a female! It isn't her fault that she has more testosterone than the "normal" female. There are also conditions that woman can have such as PCOS, which gives a woman more than normal amount of testosterone. She didn't take any steroids so therefore she should of been able to keep her title. I believe the only testing athletic organizations should do is for drugs and steroids.
This young lady has been put through too much public humiliation just because she loved to run and worked very hard to achieve her goals. That is the only thing she is guilty of and the other runners are sore losers. Is this something that we want our youth to concern themselves with? Do we want our youth to go to their coaches if they come in 2nd because they feel their opposition is more muscular therefore they can't possibly be a girl?
If there are any medical issues, gender issues, that is for the person, their family and their doctors not coaches and athletic organizations. A battery of tests, humiliating tests, no less, should not be performed on an athlete to determine their gender.

[Just-a-Writer]

"We can say, well if she is actually a man than she had an advantage but is that truly fair????"

This is a good point. Do we break the races down by height or muscle tone? I mean, a taller person has the advantage of a longer stride. Caster Semenya has many advantages that don't necessarily depend on her hormone levels. But that's why she's competing on that level instead of somebody like me. ;-)