The Weakest Sex

This week there has been lots of discussions about sex, for once though not about the activity, but its more basic biological meaning what some people refer to as gender. The controversy surrounds Caser Semenya (Pictured) the 18 year old South African from a poor provincial town in the north of the country who swept to victory in the Women's 800m final at the World Championships in Berlin. Now this would merit at best a few sentences in the sports pages, but now thanks to the IAAF asking for a complex, and grim sounding, Gender test the 18 year old now finds herself at the centre of a media storm regarding what must be one of the most important and intermit factors to a person's sense of self. Apparently the rumour mill went into overdrive when Semenya came from seemingly nowhere and smashed the world leading time at the African Junior Championships. Quickly there was also rumours about the 18 year olds 'masculine build' and 'deep voice'. It is widely believe that IAAF are working on the basis that, while Semenya 100 per cent considers herself female, she may have a rare intersex condition where by she was born with the genitalia of a female but has the Chromosome make up of a male which can be seen to give her an unfair advantage. Its is believe that there are between 20 to 30 intersex conditions and not just of the most obvious kinds.

What is sad about this story is that it displays the status of intersex gender in both society and the human Psyche. Inevitability there has been an human freak show aspect angle applied to the story, a sniggering aspect, and even an awkwardness to it, the wish that such matters would just go away. The panel in the BBC studio did their best to deal with it sensibly but there was also an undeniable under current of awkwardness, the tabloids have had a field day with The Sun calling her 'the 800m and Two Veg' athlete, even more depressing were the comments left by readers 'can't they just look at her in the shower' rather missing the point about the complexities of intersex conditions. Semenya fellow competitors haven't exactly helped the situation apparently during the warm ups there has been blatant gossiping, pointing, and staring aim directly in the presence of Semenya herself. Sixth finishing Italian Elisa Piccione stated 'that for me she's not a woman' , this being base on rumour rather than fact and whatever the case Semenya clearer thinks she is a woman, for me Piccione is a bad loser. At least British bronze medalist Jane Meadows was more level headed saying 'if it's not true i feel really sorry for her'.

Whether the doubts about her gender do turn out to be true or not, Semenya insists she is 100 per cent female, or even if it turns out she has an intersex condition I feel sorry for her. Mud sticks, people won't remember the great runner they will remember, and some will snigger, about that athlete who had doubts raised about her gender, or if it does turn out semenya is intersex there will be those who will inevitable never see her as a woman and refer to her 'as that man' One more issue this episode has brought up is the attitude towards successful women in sport, they have always been labelled masculine, remember Martin Navratilova, the very feminine Williams sisters have already been mentioned in the comments of readers in newspapers 'someone needs to check out the Williams Sisters while there at it' said one sun reader, they have repeatably been refer to as men on comedy panel shows, maybe its just that middle aged men don't like wealthy famous successful female athletes.

One more example this week of the lower status of transgender and intersex people comes from the New York Post, about the horrific killings of a transgender woman in Syracuse NY, the tactful headline 'New York Man Gets 25 Years for Tranny Slay' can you imagine any other murder getting such as cheap headline? Also normally with murder stories you get good and bad comments about the awfulness of the crime what should happen to the killer, for this story there were none.