Thursday, August 27, 2009

Man or Lady?

South African sprinting sensation Caster Semenya is too good.
After blowing away the field in the 800m race, opponents questioned Semenya's performance.

Now Semenya is being tested -- not for drugs -- for a dick.

Or as one article put it "to see if she meets the qualifications to compete as a female."

I think the qualifications to compete as a female should be the presence of a vagina.

The questions about Semenya may seem insulting but they're pretty sensible when you consider she was a virtual unknown in January, and now she is the world champion. She also has some physical characteristics of a man (facial structure and build) and a deeper voice than most 18-year old girls.

There's a few scenarios possible here:
1) she's a girl, and this whole thing is very embarrassing for her

That's an open and shut scenario, apologize and let her run

2) she's a dude given female hormones so she can compete as a lady, which is obvious cheating

This seems most likely to me, and would probably show up on tests as having an unnaturally high level of testosterone

3) she was born as some kind of unusual but not entirely unheard of intersexed person

This is most intriguing, and perhaps entirely possible. She could have what is called "ambiguous genitalia," which is usually an enlarged clitoris. Then DNA tests would have to determine if she has XX or XY chromosomes and if that should be the determining factor in deciding her gender and qualifications for competition.

Caster Semanya, man or lady?

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