Recently South African track star, Semenya Caster has been embroiled in controversy. People were challenging her gender. They thought she won because she was a biological male. With righteous indignation, her family members came to her defense vouching for her having been born female. She got all dolled up for the cover of a magazine.
Ok, the results of the lab tests are back. It has been determined that Semenya Caster is a hermaphrodyte. It has been reported that she possesses neither a womb, nor ovaries but produces higher than normal levels of testosterone to be considered fully female. Nor does she have enough male genetic markers to be considered fully male. She has been living her life as a female. They will allow her to retain her medals, but will be banned from future competition. She is considered male enough to be stronger than her female competitors, yet female enough to not qualify to compete against male runners. In the world of sports, it's black & white. There is no third category.
I cannot imagine the pain she must feel. I had the opportunity to learn the story of a YouTuber who is a hermaphrodite. She said that doctors informed her parents of her condition as a baby. They asked the parents which sex they would prefer to assign to their child. The father wanted a boy, so the raised her male. When puberty occurred, this person who was raised male got her period. She decided to continue to live her life as a female. She was ostracized by her family for her choice. She was homeless for a time. She does makeup tutorials on YouTube. I was very moved by the story.
According to the medical dictionary,
here is the definition of HERMAPHRODYTE
hermaphrodite
an individual whose body contains tissue of both male and female gonads. The ovaries and testes may be present as separate organs, or ovarian and testicular tissue may be combined in the same organ (ovotestis). The ovarian and testicular tissues may be present at the same time (synchronous hermaphrodite) or sequentially (when the sex organs appear one after the other; protandrous when the testes come first, protogynous when the ovaries appear first)
hermaphrodite
source of info
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Semenya-withdraws-from-race-amidst-reports-she-s?urn=oly,188930
What are your thoughts?
It's not good for her but then again it would not have been fair to the other women for her to compete. It's just not a level playing field based on her current physical makeup. Her unusual genetics and her high level of testoterone which they believe exceeds 3 times what a woman produces, she has a advantage that the other women don't have. It is unfortunate that her levels were not high enough for her to compete with the males, if she wanted to have that option.
ReplyDeletei agree. i am still sad for her & people who share her condition. adam & eve jacked us up BIGTIME!
ReplyDelete