Blog blast past: Don't run so fast with the Semenya stuff

South African runner Caster Semenya has been cleared to resume competing. Remember all the controversy late in the summer of 2009, all the wannabe biologists making jokes she was a man? Of course you do. Here's a told-ya-so post from Sept. 10, 2009.

It seemed to shut-the-hell-up on the Caster Semenya saga. No one needs another white, heteronormative dude rambling about a subject he knows little about — middle-distance running, never mind gender issues.

Anyway, it seemed worth saying don't buy all the hype about the Australian report that Semenya is a "hermaphrodite, someone with both male and female sexual characteristics."

Well, not so fast. It kind of leapt off the page when a Digital Journal article noted that "despite having higher than normal levels of testosterone in her urine samples, she is still within the ranges allowed for women in sports." Meantime, via Deadspin, where some gentrification has taken place since Tommy Craggs moved in, The Science of Sport noted that it is not so cut-and-dried:

"Even if all this were true, it still does not necessarily mean that she will be disqualified from future events. There are conditions which are allowable, which would see Semenya being able to compete after surgery (the surgery, by the way, is for health reasons. If you have internal testes, then they can become cancerous, and so must be removed. This might explain their desire to get hold of her, with ASA" — Athletics South Africa — "standing in the way).

"The point is that even if the article is accurate, and the source is reliable, the actual decision around Semenya would not necessarily be disqualification."

Please do not take this too literally since it's an amateur observation (I squeaked by in science), but all the "three times the normal level of testosterone" stuff feels like it is out of context. Like Craggs says, there are genetic freaks in every sport. No doubt most elite female athletes have much more testosterone than the average female. A NFL linebacker would produce more than the average accountant.

Meantime, like the Science of Sport dudes said when all this blew up three weeks ago, " ... genitalia are so ambiguous, that trained medical doctors will disagree and debate for hours over whether someone is male or female, even when that person is already a teenager. Final year medical students, when shown pictures of ambiguous genitalia, and asked to vote 'male' or 'female,' are often wrong!"

Point being, there is still plenty of reason to be skeptical, and maybe people should stop acting like they learned biology from the Season 1 South Park episode where Eric Cartman finds out his mother is also his father. It is probably beside the point to note this does betray the "great in history and English, but bad at math and science" journalist stereotype, or to slag those who have hang their arse on doing a mindless cut-and-paste rather than being smart enough to think for themselves, or realize something is beyond their grasp.

The Lloyd Dobler adage from Say Anything — "I don't know, but I know that I don't know" is a good adage. Gender is more fluid than the labels female and male. Is that so hard for people to understand?

The IAAF has encountered these cases before and will do so again in the future. The furor over Caster Semenya has seemed overblown. Besides, let's be honest, since when did the mass of sports fans anyone care who won an 800-metre race, female or male? It's not the 100, 200, or the marathon. It's too in-between, pun intended.

Blog blast past: Semenya was such a freak, you heard it a thousand times that week (and NOW?)

South African runner Caster Semenya has been cleared to resume competing. Remember all the controversy late in the summer of 2009, all the wannabe biologists making jokes she was a man? Of course you do. Here's a told-ya-so post from Nov. 19, 2009.

From the department of "told you so," the South African runner Caster Semenya is keeping her gold medal from the world championships.

Or have people already forgotten about how, for a couple weeks in late August and early September, suddenly everyone fancied herself/himself an expert on gender determination? The temptation is to paraphrase from Jon Lajoie's Michael Jackson Is Dead video ("You fuckin' hypocrites," extremely NSFW). Anyway, point being, whatever is still to come out about Semenya, the fact remains the way some people who should know better reacted is kind of mortifying.

Anyway, a quick google turned up a blog post from U.S. runner Jill Geer, "The myth of fairness meets the question of gender," which is pretty illuminating. She notes that now-infamous photo of Semenya flexing at the finish line (which is just strange since a runner's stock-in-trade is her legs and lung capacity) and her choice of coach did not do her any favours. But still...

"Reading about (Semenya's) case has been an eye-opening education for me as I've learned about the incredible varieties of genetics that cause huge variations in what is male and female. It's like learning that it's not always day and night; it's often dusk and dawn. Until you read about and understand the science, it is hard to understand why the case isn't clear-cut.

"Of course, the uncertainty only makes the issue more tragic. If I were an athlete who finished behind Semenya, I would feel bitterly angry and cheated. If I were Caster Semenya, I'd feel equally cheated, and perhaps even more so: I'd feel I'd been cheated not out of a medal but out of my right to enjoy my life. Not only has her performance been called into question, but her entire life has been made the subject of intense public debate, cruel jokes and salacious rumor-mongering. In a classic bit of side-show grotesquery, she was even trotted out in sequins for a South African women's magazine.

These are just a few reasons to feel angered by the whole affair, but if Semenya was put in a position to compete when people close to her knew there might be an issue regarding her sex, it is even more infuriating.

"... Erin Buzuvis of the Western New England School of Law in October delivered a paper entitled 'Caster Semenya, Sex, and the Myth of a Level Playing Field.' While I don't necessarily agree with many of her assertions, that she attempts to lay out a rational argument as much as possible is to be lauded.

"... Even if competition is divided along the lines of sex, she argues, there is inherent natural variation and "unfairness" within the sexes. What is fair, and is it possible and desirable to try to create fairness when there is no such thing as a truly level playing field in sport? To wit, some women have naturally higher testosterone, and more strength, than others. Some runners have grown up at altitude and therefore have an advantage in distance running. Some athletes are wealthy and can afford training aids that others can't."

Whatever happens, happens, one would hope the reaction is a little more mature next time.