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Caster Semenya: How to define a woman

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Caster Semenya is once again in the spotlight - not for her running achievements, but because of gender issues. Picture: Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images
Caster Semenya is once again in the spotlight - not for her running achievements, but because of gender issues. Picture: Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images

The ongoing convoluted saga of Caster Semenya has raised the question: What is the definition of a genuine woman?

In 2009 she was forced to submit to sex-verification tests to determine whether she was legitimately female and could continue to participate in female athletic events. However, now she has been obliged to protect her future career by taking the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to court over their continued attempts to enforce rules demanding that female athletes submit to the chemical lowering of their testosterone if they exceed some arbitrary level – chemicals, probably harmful, almost certainly unethical.

The IAAF Council of 27 members, headed by president Sebastian Coe – himself a previous gold winner at the Olympics – with a majority of men, presumably mostly heterosexual, have assumed the prerogative rigidly to define female sexuality, attempting to provide a solution to the conundrum of women who do conform to their categories.

Their definition labels Semenya as a victim of a medical condition named “hyperandrogenism” rendering her defective, not a normal, or average, woman. They claim these elevated levels of testosterone provide an unfair advantage against other “normal” women competitors, thus jeopardising her continued participation in Olympic sport.

To “level the playing fields”, ensuring “fairness” for all female competitors, she and other women discovered with naturally occurring higher hormone levels, have been subjected to demeaning “tests” to prove whether they are “real” women. Repeatedly referred to as being too “masculine”, one wonders what other tests might be devised to define acceptable femininity.

No male competitors have been subjected to similar “masculinity” tests and accused of having an unfair advantage because of higher-than-average testosterone levels.

Although scientists are naturally interested in possible reasons for these not-so-unusual differences – more or less testosterone, possibly caused by the unusual action of male hormones early in foetal development – ultimately, does it matter? Is it imperative to assign some medical label to anyone who does not conform to the average gender identifiers?

In the bad old apartheid days, the police applied their own “test” to determine whether a woman was lesbian, and thus subject to prosecution by obliging her to strip to check whether she wore more “male” items of clothing and underwear than “female”. A woman’s classification as normal, was determined by the tastes and prejudices of some ignorant state official.

It seems ironic that the description “masculine”, frequently used as a derogatory term for certain women, actually expresses what many would regard as desirable characteristics for all authentic persons to aspire to: courage, confidence, robustness, upright, rational, principled.

This meddling with a person’s body, and very identity, can be regarded as what feminist Adrienne Rich termed “compulsory heterosexuality”, which combined with the related term “heterosexism”, exposes a patriarchal desire to reduce all women to subordination, defining every woman by her relationship to a male, as wife and mother. Regarding heterosexuality as the norm relegates all alternative sexual expression to deviance, justifying coercion, even violence, to discourage such transgressions.

What definition of woman is acceptable to masculinist, stereotypical notions – the heavily made-up, manicured, flamboyant siren, or a compliant, sweet “girl” amenable to submitting her life to the ideology of femininity? Are these qualities natural to, or characteristic of, all women, providing a reliable benchmark by which to judge “normal” or “average”?

History reveals a host of independent, inspirational figures of womanhood, committed to building a better world for all its inhabitants – making their mark on history, challenging societal requirements and expectations. Athena, protector of Athens, ancient city of art and the birth of democracy; Draupadi, outspoken against male abuse; Elizabeth I, scholar and Virgin Queen; Hildegaard of Bingen, abbess, poet, artist, musician, scientist; Mary Wollstonecraft; Emmeline Pankhurst; Betty Friedan; Olive Schreiner; Frida Khalo; Virginia Woolf; Maya Angelou; Alice Walker; Nawal el Saadawi; Vandana Shiva; Wangari Maathai; Ellen Kuzwayo; Graça Machel; Thuli Madonsela.

These determined, principled women never imagined their identity was determined by their relationships with men.

The absurdity of male-dominated stereotypes of gender was initially exposed by feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, who contested simplistic notions of womanhood and sexuality, arguing that contemporary concepts of sex and gender present no stable identity; both being socially constructed. She maintained: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilisation as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.”

Conventional notions of gender and sexuality fluctuate depending on context, perpetuating the traditional domination of women by men; also justifying the oppression of all gender nonconforming people.

So, it is time to stop trying to manipulate and “emasculate” Caster, allowing her the freedom to perform to the best of her exceptional ability. Applaud and celebrate her as a national sporting treasure, a role model for all courageous, aspiring women, determined to persevere and overcome all adversity devised by masculinist proclivities.

Diesel has a doctorate in religious studies from the University of Natal

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