Man or Woman?

[Cole Parker]

There is a controversy brewing in the world of Track. Caster Semenya just set a world record in the woman's 800 m at the IAAF World Championship race. Now, some are wondering if she's a woman, or a man.

Here's a picture of her. How could anyone possibly think this isn't a woman? I ask you!

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/South-Africa...9458f67564e33a3

C

[Trab]

If all women looked like that, being straight might actually be an option, at least for the preliminaries.

[Bruin Fisher]

I feel sorry for her. There doesn't seem to be any suggestion that she's fraudulently competing as a woman knowing full well she's a man, she was brought up as a girl - and after all, she's only 18 now. So the likelihood, if she's not just a very masculine-shaped woman, is that in infancy her gender wasn't well defined and she was wrongly identified as female.

If that's so then I worry about how traumatic it will be for an eighteen-year-old to have the world's press howling with delight about her personal problems - and if the gender test identifies her as male, how is she, or he, going re-adjust in the glare of the world's scrutiny and condemnation? I hope she has a loving support structure around her, because otherwise she's going to crumple.

I blame the national athletics authority - don't they conduct a thorough medical on all athletes before putting them up as national representatives in international competition? A 'Y' chromosome would be a good clue... (that's if a set of danglers don't give the game away!)

[Cole Parker]

There was a comprehensive article in the LA Times today concerning Caster.

Turns out, deciding if someone is male or female isn't as straightforward as one might imagine. The physiology can be confusing, and chromosome testing isn't as conclusive as it was formerly thought to be.

The prevailing thought at the moment is that a person of ambivalent gender may compete as a female if her performance isn't enhanced by her complicated body chemistry. Which sounds a bit like they're saying the line between male and female is difficult to define, and the definition doesn't help that much is making rules for athletic competition.

Obviously, people who fall into this niche have had and will have problems in life, they most likely have had a traumatic childhood, and for that reason certainly deserve our sympathy. I totally agree with Bruin. Many people have and deal with problems the rest of us have escaped.

C

[DesDownunder]

If this isn't a gender challenged person then I'll show my arse on the town hall steps!

All muscle and no tits at all.

The outcome will be most interesting.

They said the same thing about Australia's Olympic swimmer, Dawn Fraser way back when I was kid. She had muscles all over the place.

Turned out she was a lesbian and proud of it.

[The Pecman]

Caster's voice is also somewhat deep, and I think this is what concerns some judges. My suspicion is that she used human growth hormone at some point, which has reduced her estrogen level and enhanced her muscular development. (This would also explain her wide shoulders and somewhat-masculine physique.)

I don't doubt she was born a woman, but there's something not quite right here. I suspect this story won't end happily.

[Cole Parker]

The LA Times article suggested it was more than growth hormones, which, as she was very poor when growing up, seems an unlikely cause as she wouldn't have had access to them. The article suggested ambiguous genitalia, in which case her performance issues have nothing to do with any choices she made.

I didn't link the article, but it's fascinating if anyone is interested. Here's the link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...0,3926576.story

C

[The Pecman]

...which, as she was very poor when growing up, seems an unlikely cause as she wouldn't have had access to them.

Actually, you only need to take HGH for about a six-month period prior to a competition, then give it time for the side-effects to fade and the trace elements to get absorbed by the system. That way, the drugs aren't as easily detected by officials using drug tests. This is exactly what certain American baseball players have done over the past ten years.

HGH or anabolic steroids aren't necessarily the type of drug the user would have had to use for years and years. In fact, if they did try that, I think they'd wind up fairly misshapen and weird looking, even risking the development of cancer and other diseases.

Testosterone is another "all-natural" drug that some athletes have tried, and it does immediately provide better muscle growth and other benefits. But the side effects (facial hair and baldness for women, testicular shrinkage for men) aren't worth the risks for some athletes.