Another gal with 20/20 vision wrote:
If sexual identity is fluid, then no line can be drawn to separate men and women. It's all blurred. Seriously, what percentage of male characteristics must one have to no longer be female? According to these nutjobs, the answer is ZERO. By taking this position, they are actually advocating for no separate divisions in sports. At this point, I'm all for it, just so this journalist and the rest of the useful idiots like her will be the persons responsible for the complete collapse of women's sports, not those of us with common sense and no agenda. What an accomplishment that will be. Good for you!!!
Sometimes, the absurd must happen before the truly dense are able to understand the obvious.
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I hear you. It amazes me that the feminists don't realize they are about to destroy women's sports as they know it. I get that feminism is all about breaking down barriers but you need a barrier in sports or the men would get all of the scholarships.
Well I've spent most of the day writing my final response to here. If you don't get a WTW this week, blame it on the email.
I certainly stand by my previous statements to you but will ad a few more.
I kindly ask that you give me your editor's name and contact info. I'd like to ask for a count-counterpoint column. I will definitely write a reply on my own website but would like to see it published on *********** as well.
I take great offense to the fact that you claim I'm leading a "bigoted" conversation regarding Caster Semenya that is full of "fearmongering". That's far from the truth. The only fearmongering is coming from you. You have repeatedly stated both on the phone and via email that I'm responsible for deaths and / or violence simply because I don't think Caster Semenya should be allowed to compete in the women's category at the Olympics. That is fearmongering at its finest. It reminds me of the arguments used by most ardent of segregationists back in the day.
(I am asking that you put the entire point in bold in the article)
Additionally, I have offered you to do either a guest column and/or podcast to present an opposing viewpoint on my website, but that offered was declined.
We have repeatedly stated that this is a "difficult and sensitive" topic and have always treated Semenya with respect and asked that others do so as well and have reiterated that she's done no wrong.
You seem to be most upset about the fact that we have used an "expert" opinion rather than peer-reviewed science to support our arguments to exclude Semenya from the women's category of professional track and field. The reason for that is simple. This is clearly a case where expert opinion, including our own spent from more than two decades at the highest level of the sport either as a coach, athlete or journalist, is ahead of the peer-reviewed science.
The fact of the matter is there aren't that many hyperandrogenic women and it's far from a lucrative field for a researcher to study. As a running expert, I've never read a peer-reviewed article telling me that high mileage training works either. I don't need to a scientific paper to prove to me that testosterone greatly enhances performance or that a talented athlete thought to have internal testicles and elevated T like Caster Semenya is, without hormone treatment, going to dominate XX athletes, and the developments of the last year prove that I was correct.
I want to refer you to a column we wrote last year when the CAS decision was announced. It a) shows you we have always called for Semenya to be treated with respect and b) shows that we basically predicted exactly what would happen from a performance level.
The fact that the Caster Semenya (and Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui whom I suspect are in a similar situation) has improved so much since the court lifted the hormone treatment requirement as well is very convincing that elevated testosterone levels greatly increase their performance. Here are their seasonal bests at this time last year (before the regulations were lifted) and now.
Semenya - 2:04.19 / 1:55.13
Niyonsaba - 2:05.45 /1:56.24
Wambui - 2:01.32/1:57.52
That's a STAGGERING amoutn of improvement for all three of them.
Similarly, if we knew the names of the hyperandrogenic women who opted to have their internal testicles removed, I'm confident you'd see their performance declined rapidly and never recovered to an elite level. Why? Because their bodies didn't have the testosterone.
As I stated before, there is no human right to compete in Olympic track and field. If you want to compete at that level, everyone agrees to give up some rights and agree to certain rules - you have to agree to make your whereabouts known 24/7 so you can be drug tested, you have to agree to blood and urine testing, you have to agree that only three people per country can compete in a certain event, etc.
Requiring someone like Caster Semenya, who is thought to be XY, to reduce her testosterone so she can compete in the protected women's category isn't an inhumane burden. She can politely decline to do so and compete on an amateur level like most athletes across the globe or she could try to compete professionally in the men's category (which maybe should be redefined as the "open" category). Her human right to be an athlete isn't being denied - just her access to the protected category of professional women's athlete.
Semenya has said she feels her right to "dignity and privacy" was violated. I've also heard it argued that its "inhumane" to subject any hyperandrogenic woman to testing or treatment and that it's an unwarranted and sexist invasion of their privacy. I disagree.
While I do feel Semenya's case was badly bungled in 2009, moving forward these cases with hyperandrogenic women can be handled in a way that is no more invasive than your standard drug test that all Olympic athletes agree to. Perhaps you are not aware but all Olympic level agree to have their intimate privacy violated as part of the drug testing movement. My brother routinely had to let a complete stranger stare at his penis (direct eye contact must be made) during drug testing.
Maybe I should end with a question for you, "Will you change your viewpoint if a peer-reviewed paper comes out showing that testosterone greatly improved Semenya's performance?"
-Robert
PS. The fact that we are debating whether testosterone greatly improves performance defies common sense. At age 5 and 6, men and women compete together on the same sports teams. At age 15 and 16, they do not.
