intenserunner wrote:
[quote]OLD SMTC SOB wrote:
Spot on. The real question is "why does she get to classify herself as a female in the first place?". How did she get in this category? Because she has a vagina instead of a penis? Is that what makes a female a female? What about her makes her claim of being "female" legitimate? Cannot any guy surgically remove their penis and call themselves a girl? Is it somehow any different if you are born with a missing penis?
Some great comments on this thread -- none by Let's Run, though. I find the LR editorial stance on this issue quite simplistic and, frankly, sophomoric. They are usually better than this, but on this one LR you are sadly lacking.
"baseball2" made a great point: What if a man is born with a substantial physical advantage over all other men, to the point were he is almost inhuman? Would he be allowed to compete? YES. That is pretty much the world class.
"acebond" made a great comment on the legal wrongheadedness of the recent IAAF rule-making. This challenge by Semenya will win -- and rightly so. The IAAF is looking to make this problem go away with a Draconian, unfair rule that is an easy way out. Unfortunately the IAAF cannot see that it has a great opportunity here to make history in modern sport -- but rather it would like to try and turn the clock back to the days when intersex people lived in shame and isolation. "Thanks" IAAF and Seb Coe for not serving your constituents -- and that would be all who want to enjoy Athletics/T&F. And it's interesting in that IAAF declares as a deliverable that it's in favour of sport for all, and inclusion! :(
Re, the quote above from intenserunner, in the case of those surgically altering themselves to cross into the current "Women's" category, then it's easy to monitor that. Conversely, Semenya is (rightly) claiming she should be able to compete as she was born and identifies. Nobody should have to be subjected to life-altering chemical interventions (I would argue that consequent mental health problems would arise) in order to compete as one socially identifies. (on that point, we cannot, cannot take sport out of society as some sort bubble or incubator -- sport and society has, is, and will continue to be intimately intertwined)
In the case of someone born without a penis, and proceeded to tend toward the traditional societal label of girl/woman, then using our current binaryism, they would compete on that side of the (traditional) divider. And this individual and individuals such as Caster could compete until society pointed out that a review of categorization is necessary -- and that is where we sit at present.
Comprehensive stakeholder consultations to consider additional competition categories should be the next step in this process -- not the preservation of traditional categories through the use of inhumane chemical alteration, as the IAAF is currently seeking.