The Running of the Genders

The issues involving Caster Semenya, the gold medal runner who has been asked to undergo genetic testing, are complicated and multi-layered, and lay bare many of the assumptions we hold about gender.

First there is the simple question of why she is suspected of being a man at all, which is apparently simply that she looks “mannish.” Russian runner Mariya Savinova is quoted as saying “Just look at her.” Well, here’s a picture:

It is true that Semenya could pass for a man here and in many pictures of her. But how much of that is based in cultural expectations of femininity? There are many women who have small breasts and a straight figure (especially athletes, who have worked off the fat that provides those feminine features). We expect female athletes to play up their femininity with long hair and makeup. In fact, if you do a goggle search on “female Olympic athlete” and look at the images, the results are disturbing–most of the images show athletes posed in openly sexual poses or holding babies. Even those that simply show the athlete pursuing her sport have an objectifying title. For example, this photo was connected to an article entitled “Sexiest Olympic Athletes” and yet I don’t see a huge difference between this photo and the one above:

Christine Arron, French track and field star

Both these athletes have ripped abs and strong arms, both have short hair and high cheekbones. In fact, the major “feminine” feature I see in Arron’s picture is her smile, yet she’s a “sexy” athlete and Semenya is being subject to genetic testing. What these pictures point up is how much of femininity is performative–if Semenya had braids and wore lipstick when she ran, the questions (if there were questions at all) would be about steroids, not chromosomes.

But I want to assume for a moment that there’s a valid reason for testing Semenya, because I want to ask what those tests would even show. Most of the media (especially the sports shows) treat the tests like a simple true/false: either she’s a woman or she’s a man. But of course, it’s not nearly that simple. First of all, what level of sex is being tested here? Chromosomal? Hormonal? Second, just how “female” does Semenya need to be? Scientists have known for decades that the sex chromosomes can be faulty–XXX or XXY, for example, instead of XY or XX. What if Semenya is found to have a genetic abnormality? Does this make her a man, despite her physical body, upbringing and personal beliefs? Or does it only make her a man in terms of track and field. Do we start testing all athletes and only allow those with “normal” sex chromosomes to compete? And how much advantage would a genetic abnormality even give?

Which leads to my last point. If Semenya had not been so successful, there would have been no controversy; if she’d been middle of the pack, she could have peed standing up after the race and no one would have cared. It only matters because she won. Yet her time of of 1.55.45 is well off the male record of 1.41.11. So while Semenya is an elite female runner, she’s middle of the pack as a man. How good does a woman have to be before it’s assumed she’s a man? If Semenya had won in a photo finish, would the same controversy be swirling around her?