Much Ado About Nothing

Via the Husband:

Have you heard about the big controversy surrounding 18-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya? On Wednesday she took the gold at the Athletics World Championship in Berlin. But her victory was tainted by rumors that she is/was male. And now, according to a BBC News article, the International Association of Athletics Federations is asking her to take a gender test.

Her family, the African National Congress, and South Africa's athletics federation have stood solidly behind her through the controversy:

"I know she's a woman — I raised her myself," the 18-year-old's grandmother told South Africa's Times newspaper.

The ruling ANC party congratulated Ms Semenya and called on South Africans to rally around "our golden girl".

"We condemn the motives of those who have made it their business to question her gender due to her physique and running style," the African National Congress said in a statement.

"Such comments can only serve to portray women as being weak."

[and]

Her 80-year-old grandmother Maphuthi Sekgala said Ms Semenya had been teased when younger for her boyish looks.

She was also the only girl in the football team in Fairlie, a village in South Africa's northern Limpopo Province, Ms Sekgala told The Times.

"If the teasing hurt her, she kept the hurt to herself and didn't show what she was feeling," she said.

What exactly does a gender test entail anyway? Question one, Do you have a penis? Question two, Do you sit down to pee? Question three, When you look at your fingernails do you look at the back of your hand with your fingers pointing up or look at your palm with your fingers curled over? Question four, Can you write your name in the snow with urine without using stencils? Question five, Do you blow out a match or shake it?

Sure she has some sexy man-arms, but then again look at Michelle Obama'a guns. One would think we were beyond the whole if a woman succeeds in athletics she must be a tranny or a dyke thing. And ultimately what does it matter if she were transgendered? Is having testicles a form a cheating in competitive sports? If anything, I'd think man-parts would serve as a sort of handicap in running, but what do I know.

Anyway, I wish her good luck on her test.