Caster Semenya Hermaphrodite
The media has been boiling around the latest news on Caster Semenya and the results of her sex tests.
She is a hermaphrodite, which refers to the combination of female and male sexual organs.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has yet to confirm these results, however, whoever has watched Semenya run knows that her body, not only her abilities, do not immediately resemble that of a woman’s.
So the question is, when these results do become confirmed, what will become of Caster Semenya? Will she be ousted by the athletic federation and prohibited from competing as a woman? Will she be allowed to compete as a woman after hormone treatment to reduce her testosterone levels and even surgery to remove her internal testicles? And if she agrees to this, will she be able to compete on the level she has so far? The answer is no.
If she undergoes anti-androgen therapy to correct her condition, her masculinity, strength and endurance will decrease, and she will no longer be able to compete at her current levels. Since testosterone is directly related to athletic performance, it would be unfair for any woman to compete with her, in the same manner that injecting testosterone (a form of doping) is also unfair.
After IAAF confirms the sex test results, the IAAF’s actions will have the potential of turning this into an identity debate of what it means to be a woman or a man and where those identities become blurred.