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<h1><b>Caster Semenya Aint 8 Feet Tall</b></h1><font size=3>August 27,
2009 By <b>Dave Zirin</b> <br><br>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22447" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22447<br><br>
</a>If you aspire to be a star woman athlete but have no aspirations to
appear in Playboy's Women of the Olympics issue, you are far better off
being from South Africa than the United States. The Western media's
handling of the story of Caster Semenya, the gold-medal-winning
18-year-old South African runner, has been at best simplistic and at
worst repellent. In a salacious, drooling tone, "Is she really a
he?" is the extent of their curiosity. On various radio shows, I've
been asked, "Why does she talk like a man?" No one defines what
"a man" is supposed to talk like. Or, "Do you think she's
really a dude? Is this a Crying Game thing?" I've heard it all this
week, and most of the questions say far more about the insecurities of
the questioners than about Semenya's situation.<br><br>
It's not just in the confederate confines of sports radio. I appeared on
Campbell Brown's CNN show, where my co-panelist, Dr. Jennifer Berman,
said that suspicion of Semenya's gender was justified because she is
"8 feet tall" (she's 5-foot-7). How an 18-year-old runner
became Yao Ming in Dr. Berman's mind was never addressed. This is
hysteria, pure and simple, and it is born out of people's own discomfort
with women athletes who don't conform to gender stereotypes. In South
Africa, however, the response could not be more different. Semenya was
greeted by thousands of people in a celebration that included signs and
songs from the antiapartheid struggle.<br><br>
She was even embraced by former South African first lady Winnie Mandela.
"We are here to tell the whole world how proud we are of our little
girl," Mandela told cheering fans. "They can write what they
like--we are proud of her."<br><br>
As Patrick Bond, a leading South African global justice activist, said to
me, "To order Semenya tested for gender seems about as reasonable as
ordering IAAF officials like Philip Weiss tested for brain cells--which
actually isn't a bad idea given his recent off-field performance. And if
Weiss doesn't have a sufficient number of brain cells to know how to
treat women athletes, it would only be fair to relieve him of his
functions for the good of world athletics."<br><br>
It's not just national political figures with global profiles who are
embracing Semenya.<br><br>
The people have rallied around her fiercely, particularly in the very
rural, impoverished, subsistence-farming community where Semenya was
raised. Her home village, Masehlong, has an unemployment rate near 80
percent. They only recently acquired electricity.<br><br>
As The Guardian recently wrote:<br><br>
The loyalty of Semenya's friends and neighbours is striking. South
Africa's rural communities are typically regarded as bastions of social
conservatism divided into traditional gender roles and expectations of
femininity. But there is no evidence that Semenya, an androgynous tomboy
who played football and wore trousers, was ostracised by her peers.
Instead, they are shocked at what they perceive as the intolerance and
prurience of western commentators. 'They are jealous,' said Dorcus
Semenya, the athlete's mother, who led villagers in jubilant singing and
dancing on Friday. "I say to them, go to hell, you don't know what
you're saying. They're jealous because they don't want black people
improving their status.' It perhaps shouldn't be so surprising that they
recognize the West's "intolerance and prurience." Unlike the
United States, South Africa has same-sex marriage.<br><br>
The Afican National Congress Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe
Mapisa-Nqakula, while arguing in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage,
said, "In breaking with our past...we need to fight and resist all
forms of discrimination and prejudice, including
homophobia."<br><br>
Unlike the United States', South Africa's Constitution formally prohibits
discrimination based on sexuality. The Constitution reads:<br><br>
The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against
anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy,
marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age,
disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
This does not to mean South Africa is some sort of Shangri-La for LGBT
people. But it does suggest the United States can stand to learn at thing
or two about discrimination and human sexuality.<br><br>
There is currently no definitive information regarding Semenya's sexual
orientation or gender choice. We know she identifies herself as an
18-year-old woman and she can run like the wind while not looking like a
conventional pinup.<br><br>
Unfortunately for women athletes, you can't be too masculine for fear
you'll be called a lesbian. You can't be too aggressive for fear that you
will be called mannish. You must be an outdated stereotype of a woman
before you are an athlete. You must market yourself as nonthreatening and
blazingly heterosexual.<br><br>
The most famous female athlete of the first half of the twentieth century
was Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson. She won three medals in
track and field in the 1932 Olympics and also became the standard for all
women golfers. Yet despite her towering athletic accomplishments,
Didrikson was denounced as "mannish," "not-quite
female" and a "Muscle Moll" who could not "compete
with other girls in the very ancient and time honored sport of
mantrapping."<br><br>
Hearing that in addition to track and field she also played basketball,
football and numerous other sports, an astonished journalist asked
Didrikson, "Is there anything you don't play?" Without missing
a beat, she reportedly answered, "Yeah, dolls."<br><br>
From Babe Didrikson to Caster Semenya, to paraphrase the ad for Virginia
Slims: you've come a long way... maybe.<br><br>
<br>
[Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the
United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by
emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at
edgeofsports@gmail.com.]<br><br>
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