Caster Semenya. Her name may not mean anything to you, but she has been, for last several months, the poster child for all the issues we face when we spend time busily arranging boxes for boys and girls. She has been derided in the press and she has been barred from her sport (Ms. Semenya is an athlete, specifically a runner) because people questioned her physical prowress. She could not be a girl. She must be a boy. She runs too well.
What?
Sports clearly defines the differences between men and women and keeps those two categories pretty well on lockdown. Besides the fact that individuals who are, in fact, intersexed would have difficulty passing international athletic commissions, the ability to determine one's specific gender, and the need to have an individual undergo primitive and often sexist tests to determine what the sex of the person actually is hangs like a pall over the athletic/sports community. Sports, often seen as a male dominated world, must reinforce the norms which we have come to expect.
I suggest, that perhaps we should be looking at comparing ability with ability and not genitalia to genitalia. Does it matter whether they are all boys or all girls, if they have similar strengths, agilities, etc. Does having a penis or a vagina make you a better athlete? Though hormones certainly play a role in our development and musculature, is that not all the more reason why the individuality of the human condition should demand using ability as a better gauge of competitive measure...certainly more than penises and vaginas?
Just a thought.
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