While the IAAF has been backing and filling on the Caster Semenya case, many of us have been waiting for the IOC shoe to drop. Yesterday the shoe dropped. In Miami Beach, a panel of so-called “experts” convened by the IOC and the IAAF has announced from their imperial heights, “Athletes who identify themselves as female but have medical disorders that give them masculine characteristics should have their disorders diagnosed and treated.”
In 1999, when the IOC finally agreed to end the old regime on gender testing — after decades of growing outrage and resistance from athletes — it was clearly a case of “too good to be true.” Because the bugaboo of “gender,” and the sports world’s refusal to deal with it realistically, has not gone away. Over the last decade, it has gotten bigger and uglier. What Caster Semenya is being put through is a Joan of Arc type inquisition over gender. And now the IOC wants to do it to a lot of other women.
The experts insist that they aren’t being “unfair” — that they’re only concerned about “athlete health.” They said that these “disordered” athletes should be allowed to compete…but only if they agree to treatment. In other words, women’s eligibility will now be determined on a case-by-case basis. Photographs of women athletes would be looked at. Any that look “too “masculine” will be shunted into actual testing to determine if a “disorder” is present, and recommendations for “treatment” would be made. If they don’t agree, they can’t compete.
I find the IOC proposal outrageous, and their stated concern for health is baloney. But perhaps its very outrageousness will make it self-destruct in a few years. Aside from how unscientific it is to refer to intersex as a “disorder,” I will hope that widespread athlete outcry will once again put an end to this amped-up and extra-punitive new policy of testing.
The current Caster Semenya inquisition was fueled by the fact that a few women who got beat by her complained that she was “too masculine.” The new proposal would open the floodgates to complaints by sore losers. After all, the question of who looks “too masculine” starts in the imagination of the beholder. What country fielding an international team would resist the temptation to complain about So-and-So from another country who may be able to beat their women because she looks a teensy-bit too narrow-hipped and muscular? Especially given the fact that intersex women are a larger percentage in sports than they do in the general population? The IOC may be so swamped by complaints, and by the resulting investigations, that the whole program might prove to be not only politically dangerous but also logistically unworkable.
It’s all very well for some women to feel that athletes like Semenya have an unfair advantage. But Caster was just one woman. What will happen to international competition, politically, if numbers of women now have their careers disrupted by their gender being inquisitioned?
Oh, and who will pay for all this testing and treatment? And the inevitable lawsuits? Caster Semenya now has her own battery of lawyers, and somebody is paying their tab. I’ll bet that the Semenya boondoggle has cost the IAAF and South Africa millions of dollars already, and it’s not over yet. Multiply it by a couple dozen in a year, and it could break the bank. One of the reasons that the IOC stopped the old gender-testing on all women competitors was because of the colossal expense. And even if a women were found to need a “required” treatment, like surgical removal of undescended testes, how many of them could afford it?
The final question: whether men’s photos should be looked at, for evidence of “too feminine.”
It’s clear that this obsession about women’s gender is being driven by more than allegations of “unfair advantage.” It’s being driven by widespread cultural discomfort over how some women look when they’re out there in front of the TV cameras. The fact is, victory in men’s competition doesn’t always depend on muscles and strength. There are men out there who frankly don’t look all that “masculine.” In some sports, a distinctive absence of “masculine” characteristics might actually give a guy an “unfair” advantage over other men. Like in figure skating, where a more feminine physique can give him extra flexibility and ability to execute artistic moves. Indeed, figure skating has been rumbling for years about an alleged “need” to make the sport more “masculine.”
So the whole male arena of sport — and the egos and careers of male athletes — have, so far, been rigorously protected from gender scrutiny. In my opinion, this scrutiny should now happen. It’s only fair that the torture instruments of cultural discomfort about gender appearance be applied to men as well. And I’ll bet that, if enough male competitors — and the nations sending them out there — were to find themselves being figuratively “burned at the stake, ” and the gold-medal prospects of a few outstanding male athletes destroyed, the way Semenya’s might have been, the outcry would be such that the IOC will hastily backtrack.
I hope the IOC and IAAF wake up to how ridiculous and inhumane they’re being.
on Jan 22nd, 2010 at 12:40 PM
The IOC rules are extremely clear in cases of transgendered athletes. If the transition occurred after puberty, the athlete must wait two years, have submitted to the proper hormone treatment, and submitted to removal of the gonads. See:
http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/imported/36983.pdf
Having said that, I’m not surprised they are addressing the same concerns with intersexed athletes. As contained in the transgendered athlete policy, the IAAF is very clear that any condition which would provide a female athlete a distinct advantage in competition over other biological females is a violation of the policy. Extending the policy to intersexed athletes ought to result in similar results based on the existing policy for MtF althetes.
In Caster’s case, she has no womb, no ovaries, and her testosterone levels are THREE times higher than those of an average female. How is this fair to the other female athletes competing? Do we allow them to take testosterone boosters to even the playing field?
If it’s not fair to expect an intersexed athlete who presents and competes as female to submit to surgical procedures, then we allow non-intersexed women to take drugs to make it fairer? Or just say “well, too bad, just try harder next season, even though there isn’t anything you can do to make yourself good enough to win because you are a biological female and she is not?”
Would Ms. Caster have won had her testosterone levels been so high? Her time improved by almost 25 seconds in a short period of time. It’s a fair question, and one the IAAF and IOC have to address. This was not about, as the writer of this post put it, jealousy or a female who appeared to masculine, that’s a very poor summation of the controversy. The suggestion that she submit to genetic testing came after she was shown to have made dramatic improvements over her own personal bests in a ridiculously short period of time. Her improvements were clear indications of the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In this case, it turns out that she is intersexed.
Either way, it has to be addressed, like it or not.
on Jan 22nd, 2010 at 12:59 PM
What they are clearly doing is abandoning the participation categories of “men” and “women” and are now embracing “female” and “open.”
They’ve essentially created a “special class” that athletes can opt to participate in called “female.” If you can’t fit into their regulations for the “female” class, then you must participate in the “open” category, for which there is only testing for PEDs.
Let the witch hunts start all over again…
on Jan 22nd, 2010 at 6:32 PM
Response to DR:
First of all, the IAAF hasn’t made an official report on Semenya’s testing, so we don’t know whether the media’s allegations about womb, ovaries, testosterone, etc. are true. In fact, as I understand the IAAF’s regulations, they are required to keep the investigation results confidential.
So we may never know what her medical facts are. Right now, she and her lawyers are still negotiating with the IAAF.
Second, that “three times the testosterone” in the media (IF it’s true, and we don’t know that) is only meaningful when you compare it to the levels in men. The typical man has 15 times the testosterone that a woman does, on a daily basis. So if this 3X figure is correct for Semenya, it’s questionable whether this makes her a real “masculine” threat to other women runners.
The whole testosterone question is complex, especially when balancing male and female performances, and I don’t trust the media statement at all — it sounds like a convenient sound bite, not a statement of complex fact. Yet so many people are using to make up their minds about Semenya.
One other concern was whether she had been using steroids. I’m sure that was covered in the IAAF testing too. But that’s another matter entirely.
You might want to read up on the Semenya case at The Science of Sport, a website run by two South African scientists who are also former athletes
http://www.sportsscientists.com/search/label/Caster%20Semenya
Their discussions and analysis are intelligent, and and up to date…and free of media sensationalism.
on Jan 22nd, 2010 at 7:01 PM
While the IAAF has not made an “official” ruling, we all know that the results were leaked, and we know she’s intersexed. I personally think the leaks are pretty accurate, including the leaks about testes. Lawyers can negotiate all they want, but the fact of the matter is that none of the official federations have denied the leaked results, only made statements that “we refuse to comment”. Nothing has been officially denied, and in lawyer speak that usually means someone is on to something. If it were as simple as steroids, those results would have been released immediately due to the high-profile nature of this case.
Caster herself is three times the normal limit for women. The fact of the matter is that that three times the normal amount enabled her to increase her run times in a manner in which a biological woman would have been unable to do so without the assistance of performance enhancing drugs; 25 seconds in the 1500 and 8 seconds in the 800, and it’s believed those gains were made in about nine months. That too significant to attribute to just good training; clearly her intersexed biology has given her an advantage over biological women.
You are confusing the standards. Just because her testosterone levels are not at the same level of an average man does not mean she is not possessed of an unfair advantage. Her testosterone levels have to be measured against those of other women, and she is performing with a significantly higher level than a normal woman. That’s where the comparison comes in. She has testes; her body produces more testosterone than a woman because of that. That is the standard by which she has to be evaluated, not using the biological male standard. The biological female standard. If you think that having three times the normal level of testosterone in her body does not give her an advantage, the numbers and improvements would certainly prove that it does.
on Jan 22nd, 2010 at 7:47 PM
Intersexed athletes who otherwise present as female may in fact have an unfair advantage over undisputed females. (Androgen insensitivity syndrome is a potential counterexample.) The converse would not be the case with males due to decreased testosterone production.
If you’re really concerned about unequal playing fields, let me know when you start writing impassioned blog posts about unrelated classes’ being combined at the Paralympic Games. Unless you’re playing favourites.
Incidentally, at what point did you Americans decide that Patricia Nell Warren was the arbiter of gay sport, or even qualified to comment?
on Jan 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 PM
Joe, not all of us consider her an expert.
Jim and Clyde will need to provide an explanation, methinks.
on Jan 23rd, 2010 at 8:54 AM
On behalf of the Organisation Intersex International, I wish to thank you for this very good analysis. Would it be possible for OII to have permission to publish this on our website?
Kind regards,
Curtis E. Hinkle
Founder of the Organisation Intersex International
on Jan 23rd, 2010 at 10:37 AM
Dear Curtis Hinkle, You have my permission to publish this piece at Organisation Intersex International’s website. Thanks so much for your interest. — Patricia Nell Warren
on Jan 23rd, 2010 at 10:40 AM
Further to Curtis Hinkle — Though I own the copyright for what I publish in Outsports, you’ll want to check with Outsports as a courtesy, and make sure you credit them as the original publisher.
on Jan 23rd, 2010 at 11:23 AM
THE CASE OF CASTER SEMENAYA AND IAAF GENDER TESTING
During the last 43 years the IAAF has been conducting GENDER TESTING, as has the IOC, leaving behind a gruesome trail
of abused and mistreated athletes, broken careers and broken lives.
In their frightful ignorance they have been playing god, deciding over human beings, not concerning sport, but concerning the very nature of human beings, by what method they, in their hopeless stupidity, have seen fit at any given time, changing their methods all along as soon as one method after the other was deemed wrong and useless.
The leaders and their medical “experts” have acted as the witch doctors of modern time.
And now at last, after all these years, the ivory towers of these self appointed gods and kings have collapsed and their wrongdoings have been disclosed to all the world. With the CASTER SEMENAYA case they have finally been forced to admit that they do not know how to decide the gender of a human being !!
That is what I have been telling them ever since 2003, but they refused to listen, and when I persisted, they refused me my democratic right of speaking at the IAAF Congress.
And mind you, it is today the general assumption among experts who are dealing with this issue that 1 out of 2000 is born with some kind of INTERSEX CONDITION, so it is not only about Caster Semenaya – IT IS A GLOBAL ISSUE.
In the ASSOCIATED PRESS release below is stated that:
“The IAAF PLANS to develop a gender definition”
“It would have been better if we had been prepared to, but we were not prepared(*)”, Weiss told The Associated Press on Saturday”.
(* prepared as to how to perform gender testing)
And now they will “start next week to examine how to determine gender”.
WHAT ! – NEXT WEEK ?!
This comes after the IAAF (and the IOC) for 43 years have been stating that they knew how to do it, and have been executing, all through these years, their mumbojumbo on innocent athletes.
How can these people remain in charge of international athletics and international sport ?
Georg Facius
Denmark
See the whole story, and all the background information on:
http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/gender_testing
HERE IS THE SHAMEFUL CONFESSION OF GUILT AND IGNORANCE OF THE IAAF:
Saturday, October 10, 2009
IAAF plans to develop gender definition
By ROB HARRIS (AP)
BIRMINGHAM, England — World track and field’s governing body will start examining next week how to determine gender in an athletics context, an initiative spurred by the case of 800-meter world champion Caster Semenya.
The IAAF’s medical commission, which begins meeting Friday, could take a year to deliver that definition and the judicial commission will also be asked to consider future regulations, general secretary Pierre Weiss said Saturday.
“We are obliged to react. It would have been better if we had been prepared to, but we were not prepared,” Weiss told The Associated Press on Saturday.
“We will get a reply in the next 12 months — I don’t expect anything to come out before. …
“We were in Copenhagen (at the International Olympic Committee meetings) and I asked my colleagues from other sports if they had a definition and nobody has one. But nobody (else) has had the problem so far.” Weiss expects the IOC medical commission to also consider the issue in November in Lausanne.
The most common cause of sexual ambiguity is congenital adrenal hyperplasia, an endocrine disorder in which the adrenal glands produce abnormally high levels of hormones.
By the time Semenya won the 800 meters at the Berlin world championships in August, questions about the 18-year-old South African’s gender had been raised because of stunning improvements in her times and her muscular build and deep voice.
Before the final, the IAAF announced it had ordered gender tests.
The IAAF has refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that Semenya has both male and female characteristics. It says it is reviewing test results and will issue a decision in November on whether she will be allowed to compete in women’s events.
“They are being analyzed worldwide by experts,” Weiss said. “We will promote the outcome of this case as soon as it is known.”
http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/facius
http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/eaa-anti-doping
http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/gender_testing
on Jan 24th, 2010 at 11:49 AM
Georg, I agree with you — and we have to ask where the IAAF has been for 40 years when they say “Nobody else had the problem before.” Surely they haven’t forgotten the most famous case from the past: Austrian skiier Erika Schinegger, 1966 women’s world downhill champion.
Erika was toe-tagged as a girl at birth. But her masculine build and the speeds at which she skied, not to mention the facial hair, was long a subject of quiet discussion on the Austrian team and internationally. Indeed she had suspicions about herself. But she kept up a super-feminine appearance with close shaves, makeup, frilly clothes and poufy hairdo, and hey…she was winning big-time, so the Austrian Olympic Committee looked the other way.
However, Erika failed the first round of “gender testing,” which started at the Grenoble winter Olympics in 1968. Interested readers can find the whole story in my book “Lavender Locker Room.”
The shocked skier sought medical counsel. Diagnosis: Schinegger was chromosomally a male, with ambiguous genitalia and undescended testes. So Schinnegger rebounded in a very courageous way. He had corrective surgery to release the testes (and was actually able to father a child later). He also got his legal gender changed. Then he continued to compete in downhill skiing…as a male.
But the Austrian Olympic Committee finally couldn’t put up with the ongoing controversy around him, so they kicked him off the team. He went off and started a popular ski school in Austria.
There was a political effort to get Schinegger stripped of the 1966 world downhill gold. But the FIS have refused to take that step. Hurray for the FIS.
So the intersex issue has been officially hanging in the air since the Sixties. But most governing sports bodies have stayed too chicken-hearted and misinformed about intersex to establish a policy on intersex athletes that is fair to everybody.
on Jan 24th, 2010 at 3:39 PM
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