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Caster Semenya: A Victim of Gender Stereotyping
The media circus around Caster Semenya reminds me of just that – a circus, where Semenya is the bearded lady for all to stare at and joke at. She has been completely humiliated for the crime of not confirming the narrow gender stereotypes dictated by a capitalist patriarchal society.
I’ve been meaning to comment on this earlier but this morning, this report in ABC News set me off:
Beeld said Semenya was “bitterly upset” when photographs of her private parts were taken during the examination, where a team doctor was present.
“Her feet were in stirrups when the photographs were taken,” Daniels said.
It’s seriously as if she is being treated like an animal. The sexism and racism in this whole affair is disgusting.
Caster Semenya should not need justify her gender, her appearance, the way she acts and certainly should not need to fit into one of the neat little gender boxes defined by society.
Katrina Fox wrote an excellent article on smh.com.au in which she says:
Semenya’s makeover reinforces our narrow-minded view of what a woman is – or should be. The message, ingrained in society, is: if you don’t adopt the trappings associated with conventional femininity, you’re not a ”real” woman.
The humiliation of Semenya needs to end now!
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This was big news in Japan as well. I didn’t realize she had to go through that. Absolutely horrifying. I was irate about the flippant and often harsh comments by the people doing the reporting.
Terrie´s last blog ..Interview with Me
This is a very sad and disturbing story about Caster Semenya. She is what The Creator made her to be. Does the fact she produces testosterone give her an edge over her competition? Possibly so, but that doesn’t make her unbeatable and she shouldn’t be treated like so much cattle.
Jeff Winbush´s last blog ..Cruel Summer.