Reflections on Sites

 

Transsexuality and Intersexuality are commonly mistaken as the same thing. This is when people are mistaken. Transsexuals are born one gender and get several surgeries and hormonal implants to help transform them into the other gender or simply just identify themselves with the other gender where as an intersexual person is “born with reproductive organs, genitalia and/or sex chromosomes that are not exclusively male and female parts,” according to the AIS support group from Australia.

Two Russian sisters, Irina and Tamara Press were very talented athletes in Track and Field. Combined these two sisters won 26 world records and six Olympic gold medals during the 1950’s and 1960’s, the media questioned whether or not they were woman. In the 1966 European athletics Championship gynecological examinations were introduced. This is when athletes would line up and were forced to stand naked in front of a committee who inspected their genitalia. There was about 250 women who were there and had no abnormalities, however the Press sisters were not there and as far as the media know, did not compete in athletics again.

According to the department of culture, media, and sport, the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 makes it possible for transsexual people to gain full legal recognition in their new gender. There is a twist though, when it comes to sports, they want the sports to be fair. Due to this they do not automatically give transsexuals the right to compete immediately compared to other people with a defined gender from birth. Trans can be restricted from competitive sporting events to make it fair for everyone else. For example a person who is transsexual from man to woman they may have a higher level of testosterone giving them the ability to run faster than the “normal woman” with not nearly as much testosterone as the transsexual.

Intersex and Transsexual’s seem to have the same problem when it comes to competing in sports. Several people have been disqualified, embarrassed, ridiculed in sports competitions due to being intersex or a transsexual. This is leading to mistreatment to people; just because someone is not completely male of female or has been changed through surgery does not mean they are not human.

Semenya is not the first who has been questioned about her sex in a competition; she is one of the most recent that has been all over the news though. Some people in the past who have also had problems are Erik Schinegger, an Austrian woman’s downhill skier who was disqualified from the 1968 Winter Olympics. A Brazilian Judo fighter was allowed to participate in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), and Athens (2004) after getting surgery and doing hormonal therapy. It’s almost like intersexual and transsexuals were beginning to get the same opportunity as fully male of female people competing in events, but this is a misconception. In 2006 at the Asian Games, Santhi Soundarajan won the silver medal in the 800-meter race and got it taken away when she failed the sex test.  This makes me wonder, how much is transsexual and intersexuality accepted? Is it really fair to rip a medal away if they fail a sex test? What is fair for the people born intersex?

 

References:

"Comparisons of Intersex conditions and Transsexualism." 2005. AIS Support Group Austrailia, Web. 22 Oct 2009. .

"Intersex and sport." Intersex and the city. 9/15/2009. Web. 21 Oct 2009. http://intersexandthecity.blogspot.com

"Transsexual people and sport." Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Sports Division, Web. 19 Oct 2009.

Richie, Robert. "Intersex and the Olympic Games." American Woman Athletes September 2009: n. pag. Web. 22 Oct 2009. .

Richie, Robert, John Reynard, and Tom Lewis. "Intersex and the Olympic Games." X-Gender April 2009: n. pag. Web. 23 Oct 2009. .

-Brooke

History of Intersex Athletes

There is a long-standing tradition of questioning the biological sex of elite female athletes. More often that not, these inquiries are unfounded, but all they invariably begin with the same line of thought, “That lady looks like a dude”.

Successful female athletes who possess traditionally feminine attributes such as voluptuous breasts and Barbie like measurements are seldom, if ever, subjects of scrutiny about sex and gender. Female athletes who don’t resemble Anna Kournikova however, often are subjected to such scrutiny.

Two such examples are Mildred “Babe” Zaharias and Renée Richards. Zaharias competed in myriad events from javelin, hurdles and high jump in the 1932 Olympics to wining every available woman’s golf title by 1950. Successful as she was, there were many who believed that because of her masculine manner of dress, behavior, and competition that she was indeed a man. These rumors only died after she married.

Born Richard Raskind, Renée Richards succeeded at a young age in men’s competitive tennis, became an eye surgeon and served in the United States Navy. Following successful sex reassignment surgery in 1975, Renée returned to the court, this time a woman. Initially she was denied entry in the 1976 US Open, but an appeal to the New York Supreme Court proved fruitful as the ruling on her admission was overruled. She went on to compete successfully in the US Open, Reaching the Doubles Finals twice until she retired in 1981.

--Spencer

Intersex? What the Heck?

Intersex? What the Heck?
You don’t know what intersex means? Well, don’t be embarrassed, because it’s something that’s been kept under wraps. Intersex is a person who has sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit with male or female parts. It can be a combination of both sexes; a girl may be born with boy-like parts. Intersex has a 1 in 2000 chance of happening. Since this is such a small statistic, sometimes people never even know they have it.

Wikipedia has Miss Semenya mentioned in their article about intersex. Since only speculations have been thrown around, and nothing has been proved legitimately; Wikipedia chose to respect her privacy by not adding her to the list of famous intersex persons.

With accusations that Caster Semenya is intersex, controversy has risen very quickly. Rather than being just a girl, doctors question if she’s a girl with a boyish internal body. Specialists have categorized people into three categories: male, female and intersex. Which one do you think Miss Semenya belongs in?

--China

Semenya's Controversy

In August 2009 the IAFF World Track & Field Championship was held in Berlin, Germany. Among the hundreds of athletes, one stood out among the crowd. Eighteen year old Caster Semenya from South Africa blew away the competition in the 800 meter dash. With the time of 1:55.45, this set the fastest time of the year. With this victory, many questions sparked about her gender. With her stunning times, mascular build and deep voice, she was required to take a gender test.

After many doctor evaluations including: gynecologists, endocrinologists, psychologist and internal medicine specialists it was determined that Semenya is intersex. Her body contained both male and female characteristics, specifically lacking a uterus and ovaries. She was also producing three times the amount of testosterone than an average woman would produce and also contained internal male testes.

Many negative reactions were brought up in the sports world about these tests performed on Caster. Many leaders from South Africa have lashed out about the controversy saying that it was racist and took away her human rights and privacy.

The following month Caster’s coach officially resigned stating, “We did not advise Ms Semenya properly.” He admitted about lying to her about the reasons behind all the tests that were being performed. He also admitted to ignoring the team doctor when he advised pulling her our of the world championship to keep her medical records confidential. He took fault in failing to protect her privacy.

--Morgan and Lexi