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