Letter to editor: Gender tests necessary

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Lauren Bornstein’s column entitled “Intersex athletes face unfair rules” left me speechless. I simply could not believe what I was reading. Personally, I don’t feel Caster Semenya was treated wrong or unfairly. I think the International Association of Athletics Federation had every right to, and should have, made Semenya take a gender test.

I did a little research of my own, and found out that Semenya has internal testes, which we all know to be male genitalia. She lacks a womb and ovaries and has a testosterone level more than three times that of a normal woman. You say that other people are deciding her gender for her, but all the results seem to point to her being a male.

I completely agree with you regarding her being called a hermaphrodite; that is totally false and an extremely ignorant thing to say.

The issue, as a whole, I have no problem with. If she thinks she’s a woman then so be it; it’s none of my business. The problem begins when she tries to compete in a woman’s sport with a body that is technically male. That is unfair to all of her competitors, who you claim to be exhibiting “poor sportsmanship.” They have every right to be upset if they are competing in a woman’s sport against male athletes.

No male would ever be allowed to compete in a woman’s sport — why should it matter what sex he thinks he is? Semenya is an excellent athlete, but she should be competing with athletes of the same sex.

You say that forcing Semenya and other female athletes to prove their sex shouldn’t be done, but that’s exactly what needs to be done. Competing in a woman’s sport, all participants should be female.

I referred to Semenya as a “she” out of respect, because that is what she believes she is.

— Chris L. Brown is a sophomore from Fort Scott.

Comments

LawrenceGrown (anonymous) says...

Good work Chris Brown.

September 29, 2009 at 8:07 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

01KUgrad (anonymous) says...

Chris Brown, you are wrong. Technically speaking Caster Semanya is "technically" intersexed, but has a working vagina. And prior to the test and race, she didn't know this. So, if tomorrow, you woke up and found out you "technically" have fallopian tubes, should we "technically" consider you a female?

September 29, 2009 at 9:35 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Hendrix321 (anonymous) says...

I know this was directed toward Mr. Brown and not me, but if I woke up and found that I had fallopian tubes, then yes, I should technically be considered a female.

September 29, 2009 at 9:50 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Hendrix321 (anonymous) says...

The purpose of having separate events for women and men is to create a fair ground based on differences between sex, not gender. Thus, it is irrelevant for these purposes what gender an athlete considers themselves to be.

September 29, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

01KUgrad (anonymous) says...

Well if you have a penis, but you have fallopian tubes, I doubt that you would start declaring yourself a female to the world.

And "technically" speaking, a doctor would still consider you intersexed if you have both, not one or the other. Caster is not considered a male by doctors, she's considered intersexed.

The question boils down to, do we want to exclude intersexed people from competing in mainstream sports, despite the fact that they never had a choice about the body parts they were born with? If that is what we want to do, what other groups of people should we start excluding because they have what some consider to be an "unfair disadvantage"? There is a big difference between born a certain way, and changing your body to become something else with hormones and steiroids.

September 29, 2009 at 10:59 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

texasviakansas (anonymous) says...

This person does not know the difference between the words "gender" and "sex" and therefore his entire argument is invalidated from the second paragraph. Nice of the Daily Kansan to humor him, though. I guess he's only a sophomore, so he has plenty of time to take a class in Women's Studies, or any other humanities for that matter...

September 29, 2009 at 11:44 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

RTBatKU (anonymous) says...

Nice try Texas...but no, his entire argument isn't invalidated (though I might agree your dripping contempt for his academic status invalidates your comment).

I know you think you're a lot more sophisticated than this mere sophomore, but Mr. Brown provided a thoughtful and lucid analysis to a complex issue. All you did was lampoon his education - a personal attack. Is that what they taught you in Women's Studies? Pretty impressive stuff...

September 29, 2009 at 3:27 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

texasviakansas (anonymous) says...

I did not mean to "lampoon" his education, just say that he has lots of time to keep learning. His use of the word "gender" in the second paragraph is, in fact, incorrect. I simply pointed out a flaw in his argument as I see that you have done many times in the past, RTBatKU. After all, isn't that what these comment boxes are for?

September 29, 2009 at 10:03 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Hendrix321 (anonymous) says...

If you were simply pointing out his misuse of the word, then why didn't you simply correct it instead of fallaciously stating it invalidates his entire argument?

September 29, 2009 at 11:26 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

linguo_the_grammar_robot (anonymous) says...

Texas is right. By misusing the term 'gender' he contradicts himself. Gender is what people identify themselves as not their biological sex. The author says at the end:
"I referred to Semenya as a “she” out of respect, because that is what she believes she is."

So he admits that her gender is female but argues throughout that she is not. This is called 'contradiction' and it was brought about by the misuse of the term 'gender'.
Good job Tex.

September 30, 2009 at 6:41 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

RTBatKU (anonymous) says...

Texas and Linguo:

I think you are both far too confident in labeling Mr. Brown’s use of the term ‘gender’ as incorrect. You seem to have seized upon the definition you approve of and simply ignored competing views.

I hate to rely upon this in support of my point, but Wikipedia (by no means a superior authority) notes that, as “a term, ‘gender’ has more than one valid definition. Colloquially, it is used interchangeably with ‘sex’ to denote the condition of being male or female in any type of organism. In the social sciences, however, it refers specifically to social differences such as but not limited to gender identity.”

The article goes on to state that while “the idea of gender as a social construct is favored in many social sciences, especially gender studies, in the hard sciences, research links biological and behavioral differences in males and females as determining factors for gender . . . in humans and other species.”

You two may contest the way Mr. Brown used the term and even argue that the gender studies-approved definition should reign supreme (which I would not find very persuasive). But this wasn’t what you did. Instead, you simply seized upon his use of “gender” as incorrect and contradictory to his argument. I don’t think your position or tactic can withstand scrutiny.

October 1, 2009 at 10:56 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

linguo_the_grammar_robot (anonymous) says...

RTBatKU:

You got one thing right, wikipedia is not a good authority.

Mr. Brown was not using the term colloquially: he was writing an article that dealt with human sexuality. This is college, if you're going to write something about an issue, then you should research it and learn about it He obviously never went far enough in his research to find out that people who actually know about these issues have a definition of 'gender'. For those of us who now what the term means in a intellectual setting, he contradicted himself and showed that he didn't know what he was talking about. Which really is the issue here. The dude doesn't know what he's talking about so his opinion on this matter is irrelevant if not entirely misguided.

October 1, 2009 at 5:08 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

RTBatKU (anonymous) says...

I'm not willing to write off an individual's entire argument because I disagree with their use of a term of art. I'm not willing to dismiss an opinion as irrelevant and misguided because I don't like their viewpoint. I think it's disingenuous to suggest that you would find merit in Mr. Brown's writing had he only altered his word choice.

October 1, 2009 at 5:33 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

linguo_the_grammar_robot (anonymous) says...

The author claimed that he researched this. He apparently read Sports Illustrated. If he had actually bothered to research sex and gender issues, he could have found multiple experts here on campus that could guide him in making an intelligent argument.

October 2, 2009 at 6:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Mage (anonymous) says...

First of all, the use or misuse of the term 'gender' shouldn't be the main focus here. I agree that gender should be used in relation to a person's identity, while sex should be used when speaking of physical anatomy. Nevertheless, Chris's use of 'gender' in a way which does not coincide with my definition does not invalidate his argument.

I do, however, disagree with his opinion on multiple accounts. First, having testes does not automatically make one a male. As the athlete in question has both male and female anatomy, she is considered intersexed. I respect Chris's choice to use the same pronoun choice as Caster Semenya's gender. That is how she recognizes herself, and that is how she should be recognized by others.

Now this is where we get into more of a gray area. If we are to have sports which are segregated by sex, we need to pay more attention to intersexed athletes. Chris says that it's unfair to all female athletes to have an intersexed competitor in their midst. Is he assuming that being male is simply the more dominant sex when it comes to sports? In that case, wouldn't an intersexed athlete be at a disadvantage to compete against all males?

Should we have intersex sports as well as male and female? How many intersex athletes are out there? I would assume a lot less than male or female. Would this have an impact on the recognition that one receives when winning?

Personally, I think requiring athletes to prove their sex is opening up a totally different can of worms. How far is too far? Maybe we should have a little room in every sports center where athletes drop their pants to prove their sex before a competition.

...

Can I volunteer for that job?

October 2, 2009 at 11:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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