Her.meneutics: The Confusing Case of Caster Semenya

back to Christianity Today

RSS Feed | Help

e-mail to a friend

Twitter feed

What Is Her.meneutics?

The Christianity Today women's blog provides news and analysis from the perspective of evangelical women. We cover news stories and books related to international justice and evangelism, pregnancy and sexual ethics, marriage, parenting, and celibacy, pop culture, health and body image, raising girls, and women in the church and parachurch.

Her.meneutics is edited by associate editor Katelyn Beaty and online editor Sarah Pulliam Bailey.

interests

books and media

church life

justice and politics

relationships and family

sexuality and health

spirituality

theology

women of note

writers

Free Newsletters

more newsletters

books we're reading

blogs we're watching

« The Case for Male Circumcision | Main | In the Loop: The Women's Blog News Roundup »

September 11, 2009

The Confusing Case of Caster Semenya

The South African runner may lose her gold medal after gender test results are released.

Katelyn Beaty

What might have been weeks of celebration have become ones of public scrutiny for Caster Semenya, the South African runner who won the women’s 800 meter final at the World Athletics Championship August 19. Due to Semanya’s 8-second gain over her time in 2008, as well as her masculine appearance, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) required the 18-year-old to take a gender verification test. Initial test results confirmed that the teenager has three times the normal levels of testosterone for women. Rumors swirled about Semenya’s head coach, Ekkart Arbeit — who was accused of giving female gymnasts steroids in the 1970s — and whether he had given Semenya similar treatments.

Caster%20Semenya%20makeover%20You%20magazine.jpg

Now, a source close to the IAAF probe has told an Australian newspaper that the test showed that Semenya “had internal testes and no womb or ovaries,” calling her a hermaphrodite later in the report. (Medically speaking, the source is wrong: a hermaphrodite is someone who has simultaneously functioning male and female sex organs. Thomas Rogers at Broadsheet helpfully clarifies the differences between a number of rare intersex conditions.)

While the IAAF stated today that it will not release its findings — which could disqualify Semenya’s win — until November, media have already picked up on the hermaphrodite label. Semenya’s parents and other South Africans have responded angrily, not only because the test might strip Semenya of her gold medal and an athletic career, but because it has exposed Semenya to sexual humiliation and her family to shame. Whether or not Semenya is biologically female, she has understood herself to be a female her whole life — something Semenya asserted with jewelry, makeup, and trendy clothing in You! this week (pictured above). As she told the South African magazine, “I am who I am and I am proud of myself. God made me the way I am and I accept myself.”

How do Christians make sense of Semanya’s story?

The Bible does not address the issue of hermaphroditism, but it does suggest that human sexuality is about more than having certain body parts and not others. The Creation account in Genesis 2 and 3 treats sexuality as something more than the physical ability to “be fruitful and multiply,” though that is centrally important. It is also about the need to know and be known in intimate human relationship (“It is not good for the man to be alone,” 2:18). This desire for relationship points humans to their ultimate desire for a relationship with God, something achieved in the saving work of Christ. In short, to reduce anyone to nothing more than the sum of certain sexual organs is dehumanizing. It strips the person of the imago Dei and, in Semenya’s case, casts her as a sexual oddity to be examined under the media microscope.

This is what Leonard Chuene, president of South Africa’s athletics federation, was driving home when he said this to Religious Intelligence last week:

In Africa, as in any other country, parents look at new babies and can see straightaway whether to raise them as a boy or a girl. We are now being told that it is not so simple. But the people who question these things have no idea how much shame such a slur can bring on a family. They are doubting the parents of this child and questioning the way they brought her up. God has his say on what people are. He made us all. A young girl has no input as she enters the world on what she will look like. It is outrageous.

Meanwhile, Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan, whose silver medal from the 2006 Asian Games was taken away after a gender verification test concluded she was intersex, gave this advice to Semenya in an interview today: “She should not undergo the same sort of humiliation and insults I have faced. She is a woman and that’s it, full stop. A gender test cannot take away from you who you are.”

The IAAF test may end up taking away Semenya’s gold medal — perhaps rightfully so. But it cannot take away the fact that no matter what body parts she has, Semenya bears the imago Dei, and, depending on the test results, may need much help and support figuring out exactly who she is.

Comments

What a shameful organization to humiliate a human being like this.

How do Christians make sense of Semanya’s story?

The human response is curiosity and compassion. Of course Semenya is made in the image of God. That seems like a "duh" to me. Maybe it's not for others?

It's horrible that her predicament has been made public. I feel sorry for her. I feel compassion for such a young woman to have to deal with such an identity crisis so publicly.

I appreciate Ms. Beaty's perspective as Caster Semenya is indeed made in the image of God. However the comment by Merciel ignores the history of track and field issues related to performance enhancement. Most of the women's world records are tainted by the likelihood of male hormone being used by those who currently hold the records. It's a shame but it means that those who don't cheat or have an sexual abnormality which would be over 95% of the competitors must take a back seat to those who intentionally or unintentionally bend the rules.

I do realize there's cheating in sports, but that doesn't excuse humiliating gender tests that implicitly tell women: "You are too good at this sport to be a woman." What kind of message does that send to female athletes? "If you excel at a sport, we are going to question your sex and humiliate you in front of the entire world." It's one thing to test for steroids; it's another to do what they did.
Did she cheat? No. Is she a woman? I guess it comes down to what we define as a man and as a woman. Is it because of the internal testes or the testosterone levels? If this is all about high testosterone levels, then why not stop calling them men's and women's events and events for those high levels of testosterone and those with low levels? It might be as marketable, but it'd be more honest.

Putting another perspective to this whole debate.
Caster is made in the image of God – yes. But if she has a biological condition that is not normally female then, to me, it lies in the same category as anyone born with say a cleft lip or a hole in the heart.
These are conditions that are considered not normal and where some attempt can be made to correct them.
What can be done to correct Caster’s condition? I don’t know. She may have to learn to live with it as many people with a range of congenital issues have struggled to learnt to live with these conditions.
But I do think that God’s ideal for a male or a female biological make-up is not that of Caster’s condition, otherwise we would expect around 50% of the population to be like her.

The other issue is that competitive sport is big business. Caster probably realises this as she enters the arena. If she has a higher level of male hormones than the average female, does this put her at a significant advantage over other females in competitive sport such as running? Do other female competitors consider this a level playing field?
It is sad that this event heightened people’s suspicions about any unfair advantage in sport and has caused Caster and her family much distress.

Interestingly enough, I had not thought of the case of Caster Semenya in religious terms.

I, too, felt unnecessary humiliation has been visited on her and her family because of the IAAF's inept handling of her case in the first instant. It may be considered simplistic, but for me if the doctors at delivery declare you female, then that is what you are.

Some say if Caster has more than the "accepted" levels of testosterone then that gives her an unfair advantage over other females against whom she competes. My answer to that is that it takes more than testostorone to produce a world class track athlete, just as it takes more than height to create a Hall of Fame basketball player.

So where does the IAAF go from here? Will we now see "gender" testing being carried out on every female athlete who does extraordinarily well?

My counsel to the IAAF is "leave Castre Semenya alone". It is not "cheating" to be declared female at birth. The additional male hormones she carries is not due to doping, but is being produced naturally. She still has to train, diet, rest and avoid injuries like any other female athlete. Regard her as exceptionally "gifted", a phenomenon if you will, and leave it at that.

It is unjust to penalise her for a situation over which she has absolutely no control; and to treat her as more or less than female is inexcusable.

Steve Skeete - I couldn't have said it better myself. I completely agree with you.

I agree. Wonderful post, Steve!

"In Africa, as in any other country..."---this guys claims to be South African and he thinks that Africa is a country?

Wow...

I think that cases like Caster Semenya's show that gender is obviously not as binary as we think it is. Which often makes me wonder if Christians' attitudes towards transgendered people are wrong. If someone can be born with the hormones of a woman but the genitals of a man, isn't it possible that someone could be born who is biologically female on the inside and yet physically male on the outside? Haven't studies shown that transgendered women and men have more hormones linking them to the sex that they think that they are as opposed to the sex that their genitals claim they are? In this case, this would seem to me different from the Leviticus ban on cross-dressing, because this wouldn't be men who identify as men dressing in women's clothing, but women whose physical bodies seem to suggest otherwise.

My understanding of the biblical teaching on gender is that God made man(in generic terms) in his own image, .. male and female he created them. Gen 1:27. This would mean that the image of God is represented by the distinct male and female genders with no confusion in gender identity, such as someone described as transgendered.

The male and female persons have a distinct biological structure and function of their genitals that were intended by God for both to be fruitful and to multiply. That is the general pattern in scripture and that is what people of every culture can observe.

The Fall of the human race into sin, however, has produced environmental conditions of stress, pollution, depravity in behaviour and lifestyle that would contribute to diseases, hormonal imbalances, deformities, introduction of errors in genes, accumulation of errors in the gene pools down the centuries, and a host of many yet undetermined factors that has produced a wide range of biological/psychological/spiritual conditions in the human race today that fall short of God’s ideal pattern.

Caster’s condition, we could say from scripture, is not the biological ideal that God had intended for women if Caster cannot be fruitful and multiply. According to the report, she has testes, but no womb and no ovaries.

Supposing that by being identified as a man( she has male testes) she would be fruitful and able to produce offspring through sexual relations with a woman. Then I think this would be the identity closer to God’s ideal for her.
It then becomes a matter of counselling to help her understand this.

The other option is for her to insist that she is a woman because of feelings, instincts, preferences etc. In a sense, she becomes the authority to determine what gender she should be and deviates from God’s ideal for her.
She may therefore choose to have some surgery to implant what may appear to be female genitals and remain childless.

As a biblical teaching, everyone who does not conform to God’s pattern for the human race need help. But this has to begin with repentance and confidence in God’s power to deliver us from the bondage of confusion and ultimately, of sin.

James,

Are you truly presuming that because she has testes, she is a man and therefore is living in sin as a woman? I certainly hope I am reading your comments incorrectly. What do you know about her condition? Can you even put yourself in her place? Yes, it is easy to say, "She has testes. She is a man." That's the easy answer to a complex situation. However, what about the fact that SHE GREW UP AS A WOMAN. Here's a hypothetical: What if you went into the doctor tomorrow and found out that your penis was actually an enlarged clitoris and you were an intersexed individual with a clitoris. Would you so easily be able to change your self-concept? Could you, "through counseling," think of yourself as a woman? Furthermore, do you think that God views us in such a strictly binary fashion? Is it not possible that he understands the complexities of our situations and grants us grace and freedom accordingly?

Maybe you are stronger than I am, but I could not so deftly change the entire framework through which I view the world (aka- as a man) nor do I have such a strong faith in the power of psychotherapy and the mutability of gender concepts. Perhaps she will embrace "manhood," finding that it explains who she is in a more logical way. However, that is her decision, and for us to sit on the sidelines and say that she needs to free herself from the "bondage of confusion and ultimately, of sin" because of the way God made her is downright wrong.

This really just is more evidence that gender is a social construct apart from biological sex.

@James, honestly, despite her testes, I think God understands that she is psychologically female. I don't think she is in any way sinning by continuing in that identity.

Adam,
Firstly, for clarification, I stated that “confidence in God to deliver us from the bondage to confusion and ultimately, of sin” as an appropriate gospel statement that was applied conditionally upon a lack of conformity to God’s pattern for us. As you may be aware, it is always an appropriate message to be reminded time and again even in a debate like this as it equally applies to all of us, not just to Castor.

Now my question is: “Given the abnormal biological condition Caster is in, on what basis do you say that she is a woman?”

One of the main arguments submitted is that, if she thinks she is a woman then she must be who she says she is.
It is based on an ideology that says you have the right to be what you want to be, because it is your body, your life - even if the principles of God’s truth from scripture may say otherwise.

In essence, Caster becomes the final authority on her identity.
Now, if her biological condition has invoked much confusion, even amongst those in the health profession, can you conclude that her claim to be a woman is the most reliable evidence that we have?
Even if she was raised in an environment where she was taught from birth, to think that she was a woman, is that reliable evidence to demonstrate that she actually is a woman?

The comment that God does not view us in strictly binary fashion but on some continuum from male to female, is not supported by scripture. It is certainly supported by some in the health profession who do not believe in the God of the bible.
If the person is not male and not female, what other option is there? “ Neither male nor female?”, non-sex? neutral sex? If so, then there should be no need for Castor to be identified as a woman.

Granted, some of these abnormalities may present challenges in determining one’s gender. But the suggested method of resolving gender based on an individual preference, inclination or disposition, is, in the final analysis an arbitrary standard.

With regard to Robyn’s comment, I do not agree with the view that gender is a social construct if it generally means that God made us in such a way that He permitted societies the freedom at stages in our social development to decide whether we want to be identified as male or as female.

The reasons essentially being that not only do these views lack any biblical support, but the kinds of evidence used to support these positions are far from unconvincing.
The biblical description of gender in the human race is either male or female as the norm.
Where there is departure from this norm then it should be viewed as an abnormality.

These abnormal biological conditions were not created by God.
This position is derived from general principles in scripture that lead me to conclude these conditions are a consequence of many factors that entered the human race after the Fall.
In spite of the varied abnormal biological conditions that have been observed today, we still know what the male or female biological norm is.
People from all cultures and all walks of life can observe and conclude what these biological norms are.
Because God has made that truth self-evident to the human race when He made us.

Since we know what is normal, it would follow that we can to some extent determine how far an abnormal biological condition deviates from the norm by examining the structure and function of the sexual features of that condition.
This approach would likely give you a better idea about the norm to which that abnormal condition could be more closely identified – male or female.

Gender is a social contruct in that societies construct the identity of what it means to be male or female at that time, in that place. The idea of what constitutes behaviors/appearance/etc men and women has, in fact, changed throughout time and cultures. It is dependent on the culture within which one finds oneself--therefore, a social construct.

This is separate from biologically determined sex, which is dictated by chromosomes, which has not changed apart from the abnormalities under discussion--i.e. women have ovaries, breasts, and two x chromosomes; men have testes, higher levels of testosterone, and both an x and a y chromosome.

I suppose the real issue and question should be: " IS THE TRUTH IMPORTANT AT THIS POINT? AND WHAT IS THE CORRECT MORAL RESPONHSE? " There are no doubt at least 6-billion answers to give as there are people on the earth. BUT ONLY ONE,(1)....ANSWER IS NEEDED, AND THIS IS REALLY FOR ONLY ONE PERSON. THEY, AND THEY ONLY MAY ENLIGHTEN THE REST OF THE WORLD.

James: I think we have some choices when it comes to the words we use to describe Caster's body. And I think those choices are, actually, moral ones.

You say Caster has an "abnormal", "condition" in which she literally embodies the "fallen nature" of man. Although she is trying to cultivate a positive attitude about her body, you think God is saying that she shouldn't.

I say Caster is a healthy person with an uncommon body feature and some selected verbal terms and customs to help get along in life. As she tries to maintain a positive attitude about her body feature she needs, as any young person would, her family, friends and community to help her with that. As for God, He simply wills that she would thank Him for her truly excellent health (she is an elite athlete after all).

I see nothing wrong, or un-biblical about giving Caster support by choosing kinder, less overbearing words to describe her.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28

Hermenuetics

What Is Her.meneutics?

interests

writers

Free Newsletters

books we're reading

blogs we're watching

The Confusing Case of Caster Semenya

Comments

recent posts

Archives

Hermenuetics

What Is Her.meneutics?

interests

writers

Free Newsletters

books we're reading

blogs we're watching

The Confusing Case of Caster Semenya

Comments

recent posts

tags

Archives