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(sounds like she has Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS).)
Caster Semenya is a woman --- and a man.
SYDNEY (AP) - World 800-meter champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has male and female sexual organs, the Sydney Morning Herald said on Friday, posing an ethical and political quandary for athletics' ruling body.
Semenya's reported condition could have grave medical implications.
The Herald said extensive physical examinations of 18-year-old Semenya ordered by the IAAF have shown she is technically a hermaphrodite.
Medical reports indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone.
The newspaper said the IAAF was trying to contact Semenya to inform her of the results. After dominating her race at the world titles in Berlin last month, Semenya was given blood and chromosome tests as well as a gynecological examination.
"This is a medical issue and not a doping issue where she was deliberately cheating," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"These tests do not suggest any suspicion of deliberate misconduct but seek to assess the possibility of a potential medical condition which would give Semenya an unfair advantage over her competitors. There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this."
The IAAF has said Semenya would probably keep her medal because the case was not related to a drug matter. But the Herald said an alternative possibility was to award a second gold to the runner-up, Janeth Jepkosgei from Kenya.
(People are sooooo damned stupid, and bigoted, and boorish, and JOCKS and Wannabes Jock Commentators are the worst. Many of the comments on this story were so BAD!!!!!)
Comments
i agree
yeah that is annoying. to many people are bigoted and extremly judgmental.
In fact, the Herald story appears to be "truthy"
and not exactly true:
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IAAF has gender test results on Semenya
By The Associated Press (AP) – 2 hours ago
The IAAF has received the results of gender tests on the South African runner who won the women's 800-meter world title last month and is waiting to speak with Caster Semenya before completing its report.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies says he cannot confirm a story in Australia's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper stating that tests show Semenya has male and female sexual organs.
Davies says he hasn't seen the results of the tests, done in Germany on behalf of track's international governing body.
He says the results must be examined by a group of experts and that the IAAF didn't plan to speak to Semenya for "at least a few weeks."
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Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
This story was also described
In Russian news sites. In fact, according to what I read, whatever the results of the tests were, are or would be, they were not to be disclosed due to being confidential medical information, and that Caster Semenya would still keep the medal regardless. In particular, news site referred to British newspaper 'Telegraph'. News about her supposed state were quite unexpected, and thus possibly hoax.
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
It sounds like
the press are once again using inaccurate maths (1 + 1 = 5) in order to sell newspapers. The fact that it might be impure speculation, and very hurtful, doesn't really seem to matter to them.
Susie
The BBC's analysis
As usual, the BBC have done a sterling job in examining the background to the case...
11th September: Q&A: How do you define sex?
21st August: The complexities of sexual identity
But looking at previous articles, even the BBC aren't immune from reporting blanket statements made on the basis of studies with a pathetically small sample size:
10th Sep 2002: Sex defect adults happy with gender
"Dr Claude Migeon and colleagues interviewed 39 21-year-olds who had been assigned their gender at birth. Of these, 21 were raised as male and 18 as female."
That's even worse than the sample size of studies reported in typical Health/Beauty product adverts! But if you think a sample size of 39 is bad enough, how about 19?
27th Jan 2002: Let 'genital defect' boys be boys
"The research team collected birth and adult genitalia measurements from 13 men an 5 women, all born with a micropenis."
--Ben
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Sample sizes
Er, perhaps I should change that. Statistical sample sizes, perhaps?
The big problem with these particular studies, of course, is the fact that the number of babies born with any kind of gender-specific condition is so small most of the population has difficulty believing we even exist.
Because of that, most of us have to pretend that we're one or the other thing; and society is not set up to handle any more than two genders. Even now a lot of folks have trouble just accepting gay people.
That means finding people to take part in such a survey is going to be difficult, even in large populations.
Penny
It seems particularly disingenuous...
...to cite the John Hopkins study without mentioning their most spectacular cock-up, upon which the whole "science" of gender assignment is based:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
>> However, the study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre in Baltimore shows that may not always be the correct decision.
They fail to disclose that Money and the John Hopkins Centre were actively falsifying their records in order to justify their methodologies for many years, and it's not at all clear that they've fully repented of their obfuscatory habits.
The article also failed with faint condemnation to mention the devastating effects these high-handed decisions can have later in life, such as the many years of severe depression and the eventual suicide of their hallmark "success."
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
BORING!
This whole story has got very boring very quickly. The only story is how the IAAF dealt with it so badly and that has been told. Anything else is a matter for the person concerned and her family.
I for one am heartly sick of the intrusiveness of the press/media and they way they generate and manipulate popular opinion. Most people are easily roused which by-passes their cognitive processes (the vast majority don't have many of these anyway). We need to learn to think with our heads and feel with our hearts not t'other way round. We also need to control the media and bring them to book when they use hyperbole instead of facts.
Angharad
Angharad
Chicken or the egg
I have to point out that media misbehavior wouldn't be as prevalent if the general public didn't reinforce the behavior through their consumption. Like the drug problem, it wouldn't be as serious a problem if there wasn't a market for it. Yellow journalism* (there is a story behind that name) became a popular mode of publishing back in the 1890's, as a means for increased newspaper sales. Even then, the successes of the papers of the day showed that the public had an appetite for sensationalist stories.
Nowadays, such reporting is common all across the media. Newspapers do it to prop up sagging circulation, television does it to increase viewers, especially during the sweeps, magazines have their own competition for market share. I hate the sweeps as we have to go out and cover some of the most inane stories. But hey, I'm paid by the hour. :-(
Right now, both supply and demand are high, and I don't see an improvement anytime soon.
m
* http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html
They know they can survive
"... the possibility of a potential medical condition..."?
OH ..... MY ..... Gawd! Give me a break! I have really heard of some stupid comments in my years, but this one really does take the bakery. Of course being intersexed is a medical condition, not a potential medical condition, not a supposed medical condition, but an outright AMA medical condition. When will people grow up?
"With confidence and forbearance, we will have the strength to move forward."
Love & hugs,
Barbara
"If I have to be this girl in me, Then I have the right to be."
"With confidence and forbearance, we will have the strength to move forward."
Love & hugs,
Barbara
"If I have to be this girl in me, Then I have the right to be."
From Rita, I think it is disgusting!!
They have no right to expose her medical/physical condition, what would happen if this was taken to the extreme and had everybody who is competing, their DNA tested for the media to exploit?
Maybe we should ask for all officials/media to go for genetic tests to determine their position in reporting their biased views?
Unfortunately the tests would come out blank!!! because their opinions are based on what they read and not the facts if you get my drift??
LoL
Rita
Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter!
(Mark Twain)
LoL
Rita