Gender Testing Hangs Before the Games as a Muddled and Vexing Mess

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Today's New York Times published this article on gender testing in sports. I think the paper has had generally good treatment of the issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/sports/olympics/16ioc.html...

Kris

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Maybe this time they'll sort it out

Angharad's picture

without humiliating any athlete involved.

Also maybe we need to move away from there only being a winner and loser mentality. Taking part in anything as grand as the Olympics must be wonderful anyway. (Except for cycling, they have to let us win that...pretty please).

Angharad

Angharad

Truer Words

Thank you for posting this. The last sentence in the story sums it up.

“It’s just impossible,” Vilain said. “We are going to have to accept that at the fringes, there are no perfect categorizations.”

And . . . I might add . . . living in those fringes is its own sport.

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Story fodder

This part:

The Endocrine Society, the organization whose members treat people with such disorders, says sports federations should not even try to use medical tests to rule on who is a woman. Instead, it says, the criterion should be: Was the athlete raised as a male or a female? Someone who was raised as a female and considers herself female, the organization says, should be allowed to compete as a female.

seems designed just to have a TG story written. "Sure she was born a boy, but we've been raising her as a girl so she'll be a top athlete."

Male vs. Female

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

This is NUTS! Testosterone still seems to inflict an edge in strength to those poisoned with it. Which explains all the "doping" going on at the elite sport level. Therefor any sport where strength provides a edge to an athlete, the testosterone level in that athlete will make a difference.(All else being equal, which anyone, who knows ANYthing about people, knows is crazy. All else is NEVER equal. Even clones have differences in, if nothing else, their evironment.) On the other hand - it seems, SEEMS mind you, that female hormones provide their recipients with more grace, fluidity and sense of balance. The differences between "male" and "female" athletes is MUCH more of a 'sliding scale' thing than some binary absolute. Just as we all know that gender identity is such. So long as there are "sport dads or moms" i.e. people who DEMAND and are willing to go to extraordinary lengths for their chosen athlete to win, there will be cheating and "doping" in all sports. Artificially enhanced athletes will always have the edge and methods of cheating will always outstrip methods of catching them. It is for this reason that I MUCH prefer skill-based sports to muscle-base ones. Ok so the bottom line here is that I will NEVER be an elite athlete, and I'm WAY more jealous of the female gymnasts than the male weight-lifters.

with love,

Hope

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.