Feministe blog had an amazing post on the story of Caster Semenya, the South African track athlete who is now being scrutinized by officials and forced to undergo sex testing.
I will paraphrase a comment that struck me towards the end of the blog: that it is easy to focus on these extreme cases and not on the ever pervasive trend in female athletes and our body politics. This is a topic that hits entirely too close to home and is so incredibly difficult and upsetting.
Here's the contradiction. We live in a culture that praises the "Tom Boy" and "Scholarship Athlete", but condemns the built, muscular, and strong physique of a woman athlete in normal everyday life. Society is beginning to see the arena of female sports as valid entertainment, and the female athlete herself as talented and an acceptable part of our culture, but her body is continually politicized. If one peruses the so called 'fitness magazines' at the grocery store, one will never see a size 10 or 12 built and athletic woman on the cover.
There are facets of popular culture where femininity and athleticism are no longer mutually exclusive, and a female athlete can love herself and be accepted in society despite patriarchal notions of what a woman’s role in society should be. However, I will admit that there is a disconnect between the power felt by an athletic woman in the sports arena, and the power felt by an athletic woman outside world arena. As a strong woman, who can count on one hand the number of men I have dated who I didn't have larger arm muscles than, it is something that crosses my mind. There is something to be said about feeling 'not larger' than your partner. Is this inherent femininity coming through or something we learn?
6 comments:
I mean, can we please remember the extreme drama Brandi Chastain caused when they won the World Cup and put her shirt over her head in traditional soccer fashion?
I can't believe she was so feminitely inappropriate, you know, because oh my we saw her sports bra. That was so wrong of her. Didn't she know women are only allowed to be perceived as sexual in certain arenas?
Not to mention the messed up fact of people perceiving a celebratory move as sexual.
Ugh. I could go on and on.
I think the track issue is more with the time she ran than with her build but for those in the media that do not understand what are good times and what are bad times and how much a race is normally won by, the decided to jump on that. Her time is what the IOC is looking at. She improved by 8 seconds in a few month, which is ridiculous, and beat the next runner by 2 seconds, when the race is normally won by.03 ish. Also this wouldn't be an issue had countries not done these things before. The eastern european counties used to get men to become women in throwing events and a couple of years ago china tried to pass a man off as a female swimmer in the Olympics.
For Olympic competition, this was world championships, they do a full genetic map of athletes to make sure they are xx or xy. I don't think this about her build but maintaining the integrity of the sport.
Alison, I agree with you 100%. However, what the media is covering is not her time; what the media is covering are the photographs and her build, which is why I think it is interesting.
Cor- I completely agree.
Hey and this is Ali but my email address is alison penland which is why they keep making that my signature. Miss you.
Oh hey Ali! I figured it was you, but didn't want to be like...Ali...and it not be you! :) Have they returned the test results yet? I haven't had TV or a phone for a few days and haven't seen anything perusing CNN.com
I know this is something that hits home to you particularly, being a track and field athlete. Did you ever experience anything like this in your time at Ball State?
What I have heard recently,I got from this article http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-the-caster-semenya-controversy-continues/ which is on he frisky so i dont know how true it is. but her coach was from eastern europe and overly drugged women athletes and eventually turned them into men. also that her testosterone levels were 3 times normal. i dont know when they find out it will be everywhere.
At BSU i never heard anything about that on the college level. But they do drug athletes, so she could be a women super hopped up on testosterone that would effect her body and her times. they will figure it out.
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