When Boy Meets Girl

I'm afraid that since wearing myself out in the period leading up to the election, this site has steadily careened from frequent, relevant, and original thoughts into a dumping ground for viral video, recipes, links to things that other people posted, and reviews of books that other people wrote. So in keeping with that theme, while also attempting to intersperse an original thought like in the Good Old Days, I would like to mention the case of one Caster Semenya.

Semenya, an 18-year-old South African runner, recently won the 800-meter event at the world championships in Berlin, finishing a full 2.45 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. Since then, she has become the object of much speculation as to her gender, especially because of her masculine appearance and low voice.

To truly answer the question would involve doctors and hormonal specialists, because it has been suggested that Semenya is not simply male, but androgynous. (A September 14 Time magazine article about Semenya describes androgen-insensitivity syndrome as a genetic male who is resistant to androgens, the male sex horomones, which includes testosterone. The testes may never descent, the genitalia resemble a female's, and though the body produces testosterone, it is insensitive to its effect, which prompts it to produce more.)

Now, hold on to your hats, everyone, because here comes my original thought for the month: what if she is? Does that qualify her as male or female, necessarily? Would it be fair to place her in either category for the purposes of athletic competition? (By the way, her times were nowhere good enough to qualify her for the competition as a man.) Is it fair to the women against whom she is competing? And how much power should the International Association of Athletics Federations have as far as subjecting her to gender testing?