Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling

Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling

Author:Anne Fausto-Sterling [Fausto-Sterling, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2020-06-29T00:00:00+00:00


SEX TESTING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE SEX TESTING!

In response to the initial complaints about Semenya’s appearance from some of the other runners, the IAAF found that she had high natural levels of testosterone and decided that they needed to constrain “women like Semenya.” So the IAAF in 2011 and the IOC in 2012 devised new rules governing who could compete as a woman. Wary of procedures that sounded like the fraught and discredited sex testing that I wrote about in the first edition, the IAAF titled their pronouncement “Regulations Governing Eligibility of Females with Hyperandrogenism to Compete in Women’s Competition.” Hyperandrogenism means too much testosterone. That was how officials construed the problem. Here is the logic,65 clearly explained in the preface of the IAAF document itself: “The difference in athletic performance between males and females is known to be predominantly due to higher levels of androgenic hormones in males, resulting in increased strength and muscle development. It is also known from experience that there are rare cases of young females66 competing in athletics today who are affected by hyperandrogenism which, if the condition remains undiagnosed or neglected, can pose a risk to health. Despite the rarity of such cases, their emergence from time to time at the highest level of women’s competition in athletics has proved to be controversial, since the individuals concerned often display masculine traits and have an uncommon athletic capacity in relation to their fellow female competitors.”

The preface continues by laying out principles of confidentiality (previously broken in Semenya’s case) and treatment of the “condition.” Note that hyperandrogenism does not necessarily have negative health consequences, and that drugs used to lower testosterone may have negative side effects. The IAAF insisted on “a respect for the very essence of the male and female classifications in athletics, a respect for the fundamental notion of fairness of competition in female athletics, and an acknowledgement that females with hyperandrogenism may compete in women’s competition in athletics subject to compliance with IAAF Rules and Regulations.”67

Bottom line: after arduous medical examinations that include extensive assessments of outward physical appearance including hairiness, voice timbre, clitoral length, and body build,68 an athlete could compete as a woman if her androgen levels fell below the male level of 10 nanomoles/liter or if she were androgen resistant. An athlete could decide to lower her androgen levels with drugs or surgery and then submit for retesting with the hope of readmittance to competition as a female. Or, the IAAF and IOC rather blithely wrote, they were free to compete in the men’s competitions.69

“Problem solved!” the IAAF thought. But they had not counted on another runner, Dutee Chand. Chand is a sprinter from India, who in 2012 won the national championship in the under-eighteen group. In 2013 she won bronze in the Asian Athletics Championships and in 2014 a gold medal in the 200-meter sprint at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships. She was all set to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games when, at the last minute, the Athletics Federation of India marked her as ineligible due to hyperandrogenism.



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