Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya has set a new standard for small talk at meetings, banquets, weddings, or any gathering where you might encounter women you’ve never met before. And I’m sure it’s likely to catch on as quickly as the culture that justifies it.
Do you have testicles?
Maybe don’t lead with that one. I don’t think it is ready to be the ice-breaker opening, certainly not as a pickup line, unless you are looking for women with testicles, and I’m thinking with rare exceptions, you may not need to ask. But a growing number of women have them, testicles, and it’s not their fault. It is something with which they have to contend while robbing women without testicles – at least in competitive sports – of scholarships, opportunities, and even awards.
And none of that is their fault.
It is also unfair to judge them or limit them from competing with scrotum-less women. It is not (for example) Caster Semenya’s fault that “she” was born with testicles or the levels of testosterone they afford “her” or other “women” burdened with the deformity. But Athletic associations and national and international courts have noticed the difference and chosen to have a say in whether that “deformity” does, in fact, matter.
[A] Swiss court upheld 2018 regulations from the IAAF, the track-and-field world governing body now named World Athletics, barring Semenya and other athletes with “differences of sex development” (DSD) from running in certain races, including the 800-m, unless they lowered their testosterone levels to a certain threshold via medical intervention. Semenya refused, and she’s continued to fight the regulations.
Why would they step in?
On June 30, 2019, South African runner Caster Semenya—already a three-time world champ and two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 800-m—lined up at the starting line at Stanford University, to roars from the American crowd. She would win the prestigious Prefontaine Classic, with a time of 1 min. 55.70 sec., the fastest 800-m time ever run on American soil. It was her 31rd straight victory in the 800-m. Fans crowded around a fence after it was over to voice their appreciation for the superstar.
Caster’s testicles would appear to provide an advantage against textile-less women in – at the very least – the 800 meter, and after 31 consecutive victories, you’d be right to ask why women would even compete in this category. Sorry, I mean women without testicles. And so we see the problem. While Caster may be of the opinion that testicles don’t make him less of a woman, they do appear to make him a better athlete than women who lack them, sort of like a performance-enhancing drug.
Governing bodies have a vested interest in regulating the use of performance-enhancing drugs even when they are not your fault. As such – at least in the case of the IAAF – women with testicles will need to compete against other “equally impaired” individuals whether they identify as women or not.
By”equipment” advantage, if you like, to achieve the parity missing from, say, the women’s 800 meters.
The alternative is, of course, a more balanced women’s field in which they all have testicles, but then what about the women without them? What happens to their rights? Is this the new glass ceiling? The foundation of second-class citizenship, at least in contests of sport. And who will step up to defend them from this new discrimination?
And why did the women’s rights movement, after finally achieving most if not all of their aims, decide to toss women under the equipment bus?
“My testicles don’t make me less of a woman” – Caster Semenya
Of course, this outlandish statement went totally unchallenged this morning🤡
Semenya is not a woman with high testosterone levels. He is a male with normal testosterone levels. pic.twitter.com/LKhkP7SnlN
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) November 7, 2023
