I'm trying to figure this out. I imagine you've heard the story. South African runner, Caster Semenya, ran for the gold in the women's 800-meter world championship. Now there's a question, it seems, about her gender. There are various reasons. She had dramatic improvement over previous efforts. The women she beat out suggested she was a man. Whatever. So now they want to perform gender tests on her.
The question I don't get is who cares? No, no, don't misunderstand me. Sure, it would be wrong for a man to compete in a woman's race (even though women are constantly pushing their way into men's sports). I'm fine with that. But haven't we eliminated gender in this world? I'm thinking primarily of the transgender folk. You know ... those guys who believe they are women trapped in a male body (or vice versa). What we are told is that they are genuine females (or males). They hold that their "gender identity" simply doesn't match their "assigned sex". So when that guy gets all the required treatments and operations, we are to now consider him a girl. How dare you think otherwise? It doesn't matter that gender tests would say otherwise. You can't think of it that way.
So, now the IAAF wants to test Semenya for gender. She is presenting herself as a woman. We are told that we should honor whatever gender someone presents. So what does it matter what the test show? It doesn't matter ... right? Or does it?
5 comments:
It shouldn't amtter what the tests say.
It's whatever WE WANT that is important.
Just ask the ELCA.
Since when has society NOT been schizophrenic? The world has double standards for just about anything. Plus, it is a sport, so even though gender roles and gender assignment don't matter (so they say), even if he is a she physiologically, he can't compete with the she's because no matter how much they try to deny it, men and women are different, and everyone knows it but noone wants to admit it. (secularly speaking of course. You have admitted it many times)
Isn't it funny that society has been arguing for awhile now that it's wrong to exclude women from men's sports ... but no one is suggesting that men should be allowed to compete in women's sports? Another double standard, I guess.
Just more of the tell-tale sign of the cognitive dissonance that is to be valiantly ignored. So your problem (like mine) is that you are too much of a coward to charge valiantly into a brave new world of the authentic uniformity of dissonance, contradictions, paradoxes, and discord.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'm not brave enough to embrace contradictions as truth.
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