When it comes to women, a lot (or even a little) risks being too much. The many paradoxes presented by the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision on how much testosterone maketh a woman, go to the heart of current confusion about gender and difference. In Caster Semenya’s case, the Court decided that despite her gender classification at birth and a life lived as a woman, her hormone levels relegate her to some kind of grey area of middle ground, effectively disqualifying her from competing against other women and threatening her career.
Perhaps the decision is so shocking because it couples a disregard for the human rights of the athlete herself, with a blatant demonstration of how little progress we have made in overturning traditional ideas of feminine fragility and beauty that persist in holding women back. Semenya has spent too much of her life having to strip off in changing rooms to “prove” to officials she is a woman. Talking about the case, Fraser Nelson described her as a “border-line case”. As if a middle aged bloke has the right to judge her as indeterminate, with an inference of sub-humanity. Newspapers have been full of reports of rocketing mental health problems among elite sports competitors and yet it remains acceptable for commentators to spill their judgmental, stereotypical views on the essence of womanhood across media platforms and for officials quite literally to probe women’s bodies to ensure compliance.
Not so long ago we seemed finally to be leaving behind the damaging narratives on femininity that harmed many female athletes (Fatima Whitbread and Rebecca Adlington to name but two who were brutally criticised in the media for their unfeminine appearance). Strong was supposed to be the new pretty, but now it seems we must add the caveat *subject to limits of acceptability after which you will be required to medicate yourself. If you are a woman who becomes too strong, too powerful then we will drug you to suppress that very male symbol of power. And a mere symbol it is; there are other factors – such as height – that are more predictive of performance in a race than testosterone. Yet no one is suggesting that Semenya saw off her legs at the knee.
Semenya’s handling of the ongoing case has been dignified. In response to a comment made by Britain’s “national treasure” Sebastian Coe, describing her as “muscle-packed” - she issued a statement that reads like poetry born out of a long tradition of pain:
“The scars Ms Semenya has developed over the past decade run deep. She has endured and forged herself into a symbol of strength, hope and courage.”
It is impossible to read that statement without imagining the intrusive probings of her body that have provoked those scars; the pain in her suffering and transformation –forging molten metal is a brutal process; and the whiff of underlying racism: black bodies seem to contravene more “norms,” as treatment of the Williams’ sisters by the media demonstrates. Semenya might also have taken note of how Serena Williams was judged when she dared to express her anger at unfair treatment. For, more threatening even than a woman in a strong body, is a woman - let alone a black woman - with strong and angry opinions. It’s not surprising then that Semenya’s response to unfairness has been measured.
In her excellent book, “Good and Mad” Rebecca Traister focuses on the “warmth and righteousness of women’s rage,” recognising that for women’s anger to be acceptable and useful it has to espouse a cause and even then it should be muted - it is warm not hot. Semenya’s response bears that out. She speaks not only for herself, but as a role-model and symbol for others. It is perfectly acceptable for Donald Trump to rant and rage about his personal gripes and perceived victimhood – that kind of rage wins (white) men elections – but, for women, and particularly BAME women, anger can only ever be acceptable in the service of others. Traister observes that women need to be strategic with their anger. Serena Williams paid a heavy price for a single, spontaneous outburst. So far, Semenya seems to be heeding Hillary Clinton’s advice that, as a woman, you can’t in any circumstances be really pissed off just for yourself.
But all of this strategizing about anger and dancing around stereotypical norms masks the fact that men and women’s anger (regardless of their skin colour) is only different in the eye of the beholder. Alain de Botton, philosopher and founder of the School of Life, offers a universal characterisation of it as arising from hopes that are disappointed. Anger reveals your beliefs and your underlying optimism. Semenya demonstrated this in her response to the ruling against her and the impossible double bind she now faces. Refusing to take testosterone suppressants may spell the end of her career, at the age of only 28. “How am I going to retire when I'm 28? I still feel young, energetic. I still have 10 years or more in athletics.” When you have such potential that may not be fulfilled and high hopes that are dashed, anger at inequity is a normal and natural response. And it is universal. It is a rage that deserves to be heard, without the need for the person expressing it to become a symbol of hope and courage for others. Like all her fellow humans, Semenya is good enough for wrongs against her to be rectified for her sake alone.
Perhaps we can begin to be optimistic that her day will come. Despite the complicated rules around sporting categories, serious thinking about the conundrum of gender in sport is beginning and it’s not that different from how we think about gender in the rest of our lives. Whilst some hold to traditional notions of a binary system of identification, I support the growing view that– as with other either/or choices – they are an oversimplification. Gender is more like a spectrum (with Barbie at one end and the Incredible Hulk at the other). Men and women sit at varying points across the spectrum, with our complicated, overlapping levels of hormones, unpredictable body hair and varying muscle mass; we all know women who are taller, fitter and stronger than many men. We need to find a better way to group people or maybe we need to give up trying to classify them at all.
For now, the best this blog can achieve is to afford to Semenya the last word; she chooses them well:
“Ms Semenya hopes and dreams that one day she can run free of judgement, free of discrimination and in a world where she is accepted for who she is.”
Amen.