One of the questions Nik posed was if a male athlete would be treated the same way? I think this is a very interesting point to consider.
If we reversed the situation - say a man with a very feminine appearance dominated a men's track event, would his gender be questioned? No, probably not. It would receive plenty of media attention, but I feel like the situation would probably be more centered around the man's sexual orientation rather than this actual gender. Since most people see males as being athletically superior to females in general, people wouldn't opt f or a gender test or anything, since by that thinking he wouldn't have an advantage if he was actually female.
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I agree with Jordan on this point that if a male athlete had feminine features I dont think there would be any testing to see if that male is in fact a male. How is that fair? To me it's not fair at all, but when a female of her athleticism is out there, people are going to start spectulating about her sexuality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the post and the comment. This probably would have never happened if a man had outraced the other men athletes. Instead, he would be considered a sport phenomenom and even if he looked somewhat feminine only his sexuality would be questioned. I also think that if a male was to be tested for his gender and it came out he was a hermaphrodite, he would still probably be able to race with the men because his speed is still good enough to qulify to run with the men track runners.
ReplyDeleteIsabel and Kurtis I think you both make good points. Another question to think about is do men ever have to think about their sex being questioned in sport?
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