Gender Trouble: The Problem of Looking at Caster Semenya as a Gender Heroine

As a nation we held our breath as we watched our own Caster Semenya take to the proverbial Olympic road for the 800-metres final. My emotional investment in this race was particularly higher than it was with our other athletes. This is because an Olympic gold victory for Semenya would symbolize a personal victory that runs deeper than the personal victories of other athletes. In fact, it would be a victory of cinematic magnitude because, just as with every cliched sports movie you can think of, it would not just be an individual victory but also a team victory. The team in question, of course, is not just the nation but more specifically women, human rights and LGTB activists who have come to hail Semenya as an icon for their individual causes. Unfortunately the gold was not to be but "we" (or, more specifically Semenya) still managed to get an impressive Silver, solidifying Semenya's status as both a sports star and a gender rights heroine.

Now here's my issue. There's no doubt that the Silver is a victory and that Semenya is certainly proud of the sports star title. However, I'm not completely sure if "gender rights heroine" is a title she would want to be associated with, at least not in the way it is here. The average female sports star fights for women's rights by, well, kicking ass on the sporting field which is still considered by many to be a male-dominated terrain. By doing so this average female sports star demonstrates that women are every bit as talented in the sporting arena as men are and, subsequently, that they deserve equal representation within this field. In the case of sporting stars such as Paralympics swimming champion Natalie Du Toit this fight is taken a step further in that she is essentially a representative of women's rights and the rights of disabled people to participate in sporting events at an Olympic level.

Semenya, I imagine, would initially have desired to represent women's rights in the same way as the average female sports star. However, since the emergence of the gender testing controversy and the problems it raised in terms of defining her gender within the sporting arena, Semenya has come to represent a message that is far bigger than the one signified by the average female sports star. Essentially, the term "gender" has been reappropriated in her case to incorporate the term "transgender", a term which the majority of her fellow female athletes do not have to contend with. As the development of media and academic studies on Semenya have demonstrated, the problem with emphasising the term "transgender" in relation to the sporting world is that it focuses in on the politics the athlete represents as opposed to this athlete's talent.

Of course, we are still well aware of Semenya's talent but the fact of the matter is that it is still difficult to disassociate her from the "bigger picture" she has come to represent. Semenya has now joined the legendary Saartjie Baartman as an African woman whose body is now symbolic of particular national and historical ideologies, making her space in the sporting world secondary or, at times, even tertiary. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the problems we face in defining Mandela as an icon and I fear the same issues have arisen in the way we perceive Semenya. She has not become a commercial brand but she has essentially become an academic and humanitarian one.

And yet, therein lies the problem. Whereas we can scrutinize Mandela's image for being turned into a commercial brand, it's difficult to take issue with Semenya's place within academic and humanitarian discourse. Semenya's story is one that opens up multiple debates and dialogues. It causes us to question, negotiate and finally seek solutions for issues which would not have come to light had this story not been told. Whether she likes it or not, Semenya is now an activist for social change and this is her primary claim to fame. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it. Unfortunately biology and social conventions suggest that it is Semenya who is that (possibly reluctant) "someone".

Source for Photo 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya

Source for Photo 2: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/26/caster-semenya-and-the-ioc-s-olympics-gender-bender.html