The Case of Caster

There is no hiding my complete outrage and heart brokenness over what has been done to South African athlete Caster Semenya. The 18 year old runner won a world championship 800m race in Berlin last month, but her gender was called into question by the International Association of Athletics Federations due to the fact that she has a low voice and appears to have some masculine features. The IAAF insisted on gender testing. Though the official results of the test have not been released by the IAAF and will not be until November, Sydney, Australia's Daily Telegraph reported this Friday that the testing showed Semenya (though she has external female genitalia) has no womb or ovaries, but rather has undescended testes. The Daily Telegraph has called her a hermaphrodite and has smeared her and the South African government for wanting her privacy. Caster came from a small, impoverish village. There is no way she could have known about her inter-sexuality. With the unwanted attention from the media, Semenya has withdrawn from a race she was to participate in in South Africa this weekend. Can you imagine the impact this is having on this 18 year old girl? She has lived her whole life as a female. People are calling her "it" and "not a 'real' woman!" Does the media have no compassion? Running is a part of who Semenya is and now athletic associations are considering banning her from competitions. Where is she supposed to run now? There are no world championships for "hermaphrodites." What if she ever wanted to get married? Now that her personal business has been spread world-wide, there won't be a normal life for her. I understand that the IAAF specifically states that they reserve the right to confirm gender, however, I feel this was taken too far. Is the IAAF going to start gender testing everyone? There have certainly been other athletes who haven't looked the feminine part.
See above photos of Valerie Vili of New Zealand and Franka Dietzsch of Germany. Are these two women not women because they don't look as feminine as some might want them to? Should they be made to submit to gender testing? Since when does a lack of femininity give sports associations the right to do gender testing, especially in such a public manner?!
To me, Caster Semenya is still a beautiful, talented woman just as she is... as she wants to be.

Read more about Caster Semenya in this article by Associated Press.