Envisioning African Intersex

Abstract

In 2009, South African Caster Semenya won the 800-meter event at the World Championships in Athletics in track and field. But instead of celebrating her victory, Semenya faced accusations that her body was "too masculine" for her to compete in women's sport. Sporting authorities, doctors, and the media claimed that Semenya was intersex. Over the following de cade, she was subjected to international scrutiny: her body was photographed, she endured explorations of her reproductive organs, and her chromosomes and hormones were evaluated to determine her eligibility to compete in women's sport. Decisions about the "truth" of her gender changed again and again over the following de cade, as supposed experts fought over the par ameters of womanhood and the course of her life. Now with two Olympic gold medals to her name, Semenya continues to contest regulations that currently bar her from her sport. The latest decisions of the International Olympic Organ izing Committee prohibit Semenya from competing in the 800-meter event unless she undertakes surgery or pharmaceutically alters her natu ral testosterone levels (an intervention that previously made her physically ill). Recent headlines indicate the global importance of these conversations, Introduction. Pathologizing Gender Binaries Intersex Images and Citational Chains