Man or woman?

Looks like a gay man to me.

The NY Times article about the incident shows that the NY Times editors don’t understand the difference between the words “gender” and “sex.” The dictionary defines gender as “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex.” The issue isn’t whether Caster Semenya behaves like a man, but whether biologically she (or he) is entirely of the female sex.

Comments

[Wade Nichols]

"The ANC's youth league condemned the "racist agenda" of "imperialist countries", while the Young Communist League argued: "This smacks of racism of the highest order. It represents a mentality of conforming feminine outlook within the white race."

So that's what Vim has been up to lately, issuing press releases for the Young Communist League in South Africa!

[mike]

Looks like a gay man? Does he have a gay nose, or gay eyes or something? Is the tracksuit gay? Is he holding the flag in a gay way? I'm not the PC police, but that's an odd thing to say.

I agree that it looks like a man, but I don't feel like looking too closely. The possibility that it's some kind of trans-person or biological aberration makes me queasy, and while I'm mildly interested in the result I really would have preferred to have never heard of this story at all.

[sfer]

Wikipedia is backing the NYT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender

People use the word "sex" less often than they used to in this context because the word "sex" also has the definition of "a sexual act". It is too easy to say or write something that is a double entendre with the word "sex" so they use "gender" instead.

[Gannon]

Some people believe that all human beings are born as a man or as a woman. But there are a few cromosomical conditions which can place an individuum somewhere between a man or a woman, like hermaphrodites. There are also people who are genetically xy, but the y cromosome doesn't express itself so they look like women, meaning that the genotype is male but the phenotype is female. A lot of the really good female atlethes have some weird genetical condition which makes them half female, half male, usualy these genetical conditions make them produce much greater quantities of testosterone. There isn't however a third sex. Transvestites are just homosexuals disguised as women.
This female athlete has probably some genetic condition which de facto makes her half female half male, or at least a hormonal condition of producing too much testosterone.

[Peter]

Now it turns out that Lady Gaga might be a man:

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2009/08/lady-gaga-hermaphrodite-picture-sparks-rumors/

[Anthony]

Academics have gender, regular people have sex.

[Petey]

If indeed she is a she, that's the ugliest she I've seen in a while.

I agree with Mike; I wish I'd never heard of this story.

[Chuck]

I have a post up about this. Check it out. Non PC.

http://chuckross.blogspot.com/2009/08/case-of-caster-semenya-non-pc.html

[Petey]

Just looked at the chick's crotch: seems like there is no package

[Gamma Man]

Are we ready to scream "racism!"? Unlike the Williams sisters, she doesn't shave her moustache. Very mannish, even for a Subsaharan female. Methinks this is some sort of intersexual creature. If the lab results prove me wrong, I'll issue an apology for the lady.

[roissy]

"Just looked at the chick's crotch: seems like there is no package"

deceptive. man in the boat, or really fat man in the boat?

[miles]

Steve Sailer has pointed out that steroids give females more bang-for-their buck because women have lower (about a tenth) of the androgen levels of males normally.

So if this woman is taking some roids, it will give her a larger advantage than a male athlete taking roids over his competitors.

One commenter pointed out that she does not seem to have male genitalia or ambigious genitalia (hermaphrodite). The adrenal cortex is the only other place in the body that makes testosterone that Im aware of (correct me if Im wrong).

If she is drug free and genetically a female, then its obvious her androgen receptors must be more chemically acute, or numerous, or slower to degrade than other women's are, because she definitely is a manly-looking female.

[ogunsiron]

Young Communist League argued: "This smacks of racism of the highest order. It represents a mentality of conforming feminine outlook within the white race."
---
Huhuh. I guess black men are supposed to find that "thing" attractive because she represents authentic black beauty or something ? Would any of those young communists actually go for that thing ? It's true that our ( black men) taste is often different from the western mainstream's, but i don't think we're different enough to find Caster even remotely attractive. Even by male standards she's fugly .

[imposterjohn]

Here is Caster Semenya speaking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bqET22vEU&feature=related

I also thought this page was interesting:
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/print/1462/intersex-case-studies?page=1

From the video the person in question looks/sounds like a man.

[James A. Donald]

Caster is not a gay male. He is a 100% heterosexual male with a ten inch schlong, a moustage, broad shoulders and rippling six pack abs.

The only thing that supposedly makes him a hermaphrodite or an intersexual is the capacity to retract his testicles into his body, which when I was a kid was regarded as a party trick, not regarded making one any the less male.