Sex identity and Caster Semenya

Yvonne McCalla Sobers (Families Against State Terrorism Jamaica)

The investigation into World Games gold medal winner Caster Semenya has raised issues of how to define male and female. It has also drawn attention to discrimination against those whose sex identity is not easily classified by society’s standards.

According to medical science, every foetus starts out with no sexual distinction. The default position is said to be female, and the foetus becomes male as a result of an interplay of hormones in the womb between conception and the seventh week of the pregnancy. If the foetus has an unusual level of certain hormones, or an unusually high or low ability to respond to the hormones, then intersex may result.

When the child is born, doctors will look at its external reproductive organs to decide whether “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl.” Doctors usually have to decide on how small a penis needs to be before it is classified as a clitoris, or whether an unusual combination or parts and organs leans to male or female. However, variations in internal reproductive organs might not be noticed till puberty. Doctors are therefore highly likely to disagree about how to define male and female, and their decisions are arbitrary at best.

An adult may therefore be born with anatomy that doesn’t fit the usual definitions of male and female. Person A might look female but was born with a penis. Person B might have genitals that are in between male and female: a large clitoris, a tiny penis, absence of a vaginal opening, or a scrotum that resembles labia. Some cells may have XX (female) chromosomes, and others XY (male); someone with XX chromosomes can be born with genitals that appear male. In any event, the sizes of breasts, penises, clitorises, scrotums, labia, testes and ovaries vary a lot. In addition, Person C might be male by physical and bio-chemical tests, but consider herself to be a female imprisoned in a male body. The reverse is also true.

Intersex is not always evident. It may manifest as infertility, or as a male whose haemorrhoids curiously bleed every 28 days. For some persons, intersex is discovered if an autopsy takes place, or they may live and die and never find out.

In small communities in the Dominican Republic and in Papua New Guinea, there is a condition that causes children raised as girls to become male. During puberty, the children’s male hormones cause the penis to grow, and male sexual characteristics to develop. The men assumed male gender roles, married , and fathered children.

Most societies, however, view intersexed persons with aversion if not hostility. As a result, those whose identity, appearance, or behavior fall outside of conventional gender norms can face hostility even from their own families. They face the choice of trying to live in a body and with gender roles that not congruent with their gender identity. Their distress can be increased by the need to find resources for hormone treatment and for social support. The shame and guilt associated with the discrimination places intersexed persons at risk for committing suicide. Data show that at least 50 per cent of intersexed persons in the US have attempted suicide least once by their twentieth birthday.

Whether or not investigations show eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya to be an intersexed person, having her sexual identity placed under public scrutiny must be traumatic for her and her family. She has reportedly been “crudely humiliated” in the past, and some of her fellow athletes in Berlin have spoken out against her. However, if she survives this attention to her genitalia with her psyche intact, then her situation could serve to open opportunities for enlightenment on a topic that is usually taboo. This could be a chance to learn to accept differences.