In the New Yorker the superb Ariel Levy writes about the curious case of the South African runner Caster Semenya and the gender-trouble she endured. Levy interviewed Semenya’s childhood coach in the desperately poor region in northern South Africa where she was raised:
“I used to tell Caster that she must try her level best,” Sako said. “By performing the best, maybe good guys with big stomachs full of money will see her and then help her with schooling and the likes. That is the motivation.”
It is a wonderful sensitive portrait of the fascinating place that South Africa now is and a lovely description of why the gender-trouble of Caster is especially resonant in South Africa; a nation where taxonomies have been imposed at great cost and violence. But more than all this, it lets us in on the powerless panic that results from having your gender stolen away from you in the moment of glory. Essential reading.
Your Correspondent, He doesn’t turn cheeks he draws blood
I had just decided to come and contribute to this wellspring of a blog (being outside the loop of the 3 avid readers, I don’t get here too often), but this entry leaves me a little lost for words.
I guess the story could say something about how a poor child from a poor neighbourhood making it big has lost its romance to western society, but a woman who looks like a man?… that still sells newspapers!
But then that’s simplifying the whole thing somewhat. Maybe it’s down to the fact that we love trying to find a dubious reason for someone else’s success, because it helps us think that anyone who does better than us is probably cheating.
But then that’s downright judgemental. Maybe she’s not the only one to go through this, but the only one to have it announced over the loud speakers in the stadium.
The question put to Semenya may have been a responsible one. But how you ask it is a different thing altogether.
v interesting article.