Friday, August 21, 2009

Irony Butterfly

I normally try to steer away from off-color humour, but I cannot help but to nominate the following individual for "Most Ironic Name, 2009":


For those not familiar (from SI.com):

Caster Semenya has been asked by to undergo a gender test, this after she burst onto the scene by posting a world leading time of 1 minute, 56.72 seconds in the 800 meters at the African junior championships. Her case gained more attention when she won the gold medal at the world championships on Aug. 19.


I think we've got a winner.

3 comments:

  1. I can see requiring a doctor's note, their country's version of a birth certificate, x-ray, or another gender-confirming document/picture; but the list of required tests they are putting [this person] through is beyond the normal "inny or outy" check.

    Here's the BBC's take:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/8210471.stm

    In the list of doctors and specialist required by the board, they have "psychologist." If the person is physically a female but mentally a male, does the record become null?

    "I'm just sayin"

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  2. Those are great points and I understand most of the doctors and specialists... my over-simplification is certainly not true.

    In reading your linked article, I still cannot see the mental gender of a person (with the use of a psychologist) being an important determining factor for determining if he/she should be competing as a male or female.

    Most limit-testing sports (like lifting the most, running the fastest) are not based on someone's mental gender. I know mental capacity has a lot to do with all competitive sports - especially those with strategy - but find it hard to believe that someone would be in a different class for thinking along different lines.

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  3. "Innie/Outie Test" is awesome. Thanks for the laugh, Sean.

    As far as the psychologist is concerned, pretty sure I would need one if they told me my gender test results were inconclusive...

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