Thread by @brenkjm

My argument against what's happening with #CasterSemenya and the dangers behind searching for a clear 'scientific' rule/test on who counts as a woman (Thread)...

As a man, many will ask whether my opinion is relevant to a discussion like this. If that's how you feel I understand, and so probably best to get off here.

I feel I need to start by establishing that the question at the heart of this debate is whether Semenya is a woman or not.

The other argument presented is that this is just about competitiveness. In other words, Semenya's higher than average testosterone levels are the equivalent of a performance enhancing drug and need to be countered for a fair competition to take place.

But of course this isn't a performance-enhancing drug, it's the hormone levels of the body she was born with. There isn't a logical distinction I can see between her T levels and other natural, physical traits that give a competitive advantage - Usain Bolt's height for example.

(And actually, I don't see a problem with grouping sports by a physical trait - for example in boxing, competitors are grouped by weight for a more competitive match. But that's not what's happening here.)

No, this is about the fact that Semenya doesn't fit with most people's ideas of womanhood. Her face shape, build, height and speed seem too 'manly'. When she won in 2009 a fellow 800m finalist, Elisa Cusma, told reporters: “For me, she’s not a woman, she’s a man.”

This is why the authorities have for years been investigating her womanhood, starting with a 'gender test' in 2009. Other successful (but more 'feminine') female athletes are not investigated. No-one is interested in the effect T levels might have on competition in male athletics

As the Cas statement said, this is about 'the integrity of female athletics'. The fear is, if we let her compete as a woman, where do we stop? Trans women as well? Anyone who 'identifies' as a woman? No separate categories for men and women at all?

This feeds into a broader worry. At a time of continuing discrimination against women, many feel that female-only spaces are under threat. This is one of the arguments you hear against accepting trans women as women - whether it's bathrooms, refuges, prisons etc.

And now, the fear is, female sports will be compromised as well. If we allow Semenya in then soon trans women will come into this space as well - one of the few places our society has for women to flourish - and use their physical advantages to sideline women.

For that reason many are searching for a rule that will helpfully decide who is or isn't a woman. The motivation for such a rule is not (I would argue) in the spirit of scientific enquiry: using categories to understand the complexity of the natural world ...

Rather it's politically motivated: we need a rule that matches 'common sense' - i.e. that excludes trans women and others - like Semenya - who aren't really women.

Usually the way this goes is to look for some rule based on genitalia, chromosomes, or type of reproductive cell. A year ago I made a video how all these traits have fuzzy boundaries and none give the hard-and-fast clarity people want

I didn't include levels of testosterone in my video because it seemed so random. Women know they're women without knowing what their level of testosterone is, and indeed we'd never heard of that hormone for thousands of years and still had men and women.

(To be clear, I don't think testosterone levels are a good test of womanhood, but I also don't think you need a hard-and-fast test in order to have categories. Most of the concepts we use in everyday life - everything from race, to the colour 'orange' to ideas like 'bravery'...

... don't have watertight definitions but they're still helpful. There's isn't a completely hard-and-fast rule for what is a man or woman is, but it doesn't follow from that that men and women don't exist.)

So at heart this is about who is a woman or not, and this is a political question. It's similar to the debates around the definition of marriage when gay marriage is discussed. But there isn't a scientific test for this question, and we shouldn't try and outsource it to science.

One of the consequences of this approach is we end up pressuring athletes to take medically unnecessary drugs in order to compete. Is that ethical? Do we know what the side-effects of that could be?

The appropriate solution is a community vote: maybe that's a vote in parliaments, or maybe it's a vote of her competitors and athletics fans - I'm not sure, but the question shouldn't be dressed up in science, but presented in brutal clarity: is Caster Semenya a woman?

For me Caster Semenya is clearly a woman. She lives her life as a woman and I think she should take part without restriction. Personally, I see this is an example of how diverse and amazing womanhood is: High T, butch, feminine, intersex... something to be celebrated.

I also think it's cool that intersex women like Semenya - who will face a lifetime of prejudice, health issues, and who are often subjected to medically unnecessary surgery as children - have an arena in which they might have an advantage.

Generally, I think 'does the athlete identify as a woman?' is the only test athletics needs. I think the nightmare scenario people imagine, of men who live as men but 'identify' for the sake of winning athletic competitions is just that: a nightmare, not reality.

If it was an issue - and I accept that it could happen - then a vote on the individual case by the community would be the way to resolve it, not a logically inconsistent 'scientific' test.

Science is best used by the curious to explore and understand how the world works, with all its beauty, diversity and wonder - not as a stick to beat those we think of as different. (End of thread)

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