If one were to watch a video about Caster Semenya's win in the 800 meter final, they would see a South African woman pull ahead and finish far ahead of her competitors, besting her second place finish in London. Unlike most videos from the Olympics, however, when they pull down to the comments section, there are not words of support or awe. In fact, there are very few positive comments at all. Instead, they will be slapped in the face by an onslaught of bigotry and foul language that is no stranger to the internet, but rarely found in response to a gold medal win. What is the difference in this case, and why do these people hate Caster Semenya so much?
There will be words thrown around, words like "hyperandrogenism." Along with much ruder words, these commenters are claiming that Caster Semenya had a biological advantage coming into the competition since she was born intersex. The definition of interesex is broad, and it refers to any condition which a person is born with a combination of male and female sex organs. Their argument is that since Caster has much higher levels of testosterone than other women, that means her competing against women is cheating, as the testosterone makes her more manly, and thus more athletic.
The hate to Semenya goes farther than just being concerned about cheating. Although Semenya has parts of both female and male sex organs, many people refuse to use female pronouns for her, and say "he" when referring to the athlete. Since she was born, Semenya has lived her life as a woman. Since she has some male sex organs, has high levels of testosterone, and is married to a woman, she is apparently not considered enough of a woman. This is not only transphobic, but also homophobic. Some people have gone even farther, referring to her as "it," stripping her of her humanity because of a biological condition that she has no control over. Cruel people on the internet are not the only people who have given Semenya grief. Some of her own teammates even refused to congratulate her on her win.
The question remains: Does Semenya's condition give her a biological advantage over other competitors?
Yes, higher levels of testosterone could help her performance. But what about a woman with elevated testosterone levels who is not intersex, would people care, or is their hate for Semenya elevated by their own biases against anyone who does not fit into the gender binary? And why is sex advantage always an uproar, but other advantages are not? Should we ban every tall person from the NBA since they have an unfair biological advantage over short people? Should swimmers with large feet like Michael Phelps be banned from swimming since they give him a flipper-like advantage while swimming? Should short gymnasts be banned? Almost all Olympic athletes have some sort of biological advantage that they can't control either, but this one doesn't fit into society's views as normal.
