blather: claiming my peeps

[arrow00]

As a woman who sang bass in choir, who was so flat chested she got teased in swim class, and whose voice changed when she hit puberty (oh fun), I claim Caster Semenya as my peeps and say the ass hats demanding a gender test before they award her the gold medal should go stuff their ideas of gender into the tiniest orifice in their bodies they can find. Preferably one that will cause a painful infection later.

Comments

[zabira.livejournal.com]

YES.

sing it, sistah!

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

\o/ A woman is a woman is a woman. Fuckers.

[andeincascade.livejournal.com]

*stands with you* ♥ Have missed you, sweets.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

::fist o' power:: hey you! ♥

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Word.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

right arm!

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

*stands against the asshats*

Also standing against these asshats (http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid105734.asp).

Also, also, hey you!

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ! What the hell is the matter with people?

and hiya!

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

Having just read the article... I have no idea what is wrong with people, but clearly something is. This is even more insulting than what happened to one of my trans friends. Her employer fired her because one of the other employees claimed "her feet were pointing the wrong way [when she was using the loo]." I think of her every time I'm in a restroom and notice that I'm facing the toilet. Idjits. What are they so worried about? It's not like it's contageous or anyone is likely to go through the hassle of transition just to inconvience/embarass/assault folks of the transitioned-to gender.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

!! I like that. when obviously the *opposite* of true. so much effort, agony, and usually a thousand hoops of humiliating pokes and prods into your psyche by the medical industry stand as proof, I think, of your *respect* for the gender you're transitioning to.

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Beyond outrageous. I'm another flat-chested tall thing, who *never* got boobs. And I dare say if I'd had one ounce of athleticism in me and worked out hard, I could have had a similar physique.

So, what then? She's super fit, winning, from nowhere, and with a deep voice so she must be a man??

I despair.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

I think she's beautiful and I love how her family is telling off the press. :)

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on that one. She's beautiful. So are you.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

:)

[greek-jester.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Even real-life hermaphrodites are far enough over on one side or another of the spectrum to live as one particular gender. How insulting is it that physical appearance can affect whether someone is classified a woman?

[kimboosan.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with Greek_Jester here -- WTF standard of "gender" is being enforced here? Madness.

I admit, when I first saw the headline (across the room on Husband's computer screen) I thought it was from The Onion. *shakes head*

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

exactly. who the fuck gets to judge? they're gonna, what, count her fucking ovaries?

meanwhile, I love the quote from her:

“She said to me she doesn’t see what the big deal is all about,” South Africa team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said Thursday. “She believes it is God given talent and she will exercise it.”

\o/

[edioval.livejournal.com]

Hold your head high, Caster! At 40-something, my first thought was "Can they do that? Can TPTB actually make an 18 year old take tests to prove her gender?" I'm busty but otherwise gifted with more than my share of male characteristics; I've heard my share of "butch" comments in younger years. I hadn't heard about this (my tv/media exposure usually consists of Sesame Street-type shows and my addictions on USA or DVD), thanks for the heads-up, now I can be mad, too!

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

they can make her, apparently, do anything they want. it's fucking invasive. but it sounds from the articles like her family raised her to hold her head high and ignore the bullshit. I hope it gets her through this okay.

[secretlybronte.livejournal.com]

You know, it's completely infuriating. And if they were "just" gender essentialists, I think I could look at them and say they were backward bigots. And despise them, obviously. What I need, however, is for someone to explain to me why a psychologist is on the committee of people deciding whether she is a woman.

So, you need to have the right hormones, apparently. And you need to have the goods downstairs. But then they want to just, you know, "check" with you to see what you consider yourself. In case you secretly consider yourself a dude. Or maybe so they can find out whether you wear dresses enough(?). So they can weigh it all with the gender expert and decide whether you're actually entitled to consider yourself female and let you know. Good god.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

it's *utterly* infuriating. it's invasive and patronizing and ten kinds of sexist. (you notice that it's never an issue on the men's side of the fence.) get *this* quote from the IAAF buttwipe:

“We have to be very scrupulously fair and sensitive about” the issue, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said Thursday. “It’s all very well people saying she’s a man, she looks like a man—that’s not good enough. You have to be very careful and cautious about that.”

biased, much?

[love-jackianto.livejournal.com]

'I claim Caster Semenya as my peeps and say the ass hats demanding a gender test before they award her the gold medal should go stuff their ideas of gender into the tiniest orifice in their bodies they can find. Preferably one that will cause a painful infection later.'
I second that. What the heck, someone must have let the out stupid again.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

honestly. you'd think they'd keep that damned fence closed.

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

Those asshats only come in ONE gender - or maybe two - stupid and stupider! They need to be administered humanity tests don'tcha think?
Good to see your happy typing 'round these parts ma'am. Some of us are missing you and your words!

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

okay - so this wasn't necessarily 'happy' typing. I just realized I wrote that! It's just good to see words crafted by your hand even when they are pointing out social ills!

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

hee! well, I'm pointing out my own lack of porning. I'll have to work on that this weekend while I'm in Tahoe with my family. the rest of them can gamble while I go for bike rides with my laptop.

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

What a family! They gamble and you write porn while exercising! No wonder you are such a balanced human being!

[thayln.livejournal.com]

Oh, please. Perhaps someone should perform a species test on the fuckers to see if they're human. Jesus.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

!!!!

and oooh! got the Pointy Finger of Hutch!

[ladybrigid.livejournal.com]

A-effin'-men! I know a number of women (and frankly wish I was one of them, being of the exact opposite build) who are very lean and athletic. Women can come in ALL shapes and sizes and levels of athletic ability; and the sore losers who who are bitching right now need, IMNSHO, to take a chill pill and get over themselves.

[arrow00.livejournal.com]

the more I read the more I'm appalled. it's also apparently a little bit of a race thing, which I wasn't aware of. but these gender challenges tend to come more toward athletes from African nations (why am I not surprise? I didn't realize, but I am not surprised.)

your icon is made of perfect.

[ladybrigid.livejournal.com]

It used to be directed toward eastern European athletes back in the day (I remember a LOT of pissing and moaning every time one of them won a medal in the Olympics). You don't like the race/ nationality/ gender ect ad nausem... then they CAN'T be as talented as your team. Jerks.
Oh, and thanks for the props on my icon. You can make some really cool ones at http://www.says-it.com/. They also do the really cool church sign designer there.

[meresy.livejournal.com]

>:(

[dragonflymuse.livejournal.com]

Agreeance. The whole situation is unbearably icky. I cannot imagine how she feels right now, or how she is coping. So sad.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

GRRARRRRR.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

The more I see of this story the more I'm fascinated* by (a) how many experts from how many disciplines it takes to identify a woman and (b) the thought that when a woman is successful the response is to want to reclassify her as a man.


*for values of fascinated that include being infuriated as well