blather: claiming my peeps

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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!

[andeincascade.livejournal.com]

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

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Word.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

*stands against the asshats*

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

Also, also, hey you!

[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.

[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?

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[thayln.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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