In this discussion post, you will take Anna North’s Vox article on Caster Semenya and the accompanying video as a primary text for analysis. Using the theoretical texts we read alongside the case of Semenya, you will trace out the logics influencing the targeting and punishing of Semenya as a female athlete and offer a critique of these logics.
Your response should:
- Recapitulate the understanding of male/female and masculine/feminine as they are seen by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and others who challenged Semenya’s status as a female athlete. In other words, summarize the relevant parts of the article/video that explain why Semenya punished.
- Using our readings from Simone de Beauvoir and Anne Fausto-Sterling, analyze the logics the IAAF and others used in their reasoning to punish Semenya. For your analysis, find relevant passages from the theoretical texts that explain how sexism and other systems of oppression were operating in the Semenya case. Fausto-Sterling should be used to focus on elements of supposed biological difference while de Beauvoir will help in examining how this difference was constructed through social institutions. You must use de Beauvoir and Fausto-Sterling, but you are welcome to bring in other readings or outside texts to help with your analysis.
- In your own words, articulate your critique of the decision to punish Semenya. Essentially, based on what you wrote in the previous section, what are your own thoughts on this case? A critique does not necessarily have to be a disagreement, but rather an explanation of how you arrived at a conclusion based on your analysis. However, given the readings of the week, should you agree with the decision to punish Semenya, it will also be necessary to explain your departure from de Beauvoir and Fausto-Sterling.
Responses should be 500-750 words. No citation page is needed, but you must provide in-text, parenthetical citations when you quote or paraphrase a reading.
This is the article below
Caster Semenya: what her story says about gender and race in sports – Vox
The Five Sexes, Revisited (unc.edu) here is the other reading
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