Leonard Chuene is an asshat. The entire board of ASA (Athletics South Africa) was suspended and this morning I heard on the radio news that a new board has just been appointed.
The athletes and several provincial athletics organisations staged a protest and demanded the resignation of the ASA board. Not a single athlete belonging to ASA wanted the board (and specifically Chuene) to remain. Chuene and his fellow board members have done so much damage over the years. Chuene acted liked ASA was his personal fiefdom.
His treatment of Caster Semenya is disgusting beyond words. She has more smarts and dignity in her little finger than Chuene has in his entire body. I'm angry (furious!) about the way she was treated.
I hope she knows that there are many people out there who support her and wish her everything of the best.
I feel sad for Caster. She's been exploited to the hilt, and has been forced to deal with an extremely personal struggle in the limelight. I really do wish the best for her, and I hope to see her compete on the international level in the future.
"This thing has given her more opportunity! Everybody knows her. The world is out there to say, ‘Your problems are our problems.' Imagine if I had not let her win!"
Oh, you let her win? How nice of you! I was of the impression that she worked her ass off and is an incredible athlete who trained hard, and that she won all by herself. Asshole.
It breaks my heart that she's walking away from running. I hope she still runs privately, for herself, where her only witness is the road and nobody else tries to tell her what's good enough.
Not every culture ties gender so closely to biological sex. For American Indians, gender was aligned with one's role. Although they have recently struggled to embrace Two-Spirit people, their culture historically had a third gender, berdache (now considered a derogatory term). Thailand also has a third gender, kathoey, and consider gender to be fluid.
Hopefully, this incident will spark some fruitful discussion. But yeah, it sucks that it had to come about this way, at Semenya's expense.
"...If the standard turns out to be, for instance, hormone levels, and it is decided that one cannot exceed certain levels of testosterone to play in women's sports..."
i'm confused and fascinated by this approach. wouldn't then a hormone "baseline" be established, not just for women but men also? for example suppose a man doesn't have "enough" testosterone, or has "too much" estrogen compared to the accepted baseline?
would a woman with "too much" testosterone be allowed to compete against men? would a man with "too much" estrogen be allowed to compete against women? or would both groups wind up in some crazy limbo category where they could only compete against each other with similar non-conforming hormone levels?
@mickeyitaliano: Has it ever been established whether Semenya was born intersexed (like the character in Middlesex)? Or are people just speculating at this point?
I hope Butler is actively lobbying the IAFF and every other sports organization. The concept of standards for admission rather than a determination of sex is brilliant and will protect future athletes from the same pain.
I hope Mr. Opportunity has the opportunity to read those quotes, and then I hope he feels like a gigantic schmuck for saying Semenya should be grateful for what has happened to her.
My heart breaks at those quotes from Semenya. What a horrible thing to have to deal with. I hope all these people who demanded the testing are happy now.
The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan (1405). It's a classic, but one I rarely see mentioned.
Another one I don't see here is The Mismeasure of Woman by Carol Tavris. Really good defense of egalitarian feminism as well as a good smackdown of biological reductionism.
If anyone can recommend a good biography of Hildegard of Bingen, I would appreciate it muchly. #feministbooks
Nekropolis, Maureen McHugh. Future world, middle east. Woman who lives in the necropolis agrees to be genetically programmed to be the perfect kept woman. But then she falls in love with someone else. #feministbooks
I'm cowering here, my virtual forearms over my virtual forehead, but...Gone with The Wind.
Scarlett is a woman ahead of her time and, I think, a feminist. A racist, vain feminist, but her racism (which is very disapproved of in the book and is used as an indicator as how far away from her goal of being a lady she goes as the novel progresses) and vanity don't take away from the fact that she constantly stresses that she can do anything a man can do, and most likely better. She shuns motherhood, runs two successful businesses in VERY male dominated worlds (a general store and a wood mill), manages a huge plantation, finds food for her family when there is none, constantly scorns society's notion of what she should and should not do because of her gender... I could go on for pages. The book is not the movie! The book is wonderful! #feministbooks
@agirlnamedstewart: The book is racist. I don't want to derail this thread (and I seem to remember another thread a little while ago on this same topic), but any book where the "good guys" ride with the KKK to avenge an attack on a woman (hello culture of lynching!), as Frank and Ashley do? Or where only one slave is ever mentioned being whipped at Tara? Where there are no mixed-race folks and all the slaves except Mammy and Peter are shown to be child-like and needing the guidance of white people? A book whose whole theme is that everything about Southern culture would've been just fine if those horrible, uncouth Northerners hadn't come down and ruined it all with their War of Northern Aggression?
Yes, the book contains criticisms of white women's expected roles in antebellum society, and Scarlett's rebellions against those roles are a big part of continually driving the story forward. But to make an argument against Scarlett as a feminist icon: she marries her sister's fiance to save her home. She's not exactly about female solidarity, even with other white women. She's really just about herself. I mean, if the character inspires you, fab, but I wouldn't call her feminist. #feministbooks
@agirlnamedstewart: SO fucking hearted for this. I have been making this argument for years, and have been shouted down by several people. Scarlett's inner discourse about how silly one has to be to catch a husband, and how boring it is to tell men how great they are, should convince people.
1. Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler. I have never looked at not just gender identity but identity the same way ever again.
2. La Conciencia de la Mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness by Gloria Anzuldua. I felt a profound loss when I found out she had passed away.
Books:
-The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order
-The Weetzie Bat books, but especially Witch Baby
-Jane Eyre
-Awkward: A Detour by Mary Cappello. I had the privilege of being her student and the fate of being a person in a fluctuating state of awkwardness. This book is fantastic.
-Anything by Julia Alvarez or Isabel Allende
-Meridian by Alice Walker
-UnLunDun by China Mieville and Coraline by Neil Gaiman for their kickass girl protagonists, but especially UnLunDun because it is just so brilliant.
-My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
-The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel #feministbooks
11/24/09
The athletes and several provincial athletics organisations staged a protest and demanded the resignation of the ASA board. Not a single athlete belonging to ASA wanted the board (and specifically Chuene) to remain. Chuene and his fellow board members have done so much damage over the years. Chuene acted liked ASA was his personal fiefdom.
His treatment of Caster Semenya is disgusting beyond words. She has more smarts and dignity in her little finger than Chuene has in his entire body. I'm angry (furious!) about the way she was treated.
I hope she knows that there are many people out there who support her and wish her everything of the best.
11/23/09
11/23/09
Oh, you let her win? How nice of you! I was of the impression that she worked her ass off and is an incredible athlete who trained hard, and that she won all by herself. Asshole.
It breaks my heart that she's walking away from running. I hope she still runs privately, for herself, where her only witness is the road and nobody else tries to tell her what's good enough.
11/23/09
Hopefully, this incident will spark some fruitful discussion. But yeah, it sucks that it had to come about this way, at Semenya's expense.
11/23/09
i'm confused and fascinated by this approach. wouldn't then a hormone "baseline" be established, not just for women but men also? for example suppose a man doesn't have "enough" testosterone, or has "too much" estrogen compared to the accepted baseline?
would a woman with "too much" testosterone be allowed to compete against men? would a man with "too much" estrogen be allowed to compete against women? or would both groups wind up in some crazy limbo category where they could only compete against each other with similar non-conforming hormone levels?
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
Another one I don't see here is The Mismeasure of Woman by Carol Tavris. Really good defense of egalitarian feminism as well as a good smackdown of biological reductionism.
If anyone can recommend a good biography of Hildegard of Bingen, I would appreciate it muchly. #feministbooks
11/14/09
11/14/09
Scarlett is a woman ahead of her time and, I think, a feminist. A racist, vain feminist, but her racism (which is very disapproved of in the book and is used as an indicator as how far away from her goal of being a lady she goes as the novel progresses) and vanity don't take away from the fact that she constantly stresses that she can do anything a man can do, and most likely better. She shuns motherhood, runs two successful businesses in VERY male dominated worlds (a general store and a wood mill), manages a huge plantation, finds food for her family when there is none, constantly scorns society's notion of what she should and should not do because of her gender... I could go on for pages. The book is not the movie! The book is wonderful! #feministbooks
11/14/09
11/14/09
Yes, the book contains criticisms of white women's expected roles in antebellum society, and Scarlett's rebellions against those roles are a big part of continually driving the story forward. But to make an argument against Scarlett as a feminist icon: she marries her sister's fiance to save her home. She's not exactly about female solidarity, even with other white women. She's really just about herself. I mean, if the character inspires you, fab, but I wouldn't call her feminist. #feministbooks
11/14/09
Thank you for posting this! #feministbooks
11/13/09
1. Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler. I have never looked at not just gender identity but identity the same way ever again.
2. La Conciencia de la Mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness by Gloria Anzuldua. I felt a profound loss when I found out she had passed away.
Books:
-The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order
-The Weetzie Bat books, but especially Witch Baby
-Jane Eyre
-Awkward: A Detour by Mary Cappello. I had the privilege of being her student and the fate of being a person in a fluctuating state of awkwardness. This book is fantastic.
-Anything by Julia Alvarez or Isabel Allende
-Meridian by Alice Walker
-UnLunDun by China Mieville and Coraline by Neil Gaiman for their kickass girl protagonists, but especially UnLunDun because it is just so brilliant.
-My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
-The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel #feministbooks