News Headlines

I've been very fascinated and saddened by a news headline on Yahoo (I know, hardly reliable news, but all that I look at currently) about a female athlete who won the 800, but is being questioned about her genetic make-up. Why this is fascinating to me, I don't know, except that it targets a conundrum of science that I don't understand. To look at this girl physically, you can understand, to some degree, why her femaleness would be called into question. She is very muscular, masculine looking, flat as a board, and apparently, has a deep, gruff voice. She is not being questioned for cheating, there is just concern that she is not truly genetically a girl. The poor girl has dealt with this her whole life, calmly, aside from one time when an individual was trying to ban her from using the women's restroom. To this, she threatened to pull down her pants to prove her femaleness, thankfully, not having to resort to such actions. My question is, so what if she isn't genetically a girl? Her whole life, that is what she has thought she was. Is it fair to take away her chance to compete because her physical body doesn't fit into the definitions of male and female that our society has defined? Especially since I've been married to Pete, a urologist, I've learned of some genetic defects at birth that may leave some individuals androgynous. I wonder how our society will learn to deal with these types of issues as they become more apparent and as science progresses. Anyhow, that's the thought that's been on my mind tonight, preventing me from sleeping. The injustices done to those who have no control over their situation. I think I'd better sleep on it, though I doubt I'll have an answer tomorrow, or anytime soon.