On the Eurocentric nature of sex testing: the case of Caster Semenya

Abstract

ABSTRACT Black masculinity and femininity have been read outside the normative gender sphere since plantation slavery. The construction of Black femininity, is apparent in the treatment of Caster Semenya, whose treatment is reminiscent to that of ‘the so-called’ Hottentot Venus, Sarah Bartmann. This comparison has been made due to the voyeurism they have been subjected to and the spectacle that has been made of their bodies. Semenya’s treatment is reflective of the legacy of plantation slavery which created material conditions that were used to dominate and dehumanize African men and women. In this paper, we will examine how Caster Semenya’s femininity has been constructed through a racist, Western lens and the different ways in which race has been used to construct Black femininity, and the divergent discourses of Black women’s sexuality and femininity. Furthermore, we will show how the process of gender verification testing is a means of forcing Semenya to assimilate to a white, Western standard of beauty and ensure the continued exclusion of racialized, particularly, Black (female) athletes in sport.