22: Caster Semenya: When Protecting Women Hurts Women

Throughout history, women have consistently faced more scrutiny in the public eye. While we’ve made tremendous progress, we’ve also made detrimentally large steps backward. 

Caster Semenya, an Olympic gold medalist, is one of the many women who can attest to the direct discrimination and violation females face in sports. As an athlete, Caster has experienced years of double-standards, invasive medical examinations, and unnecessary intervention throughout her career. 

Today, Sara and Misasha discuss the issues with the way gender is treated and evaluated in sports and why we should all take action. This episode is packed with educational and insightful takes on how we view gender and athletic norms. 

 

Show Highlights: 

Contrasting Caster Semenya to Michael Phelps  Who is Caster Semenya and why she’s a reoccurring controversial topic  What an Intersex condition is and how it impacts those who have it  Unpacking the issues of dividing gender with arbitrary measurements  How genetics come into play in sports  The direct discrimination Caster Semenya has faced throughout her career  The slippery slope with trying to create a metric to identify gender  Why normalizing male athletics is dismissive and discriminatory to women  How measuring hormones is a step back from recognizing women as athletes  How to take action in changing the standards for women’s athletics 

 

Links: 

https://www.dearwhitewomen.com

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @Dearwhitewomenpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dearwhitewomenpodcast/

Twitter: @Dwwpodcast

 

Resources mentioned: 

Washington Post Article about Caster Semenya