Runner Reportedly Fails Gender Test
Indian Athlete Won Silver Medal in Asian Games
AP Sports
NEW DELHI, India (Dec. 17) – An Indian runner who won a silver medal in the women’s 800 meters in the Asian Games this month has failed a gender test and is expected to be stripped of the medal, according to reports Monday.
Santhi Soudarajan took the gender test in Doha, Qatar, after the victory.The test reports sent to the Indian Olympic Association on Sunday said Soudarajan “does not possess the sexual characteristics of a woman,” The Times of India reported. The test was administered by a medical commission set up by the games’ organizers.
There are no compulsory gender tests during events sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federation, but athletes can be asked to take a gender test. The medical evaluation panel usually includes a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, and an internal medicine specialist.
The full article is here.
Huh, what a dangerous topic, I’d say. I REALLY wonder what the feminists have to say on this. In a sport where physical strenght shouldn’t matter much since it is presumably a mind game (don’t sell me the endurance crap here)the feminists should defend the creature (a male of a female) on the basis on their belief of mental capabilities equality between the genders. Will they?
Meanwhile on American Idol there was this 40 something man who insisted to the judges that he was only 26 and even had the birth certificate to prove it. Simon made short work of him.
maybe topolov can put on a wig and play women too. but which bathroom would he use??
“In a sport where physical strength shouldn’t matter much since it is presumably a mind game…”
Actually, Santhi Soundarajan (the quoted AP story misspelled it as “Soudarajan”) is a runner, not (as far as I know) a chess player. The silver medal in question was won in the women’s 800 meters.
Martin read before you write..it helps! Well you know, the asian games were not only chess. The athlet acused is a runner. YOu know these people that RUN… This means that there is obviously physical strength that plays a role…
As for chess, though the current post had nothing to do with this, it is obviously due to sociological reasons. How many girls and how many boys play chess to start with.. And there are a lot more arguments…
But some guy said:
Never argue with an idiot. He will bring you down to his level and beat you with his expereince 🙂
Derida, true – I didn’t read the article and prematurely assumed it was a chess competition (that’s a chess blog after all). However, the fact that you’re so bitter about my post and even started throwing statistics and epithets at me proves only one thing – you’re suffering the feminist symptom BADLY. So, go see Borat and get a life.
The list of experts didn’t include a molecular biologist. A simple DNA test would show conclusively whether the runner was male or female.
“Strange and wacky story!”
I am dying of curiosity how would Susan answer the following question:
Why is there separate men’s chess and women’s chess? In physical sports one can fairly state that the genetic differences make males stronger, faster, etc.
What is in chess what makes males and females genetically different, so they compete in separate leagues?
The Polgars broke grounds in this, but I never heard that the two separate “league” should be downright abolished and both men and women should compete in chess based on merits, not divided by gender.
How come?
Gabor
yeah, martin and deidra,
do not argue with idiots 🙂
bloggy
I like how the article says
“Sports officials in the athlete’s home state of Tamil Nadu said that they have no information on her whereabouts.”
“her” whereabouts?
I believe that athletes in the original “Olympic” games held in Ancient Greece – had to perform naked
Would this help to prevent gender cheating?
🙂
I do not know the entire story. It has not been released yet. However, let me state that with some individuals, the scientists can argue if a person is male or female. There are some people with conflicting data as to their sexuality.
I think it is much better to show some sympthy for this person. She never knew she had anything different about her. Now she has been embarrassed to the entire world. One of the articles states that this problem has come up in India in the past. I guess they have so many poor people.
We are now getting all kinds of animals especially like fish with both sexes and with mixed up sex and no sex and other things. The environment can be devestating on a new developing fetus which can then develop in abnormal ways.
No one is calling this person a man or a male. They are simply stating that she does not have certain characteristics of women that the sport has decided they want. So please show some compassion until more of the story comes out.
By the way 3 previous attempts were used to define male female in the sports and those previous attempts had to be abandoned because they did not work. maybe this one is not working so well either.
How do we normally define male and female by the X & Y sex chromosomes. But guess what. That does NOT WORK all the time.
Male Bass Across Region Found to Be Bearing Eggs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501384.html
Sex Genes Of Fish Disrupted By Common Household Products
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/07/020730075836.htm
hope it does not happen to you or your children.
“I do not know the entire story. It has not been released yet. However, let me state that with some individuals, the scientists can argue if a person is male or female. There are some people with conflicting data as to their sexuality.”
Well, you are right about one thing, you don’t know the whole story. Stop trying to defend cheaters. HE knew exactly what sex HE was. HE knew HE couldn’t compete against men in the 800, so HE cheated like hell and made a mockery of the race. HE deserves to be humiliated and HE is a HE. And stop with the conflicting data crap. You made that up. Show one legitimate medical paper showing that this has ever happened with humans (I don’t give a crap about fish). You can’t because it doesn’t exist. Cheaters deserve to be humiliated. Every time a cheater is defended by a bunch of dolts, it just breeds more cheaters.
The thing is, as Gabor mentioned, it is much easier to do well in chess as a woman in the women division (WIM, WGM, playing for country, world titles etc.) then in the overall.
If I were a woman at my standard, I would have played for my country- instead I am just any amateur player for the men. So you could imagine some-one pretending to be a woman for the honour even in chess. By the way positive discrimination occurs- the women of relatively weak standard get extra support, training, discounts and all just because of their sex. In fact, if I had had the same support, who knows how far I could have got? (I would not expect it at my level, it is just comparison sake)
So if you are a woman taking up chess- stick with it- your chances of success are much better than men (as measured against others of the same sex)!
Dear Martin,
Of course you would not know that Derrida was a MALE french philosopher, and thus you concluded I am a woman feminist…
That is quite not true 🙂 Neither Derrida nor me are female. The statistics I gave are just some obvious facts.
The separate sections in chess is a positive discrimination measure, that is nesecarry the same way all positive discriminations are important when you have a part of your society being left behind for social reasons. Women have make progress, but still a lot inequalities, and in particular in chess as well in sciences, exist.
As for the comment about the idiot.. It was a very nice quote that I was trying to find an oportunity to post 🙂 And you did give me that 🙂
“I think it is much better to show some sympthy for this person. She never knew she had anything different about her. Now she has been embarrassed to the entire world. One of the articles states that this problem has come up in India in the past. I guess they have so many poor people.”
Its been reported (s)he has earlier failed the Gender test for employment in Indian Railways. Though, I dont why a Gender test was done by Indian Railways. But (s)he is aware “something” wrong.
yeah, lets test all the superstar female pole vaulters while we’re at it, as well.
By the way positive discrimination occurs- the women of relatively weak standard get extra support, training, discounts and all just because of their sex.
That’s not exactly a positive overall, you know. I am a woman and I was offered a discounted rate for lessons from a local IM simply because I am female. Obviously chess wasn’t the only thing he was interested in.
Put it this way, would you want a reduction in your tutoring costs if you had to deal with your instructor making passes at you?
Derrida with double “r” was a philosopher. Derida as spelled out in your nick name is either female or faggot’s name 🙂
“There is no sense in doing without the concepts of metaphysics in order to attack metaphysics. We have no language-no syntax and no lexicon-which is alien to this history; we cannot utter a single destructive proposition which has not already slipped into the form, the logic, and the implicit postulations of precisely what it seeks to contest.”
–some French guy
1. Biological determinism ain’t so easy. How to account for Kleinfelter’s syndrome, Turner’s syndrome, XXX, XYY, Mosaicism, de la Chappele syndrome, etc.? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
2. How to call someone a “faggot” without reinscribing MALE/female, STRAIGHT/gay? The deconstructive moment has arrived. 😉
3. If the male (to date) peaks at 2850ish and the female peaks at 2730ish, then will hermaphrodites peak at 2790? Or perhaps 2970?
4. The athlete in question could be a product of hormonal engineering (like certain swimmers of the DDR). Alternatively, perhaps she was born that way…a strange and wacky human being, like the rest of us.
“maybe topolov can put on a wig and play women too. but which bathroom would he use??”
His opponent would accuse him of cheating, saying that “she” walked in a suspicious way, and every time “she” went to the toilet, she left the toilet seat up. ^^