"This is Not Natural:" Caster Semenya's Gender Threats

After Caster Semenya won a gold medal in the 800-meter race at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, news was released that the governing body of the race was having Semenya undergo both drug and "gender tests." The announcement was accompanied by a large body of public discourse-news...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical studies in media communication 2012-06, Vol.29 (2), p.81-96
Main Author: Sloop, John M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Athletes
Caster Semenya
Communication
Competition
Criticism
Discourse analysis
Drugs
Gender
Hegemony
Performativity
Race
Semenya, Caster
Sex
Sports
Threat
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Summary:After Caster Semenya won a gold medal in the 800-meter race at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, news was released that the governing body of the race was having Semenya undergo both drug and "gender tests." The announcement was accompanied by a large body of public discourse-news stories, blogs, comedy routines-that, in effect, provided a snapshot view of contemporary cultural understandings of gender and its signifiers. In this essay, I provide a description of the various hegemonic understandings of gender, point to fissures in these articulations, and reflect on criticism, transglobal communication, and competitive sport.
ISSN:1529-5036
1479-5809
DOI:10.1080/15295036.2012.670876