Public Humiliation

Public Humiliation

            Caster Semenya was born in a small village in South Africa.  She won the world championships for running.  This was a great accomplishment in her young life and it looked like she was going to have an illustrious career as a runner.  Then, one accusation was all it took to change her life forever.  The media took this accusation and made it news to the whole world.   The media was the main source of her humiliation because they drew unnecessary attention to this matter, violated her privacy, and made a story of the controversy. 

            It all started when the other runners felt that it was unfair that Caster was allowed to race with the other women.  Many of the other runners felt that she was too masculine to be considered a woman and that it provided an unfair advantage.  The other competitors wanted Caster to take a gender test in order to prove that she was a female because to the naked eye she looks very masculine.  The test was supposed to be done in private, but the media got a hold of the story and it was in the news everywhere.  Her whole investigation was made public and many people voiced their thoughts on the topic of whether Caster was male or female, especially the other competitors.  "Even if she is a female, she's on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man," said Diane Cummins, one of the women that raced against Caster.  It was a dark time for Caster and her family because everyone was questioning her gender.  It was found that she had the chromosomes of XXY, meaning she was both male and female.

            This whole situation could have been handled in a better manner.  Caster’s gender dispute did not need to be made public for the entire world to hear.  It was a controversy, but it did not need so much speculation and attention focused on whether this one person was male or female.  The attention could have been better used on a hero in a small town, or on the many questions with the economy.  It was a private matter to begin with and should have been kept that way.  There was no need for everyone to embarrass this young woman about her gender.  When I first heard about this story, I felt that the other competitors were just sore losers and took the easy way out and accused Caster of being a male.  It was really unfair how she was publically humiliated for having a difference, when as a culture we are taught to be tolerant of the differences of others.  The differences between us make us unique and make the world diverse.  There was no need to make her test results be released to the public, and it should have been kept private, but sadly it was not.

She is a professional athlete and it is one of the effects of being so athletic.  The job description of being an athlete does not list being humiliated in the public’s eye.  We hear stories about when an athlete is caught breaking the law, but none of those stories are analyzed and talked about as much as this one was.  Caster did what she loved to do, which is run competitively and no one can blame her for pursuing her passion.  The media does have the responsibility of reporting any controversies that occur in sports because sports are part of the media.  This is true, but how many people in the media can explain how it feels to have everyone know about a private condition.  The media needs to take accountability that they did change Caster’s life forever.  It was not just a controversy of whether she cheated or used performance enhancing drugs; it is a condition that she was born with.  The media invaded her privacy by