In era of post-race (bwa-ha-ha), we still have the looming prejudices around sexuality, in particular, a post-Victorian, Puritanical society that judges women and men by skewed conceptions called femininity and masculinity.
Currently, South-African teenager and recent track gold metalist, Caster Semenya, is under a gender test to see if she really is "female". Sports officials expressed "concern" due to her muscular build, deep voice, and reports of vastly improving in her running times.
Out of all the things, the accusation is that the "chick has a dick".
There are several issues that I see.
One, from a European perspective, black women's femininity and body aesthetics has been historically linked to animalistic, primitive, and "masculine" traits.
Two, the fallacy that women cannot achieve physical feats as men.
Three, the idea of physical charateristics of "masculine" and "feminine". Also, the whole idea of "masculine" being a "man's thing" and the same for feminine. To me, this is what has a lot of folk messed up. Just because a female has a deep voice, does not situate her as a "man" or trying to be a "man," but it still can be considered a masculine trait.
What do I mean? In America, there have been these strict boxes of what a man should do and what is masculine. As well as women. The whole term "gender" is socially constructed, meaning that someone placed parameters, behaviors, and perspectives on what a gender is and how one fits into it. Therefore, anything outside of that is an outcast, an abnormality.
So if a guy who looks like Ving Rhames is seen with a hot pink apron, cooking dinner for a group of men, then he is termed as a gay male, automatically. But what is wrong with pink on chocolate skin, and a man with culinary skills who cooks for his brothers?
Just a rant, but a valid one. ecoSi blog on...
3 ish talking intellectuals holla at a sista:
And a very good rant at that. I approached this topic today using the race angle. I promise you I could not have done as good a job as you did approaching it from the sexist angle as you did.
If you don't mind, could you take to time to checkout my thoughts on this on my blog and chime in. I'm actually surprised at some of the responses I've gotten thus far. Many of them are from women who are of the opinion that she might be a man.
Good analysis! I agree that gender and fem/masc traits are socially constructed. I think they are actually on a continuum, varying at different levels for each sex. With that said, attractiveness is subjective. I may not choose to date a man that looks like Ving but wears pink panties and sips wine with his pinky out.
BTW- That her gender is questioned after she whooped on them women is suspicious.
All that aside....does the sister have a dick or not?!?
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