ThrobbingHood
“I’m Sorry for 2025”
Caster Semenya is being forced to alter her body to make slower runners feel secure in their womanhood
Discrimination against some women is “necessary” to protect other women, according to the Court of Arbitration for Sports' and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court's rulings in the Caster Semenya case.
The CAS' and Swiss court's decisions come in a challenge to the International Association of Athletics Federations’ regulations for athletes with differences of sex development brought by Semenya, the Black South African runner who produces more testosterone naturally than has been deemed typical of cisgender women. The regulations that Semenya challenged would require her to artificially suppress her hormone levels in order to continue to compete in women’s events. In the executive summary of the still-confidential full decision, the court explained that the “regulations are discriminatory but that ... such discrimination is a necessary.” That decision was upheld by the Swiss court on appeal.
Notably, the regulations and decision apply only to eight events — three of which are the races that Semenya generally runs.
In other words, the CAS and the Swiss appeals court have decided that differential treatment for Black women, trans women and intersex women is required for athletic competitions to be “fair” to other women — at least, it is under a system in which white people wield tremendous power over the bodies and autonomy of those who are perceived to be a threat. These decisions come during the current political moment of global attack against individuals who do not fit stereotypes of binary sexual difference, and after a long history of white authorities policing the bodies of women of color, particularly those Black and Indigenous women from the global south.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/amp/ncna1000896?__twitter_impression=true

Discrimination against some women is “necessary” to protect other women, according to the Court of Arbitration for Sports' and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court's rulings in the Caster Semenya case.
The CAS' and Swiss court's decisions come in a challenge to the International Association of Athletics Federations’ regulations for athletes with differences of sex development brought by Semenya, the Black South African runner who produces more testosterone naturally than has been deemed typical of cisgender women. The regulations that Semenya challenged would require her to artificially suppress her hormone levels in order to continue to compete in women’s events. In the executive summary of the still-confidential full decision, the court explained that the “regulations are discriminatory but that ... such discrimination is a necessary.” That decision was upheld by the Swiss court on appeal.
Notably, the regulations and decision apply only to eight events — three of which are the races that Semenya generally runs.
In other words, the CAS and the Swiss appeals court have decided that differential treatment for Black women, trans women and intersex women is required for athletic competitions to be “fair” to other women — at least, it is under a system in which white people wield tremendous power over the bodies and autonomy of those who are perceived to be a threat. These decisions come during the current political moment of global attack against individuals who do not fit stereotypes of binary sexual difference, and after a long history of white authorities policing the bodies of women of color, particularly those Black and Indigenous women from the global south.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/amp/ncna1000896?__twitter_impression=true