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A review by ellacusso
The Race To Be Myself by Caster Semenya
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I had never heard of Caster Semenya or her story before reading this book. It brought a whole new perspective to the sports and gender discourse that's been going on as of late.
What makes something an advantage, be it having a different hormone level, a certain set of genitals, some amount of money, some access to resources? The obsession with regulating people's bodies to the end of "fairness" completely fails to give independent reasons why someone's genitals or hormones are governable "advantages" but socioeconomic status, place of birth, access to education, race, and even an infinitesimal number of other genetic sequences aren't.
Caster Semenya is, as she says, a different kind of woman. Someone who worked incredibly hard for her goals, and whose private medical status was made to be a spectacle and debate before she was even aware of it. I am shocked by the attitudes of the IAAF and other athletes as described in this book, and immensely inspired by Caster's resilience in the face of it. This is an essential story to the entire conversation of gender categories and regulation in elite sports.
What makes something an advantage, be it having a different hormone level, a certain set of genitals, some amount of money, some access to resources? The obsession with regulating people's bodies to the end of "fairness" completely fails to give independent reasons why someone's genitals or hormones are governable "advantages" but socioeconomic status, place of birth, access to education, race, and even an infinitesimal number of other genetic sequences aren't.
Caster Semenya is, as she says, a different kind of woman. Someone who worked incredibly hard for her goals, and whose private medical status was made to be a spectacle and debate before she was even aware of it. I am shocked by the attitudes of the IAAF and other athletes as described in this book, and immensely inspired by Caster's resilience in the face of it. This is an essential story to the entire conversation of gender categories and regulation in elite sports.