Hermaphrodite Headlines Raise Inter-Gender Issues

Two recent cases present an interesting comparison of media coverage of possible or rumoured intersexual celebrities. Rumours surrounding the pop sensation Lady Ga-Ga appear to have been fed by the starrtrash blog in late December 2008, and despite the old adage “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” culminated in an “offended” Lady Ga-Ga having a German reporter removed from a press conference for raising the “ridiculous” issue. (The Daily Dish, September 8th 2009) Meanwhile controversy surrounding the 2009 800m World Championship gold medallist Caster Semenyalooks set to continue, after sex test results appearing to prove that she is in fact a hermaphrodite.

Image via Wikipedia

Questions surrounding the sex of Lady Ga-Ga appear to have been purely speculative, and sparked by the singer’s choice of revealing costumes and some unfortunate camera angles. The original blog post, despite generating some vitriolic and hate filled comments, gathered little momentum or credibility until a second site, Puggal posted a similar entry on August 8th 2009 with a blurred photo as evidence and quoting the original blog in support. This second post seems to have caught the public imagination, and led a serious and respected reporter to raise the question.

In contrast, the issue of Caster Semenya’s sex has been a high profile case from the outset. The ease of her victory at the World Championship raised suspicions, coming as it did on the same day the International Association of Athletics Federations announced that it was to perform tests because they had concerns that she “did not meet requirements to compete as a woman” (CBS News September 10th 2009) The tests outraged the runner’s family, and led to a SouthAfrican “backlash” claiming the tests were both “racist and sexist.” The IAAF have been careful throughout to reiterate that the concerns were of a medical nature and no allegations of cheating were being made. However, today’s news reports that the results of these tests, which apparently show that Semenya has no womb or ovaries, but instead has internal testes, have led to suggestions that she may now be stripped of her gold medal, despite no pronouncement to this effect being made by the IAAF.