feminismandmedia:runcibility:erikkillmongerdontpullout:thatpettyblackgirl:This is so unfairThis conn
feminismandmedia:runcibility:erikkillmongerdontpullout:thatpettyblackgirl:This is so unfairThis connects back to what a lot of Black cis and trans women have been saying about constructions of gender resting in whiteness. The things people say that routinely exclude trans women have been used to deny womenhood to Black cis women as well.So, to put it another way…Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who has more Olympic medals than anyone else, is a physiological freak of nature. But he wasn’t banned for his double-jointed ankles (that allow him to make more powerful kicks). They didn’t force him to wear special sleeves around his double-jointed elbows (that help him pull through the water faster). They didn’t ask him to remove bone from his extra-long arms. They didn’t ask him to swim in a separate pool full of thicker liquid. They didn’t ask him to take a tranquilizer before he swam to somehow make it more fair to the other competitors. There was no concerted effort to blunt the “unfair advantage” his natural physiology gave him. No. We know exactly why this is happening to Caster Semenya, why so many people think it’s okay. It’s racism, sexism, and transphobic bullshit. Fuck this gender-panic fuckery. There’s a lot of talk about how this falls into racism, sexism, transphobia, and even homophobia… Which yes, absolutely. These all are coming into play here and it would be wrong to ignore any one of them. Definitely important to note how much racism is a factor here too. But rarely do I see people talking about how this is so deeply tied to intersexism. Semenya is not trans, so while what she’s going through does play into transphobia on a larger scheme, I feel like it’s weird that people talk only about transphobia & not intersexism. Semenya is intersex. Semenya is facing intersexism. This is so important to note while talking about these issues because what she’s going through is not uncommon & speaks to the larger culture around intersex individuals. People who are intersex in various ways are also pushed to conform to a perisex world. This might be physical, hormonal, or anything of the sort. Still, it falls back on the idea that perisex people push that our bodies are wrong, defective, or need fixed. Intersex people are treated horrifically in the medical world, so please don’t ignore how big of an issue this is in the scope of intersex activism. -- source link