Opinion: Inferential homophobia and the news discourse on Caster Semenya

For some time following the breaking of the story around Caster Semenya in late August of 2009, it
was striking how news reporters, commentators, bloggers, and even participants in feminist listservs
walked around the matter of Semenya’s sexual orientation. Focusing instead on what was being
called her “gender,” writers seemed to ignore what was a stunningly obvious but unspoken question –
not just whether she is a “real woman,” but also whether she is believed to be lesbian,
transgendered, or even transsexual. I would suggest that we couldn’t really understand what is being
contested, or what the stakes were for Semenya – and, by extension, so many other women – until a
louder airing occurred around the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues so deeply
bound up in her case.

ISBN: 978-1-920550-40-0
Publisher: Gender Links
Edition: 7th Edition
Year of Publication: 2009
Download : 10421_inferential_homophobia_and_the_news_discourse_on_caster_semenya.pdf