Re: Thinking about organizing a special women-oriented event
2009/8/25 Anne Ghisla <a.ghisla@gmail.com>:
> Il giorno mar, 25/08/2009 alle 16.20 +0200, Ana Guerrero ha scritto:
>> On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 01:52:21PM -0500, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermos wrote:
>> > 2009/8/24 Holger Levsen <holger@layer-acht.org>:
>> > > Why? It's not obvious to me. I think not having any men there would attract
>> > > some women who would otherwise not joiin.
>> >
>> > So...
>> >
>> > Could Caster Semenya go to the event or not? ;-)
>> >
>>
>> I fail to see who is this funny or on-topic?
>> Keep such "jokes" out of here.
>
> my 2 cents: I agree with Ana. These jokes are hard to understand
> properly on written communication. So I can't get if it is just an
> innocent joke or, as it is so common among men who fear women raise of
> awareness (but can't understand why), a way to reduce importance of what
> women do and think by laughing at them.
It is by no means an innocent joke. I'll explain the context, for
those who are not familiar with it. Caster Semenya [1] is a South
African middle-distance runner who has been recently accused -at least
in Spanish Speaking media [2]- of "being too similar to a man". She
has been harshly and cruelly harassed and laughed at in different
media for having a high level of testosterone [3] (3 times more than
the average woman, 10 times less than the average man), up to a point
where the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
had to conduct a gender verification test.
That joke, in my opinion, has different levels of evilness at once:
1) It is offtopic, childish and disruptive of the the topic thas was
being discussed ("Hey! I'm here! Pay me attention!"), to a point
where, as Anne says (but probably the writer is not doing consciously)
the whole matter being discussed is reduced in importance
2) It is cruel against a young woman (18 y.o.) who is being severely
attacked about her sexuality for "not being female enough", and who
has feelings that should be respected [4].
3) As Holger says, it takes out of the equation everyone who does not
clearly fit into one of the stereotypical male-female roles
4) It is not funny at all
Greetings,
Miry
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya
[2] http://www.dosmanzanas.com/2009/08/borchornoso-tratamiento-de-algunos-medios-al-caso-de-caster-semenya-la-atleta-sudafricana-cuya-feminidad-se-ha-puesto-en-duda.html
[3] http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/revelations-ahead-gender-test-results-2942837
[4] http://blogs.20minutos.es/salud_y_deporte/post/2009/08/23/aay-quao-pasa-con-sentimientos-caster-semenya-
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