She Runs So Fast She Must Be a Man
Women's World Champion Caster Semenya Beats Everyone Except the Haters
By Jean Melesaine

"Excuse me, this is the ladies room."

"Yes, I know and I am the proud owner of a vagina, thank you.”

These are the conversations I assume world champion Caster Semenya hears all the time. But I imagine conversations like this can only lighten the load of being in the midst of trying to fit in the nooks of the gender spectrum. Especially when you've been questioned so many times about going into the ladies bathroom with calves of steel or maybe because your shoulders are a little bit too broad for 2010 and shoulder pads are no longer in for women. Caster Semenya, an 18-year-old, the South African runner won the 800 meters in the Women's World Championship in Berlin last Wednesday. She ran so fast, critics are saying she must be a man.

I don't know what her time was, but she won and it wasn't a close race either. She could of taken her time crossing the finish line, maybe even grabbed a quick drink waiting on the other women to arrive. I'm probably exaggerating but just know that winning by a two second margin is a lot in the running world. And extreme training has and for the most case always been the main factor in victory. Through that work, Semenya stopped for no drinks, crossed the finish line and just won with her calves of steel. 

But according to the officials that's not important. What's important is, because she can win like that she must be a man. She not only has the broad shoulders and calves of steel, but she basically beat seven of the fastest women in the world by a lot, and made it look easy. She definitely is a man, only a man would be capable to do such things – or so the theory goes.

Semenya was asked to take a gender test after the International Amateur Athletic Federation suspected that she is probably a man. After the claims had been made her father, Jacob Semenya, recently interviewed in the Sowetan newspaper said, “She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times.” Also interviewed in the Sowetan was her school principal who said that the suspicion of Semanya's gender from the IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Federation) is out of "sheer jealousy". Eric Modiba says, “Caster is a girl and the school has never had doubts about her gender and to top it all, she is straight and has never entertained issues of lesbianism.”  "To top it all she is straight!" I, personally being queerly knowledgeable believed Semenya was a woman from the get go, but straight? I had my doubts. Hey, but forget what I think and what the IAAF thinks, let us not forget that she won and holds the fastest women's 800 meters times in the world, the whole world. No other woman human being can run faster than her. So here's my apology, I'm extremely apologetic Caster that I thought you were queer, and I apologize for the IAAF for suspecting you're a man, but damn girl, no one can do what you did. You are your own species, congratulations!