What Do You Mean By That?

22: Caster Semenya: When Protecting Women Hurts Women


Listen Later

Throughout history, women have consistently faced more scrutiny in the public eye. While we've made tremendous progress, we've also made detrimentally large steps backward.

Caster Semenya, an Olympic gold medalist, is one of the many women who can attest to the direct discrimination and violation females face in sports. As an athlete, Caster has experienced years of double-standards, invasive medical examinations, and unnecessary intervention throughout her career.

Today, Sara and Misasha discuss the issues with the way gender is treated and evaluated in sports and why we should all take action. This episode is packed with educational and insightful takes on how we view gender and athletic norms.

Show Highlights:

  • Contrasting Caster Semenya to Michael Phelps
  • Who is Caster Semenya and why she's a reoccurring controversial topic
  • What an Intersex condition is and how it impacts those who have it
  • Unpacking the issues of dividing gender with arbitrary measurements
  • How genetics come into play in sports
  • The direct discrimination Caster Semenya has faced throughout her career
  • The slippery slope with trying to create a metric to identify gender
  • Why normalizing male athletics is dismissive and discriminatory to women
  • How measuring hormones is a step back from recognizing women as athletes
  • How to take action in changing the standards for women's athletics

Links:

https://www.dearwhitewomen.com

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @Dearwhitewomenpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dearwhitewomenpodcast/

Twitter: @Dwwpodcast

Resources mentioned:

Washington Post Article about Caster Semenya

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

What Do You Mean By That?By Sara and Misasha

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

140 ratings


More shows like What Do You Mean By That?

View all
This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

91,032 Listeners

TED Radio Hour by NPR

TED Radio Hour

21,941 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

43,919 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,711 Listeners

Happier with Gretchen Rubin by Gretchen Rubin / The Onward Project

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

12,934 Listeners

Death, Sex & Money by Slate Podcasts

Death, Sex & Money

7,745 Listeners

StoryCorps by NPR

StoryCorps

3,993 Listeners

Code Switch by NPR

Code Switch

14,630 Listeners

Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

Worklife with Adam Grant

9,156 Listeners

Life Kit by NPR

Life Kit

4,489 Listeners

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos by Pushkin Industries

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

14,367 Listeners

IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson by Higher Ground

IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson

12,766 Listeners

We Can Do Hard Things by Treat Media and Glennon Doyle

We Can Do Hard Things

41,598 Listeners

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus by Lemonada Media

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus

10,969 Listeners

Handsome by Headgum

Handsome

13,335 Listeners