Gender Testing in Sport: Ethics, Cases and Controversies

After the young South African athlete Caster Semenya won the 800m title at the 2009 World Championships she was obliged to undergo gender testing and was temporarily withdrawn from international competition. The way that this controversy unfolded represents a rich and multi-layered example of the construction of gender in wider society and the interrelationships between sport, culture and the media. This is the first book to explore the case in depth, from socio-cultural, ethical and legal perspectives.

Analysing what came to be called ＂the Caster Semenya Case＂ in a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary fashion, and covering issues from media discourses and the rhetoric and regulations of the sport’s governing bodies to the reaction of the athlete herself, the book explores the ethics of how gender norms in sport, and in society more generally, are constructed through appearance, behaviour and sporting performance. This 2009 controversy can be taken as an indicator of the tensions of the time, and served as a link between medical sciences, society and gender.

Including discussions of key concepts such as ’intersex’, ’body norms’, and ’fairness’, Gender Testing in Sport is fascinating and important reading for anybody with an interest in sport studies, gender studies or biomedical ethics.

Sandy Montañola is Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of Rennes 1 (Centre for Research on Political Action in Europe) and supervisor of a journalism degree (IUT, Lannion, France). She has a special interest in the connection between medicine, gender and media coverage from social representation to the ir impact in the public arena. She currently works on two projects about the media coverage of scientists’ discourse and bodily norms (especially in intersex and childbirth), and the place of journalists in the representation of diversity

Aurélie Olivesi is a Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Her research fields are the analysis of media discourse (in printed press and internet forums) and the study of how gender in the political field is represented in the media. She has published a monograph about the 2007 French presidential election: Implicitement Sexiste? Genre, politique et discours journalistique. She has a special interest in the representation of gender perturbation in the media, and in the lay discourse about gender issues published in the media