OPINION
23
Women, Time to Compete Against the Men
Eliminating divisions will solve gender identity issues in sports
By Wesley Oliver
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Posted Aug 23, 09 12:56 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Female athletes will always be inherently inferior to their male counterparts unless they can directly prove their mettle against them, Dominic Lawson writes in a provocative column for the Times of London. His solution: “Let there be no male or female athletics championships. Instead, let men and women—and all those anomalously and uncomfortably perched in the middle—compete against each other in a single championship.”
As precarious as gender issues are in everyday life, they are further dramatized in the athletic world, where extraordinary women have been dogged for decades by allegations that they are not really women. South Africa’s Caster Semenya is the latest victim. The Olympic movement’s elimination of controversial “gender determination” tests has only worsened the issue. Latching onto contempt for “separate but equal,” Lawson declares, “Away with this sporting sexual apartheid, I say, and may the best person win.”