Thursday, August 20, 2009

Here comes Pat!


Remember Pat, the former "Saturday Night Live" character that no one was quite sure was a female or male?

Well, now comes along the real-life Caster. It's the ironically named Caster Semenya of South Africa, who has stirred controversy by winning the women's 800 meters at the world championships Wednesday in Berlin. That's because there's a question if in fact Caster is a woman.

Take a look? What's your take? Man or woman? Frankly I've seen NFL linebackers who were more feminine.

Semenya has been ordered to undergo a gender verification test to prove that she is indeed a she. According to the Associated Press, about 1 percent of people are born with some kind of sexual ambiguity, sometimes referred to as intersexuality.

These people may have the physical characteristics of both genders, a chromosomal disorder, or simply have ambiguous features. People who have both male and female organs are hermaphrodites.

Seenya's father dismissed speculation his daughter is not a woman. The 18-year-old runner’s father, Jacob, told the Sowetan newspaper: “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.”

Semenya dominated her rivals to win the 800 on Wednesday despite revelations that surfaced earlier in the day that she was undergoing a gender test. Her dramatic improvement in the 800 and 1,500, muscular build and deep voice sparked speculation about her gender.

Also, there's video evidence that Semenya never hung up a bathroom towel, constantly left the toilet seat up and rarely, if ever, gave up use of the TV remote control (OK, I made those up).

Semenya won the event in 1:56.75, more than two seconds over her/his nearest rival.

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