From homophobic hate crimes and the reinforcing of dress codes for women in townships to the censorship of the arts in the name of “proper” femininity, culture, morality, and nation-building, the right to female self-determination is being challenged concretely in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa. Threats to the Constitution by Christian right-wingers working alongside members of the Government currently target the right to abortion and the right to same-sex marriage, and normative understandings of womanhood seem to be gaining ground in multiple ways (Schuhmann, 2009a). In this context, the spectacle around the questioning of athlete Caster Semenya's sex after her outstanding victory at the 2009 Berlin Athletics World Championship must be seen as another moment in a chain of ongoing events. Indeed, Caster Semenya, South Africa's celebrated “Golden Girl,” then received widespread support across the country as a female athlete – but what are we to make of a situation where a woman who looks, sounds, and performs “male,” and whose body is questioned as transgressing our rigid two-sex model, is nevertheless celebrated by the national collective? At first glance, such support seems to show an encouraging disregard for her non-conforming gender performance – a clear paradox at a time when Black South African women are routinely abused for wearing pants or skirts considered to be too short, and face ‘curative’ rape for being or looking like a lesbian, i.e. a woman who does not know her appropriate place (ibid.).

Shoring up assertions of Semenya's unambiguous female identity became particularly necessary for the nation after an Italian athlete questioned her sex and lodged a complaint against Semenya's 800 meter World Championship victory, claiming it was unfair. The International Association of Athletes (IAAF) then called for tests – including physical, hormonal, and psychological tests – to investigate Semenya's sex status. With statements such as “I bathed with her, I should know” and “She is a beautiful First Lady of sport,” the real message behind the patriotic-driven support Semenya received was: “We support you for the price of reinforcing your sex as female – and as long as you play along, we are willing to overlook your masculine gender performance.” Most commentators reported on Semenya's “gender testing,” confusing the dominant gender/sex division.